"Query Regarding RCW Naval Infantry Equipment" Topic

I've almost finished my Copplestone Russian Sailors (see previous post) and have hit something of a snag. Okay, so the belts worn by Russian sailors were black leather, though I imagine that given the prevailing circumstances one wouldn't be surprised to see them sporting army or civilian ones too. However, the models I have are also wearing cartridge pouches on their belts which I'm thinking might be army rather than naval issue (I've seen them in the RCW Osprey books in brown leather and worn by both sides). Would that be correct? If they were naval issue would they have been in black leather like the belt? Sorry to be massively anal, but if you're gonna do stuff in 28mm you may as well make it accurate…

I painted mine in brown, on the assumption that they would probably take a lot of their infantry equipment from army supplies. The Osprey book has a really good portrait of a group of naval infantry officers, and shows that their clothes include a lot of army items too, to the point where a couple of them barely even look like sailors anymore. I just extended that crossover look to their belts as well.

I painted most of mine black, on the assumption that the navy would have enough rifles that they would have their own cartridge pouches in black leather. But I had a hard time believing that they could come up with 2 per guy, so a good proportion of mine (about 40%) have at least one brown one.

Partly I did this just to break up the black/blue of the uniforms, partly to make them look less uniform.