"Hessian/Hesse Cassel uniform colour recommendations?" Topic

Hi there. Just about to paint Leib's musketeer regiment. I have all the appropriate colours for their uniforms apart from the most important one – the jacket!

What paints could you recommend or do you use to paint their jackets? Preferably Vallejo as I'm about to place an order with them anyway, but GW would also be fine (not Foundry as I can't afford to order from them anymore!).

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated!

Are they dark blue? If so, I'd use the Vallejo Prussian dark blue, best wishes, Simon

Don't get hung up on the "correct" shade of paint.
All dyes in the 18th century faded, some quite quickly.
"Prussian Dark Blue" assumes that there was some set standard, with officially approved chemical formulas. Possible, but the Colonel would cut corners, etc. I would go with a medium blue, and shade as you wish. The longer they spend in the field, the lighter the shade would be.
That goes for the facings and small clothes too.

I've used a dark blue and it looks black in much artificial light- undercoat black then a med blue over.

I've been painting the entire Hessian army for a fellow gamer for the past few months. In fact I'm down to the last three regiments (IR8, IR11, and 2nd Garrison). I use Prussian Blue as the base coat, and then apply two lighter shades of the same color. Basically, apply the first coat, then lighten with a pinch of white or light gray. Then I add another tiny pinch to use as a highlight on the raised portions. Nothing news worthy as this is pretty standard practice among those of us who put a little extra effort into our work.

The net effect of this is, without measuring exactly how much white paint constitutes a 'pinch' the effect varies from unit to unit. I generally only paint one unit at a time (makes me a bit slow, but it keeps the quality nice and high), so I have to mix a new batch of blue for each regiment. So, while each unit is consistently blue, there are subtle differences from one unit to another. All of a sudden, you have 16 regiments of blue coated Hessians, each slightly lighter/darker than the one deployed along side.

Look at clothing today. You and I go and buy the same style of Levi's, take them home and run them through the wash. I use detergent 'A' and you use 'B'. When they dry, we have two different shades of blue jeans. While I'm no expert on cloth dye, I would suspect that the process is far more refined today than it was 250 odd years ago. John is correct in that 'standards' as they were, were frequently altered to suit the Colonel's budget. Also take into consideration the uneven availability of dyes, assuming you could even acquire them from the same source consistently.

Long and short, various shades of blue… darker units could represent your newbies, while lighter, faded units, could represent your campaign hardened veterans!!!

~Lou

Thank you very much for all your input! 'Prussian blue' looks the most apropriate for my base coat and I may take Lou's advice and add lighter highlights.

Do you have any recommendations for a good green for Hessian Jaegers too?

You might like to check out the blog on which photos of the unit will be uploaded: blackpowdergaming.blogspot.com

Consul.

I have a jar of paint called "Hessian Blue" from Musket Miniatures – that's what I use.

I can't refer to Vallejo colors since I don't use many of them, but my method for painting Prussians is to black prime them first, then paint a base coat of a dark "Navy Blue" and then finish them off with a "True Blue" bit of dry brushing. I find that only two different blue tones works just fine with black primer.

Navy Blue = the color of a blazer jacket

True Blue= the natural color of blue on the color wheel

Correction on the make of the Hessian Blue – it was from Howard's Hues.

"Prussian Blue" is a 19th century chemical dye that wasn't available in the 18th century.

FWIW, Hessian coats should be closer to true blue than navy blue. It should look blue, not black.

The coats were replaced every 2 years anyhow, and fade they certainly did.

I wore a blue coat for reenacting that faded to a sort of plum/grape/purple color over about 6-8 years of wear--which was a lot less wear than it would have seen in the 18th century. And it even had darker bands of color where my belting covered the coat. The back was this big X. Kinda amusing.

The color the jager's coat should be the color of a boiled pea.

Prussian Blue paint isn't the same as Prussian Blue uniforms!!!! As said above dark blue with some highlite shadings would be fine…I have even painted some of my Hessians with light blue coats just to break the monotony of dark blue coats, as I beleive there were some light blued German units..

Thanks again for the tips! You've been very helpful.
Consul.

blackpowdergaming.blogspot.com

There were some Germans in French Service with light blue coats, but the closest you'd get on the british side would be the Anspach-Bayreuth battalions, whose coats are a medium-mid-blue. Other than that, the rest of the Germans were in blue, except for the Anhalt-Zerbst contingent, who wore white.

Which craft color would you use for the faded blue?

@RNS,

<<…..the Anspach-Bayreuth battalions, whose coats are a medium-mid-blue. >>

Would you say that this was the same blue of Prussian (and Brunswick?) dragoon coats? This, plus their grenadiers having standard mitres and not bearskins, means the Mollo/McGregor plate is very wrong.

Your reference to your own coat is an interesing one; it would go some way to explaining the "purple" hunting shirts observed being worn by American units.

Perhaps all those instances of Hessian and Continental units being mistaken for each other was because they were both in "plum" rather than in blue? Just a thought…. (well, probably only just).

I read somewhere about a campaign in the era…something to the effect "Having force marched in the summer heat the dye of the men's uniforms mingled with their perspiration to turn their undershirts blue."

I cant recall if that was even referring to Prussians. But with dye like that in the period "Blue" could end up looking a very different shade than when it was manufactured!

For any dark blue uniform in 28mm I prime black, followed by Vajello Dark Prussian Blue, followed by Vajello DPB mixed with Vajello medium blue. You can adjust the ratio to fit your taste. If you need further highlights add a little white to the last pairing.

<<I read somewhere about a campaign in the era…something to the effect "Having force marched in the summer heat the dye of the men's uniforms mingled with their perspiration to turn their undershirts blue.">>

When he was still sculpting for Foundry, Alan Perry told me that when the Bavarian army marched home at the end of the FPW in 1871, nobody turned out to cheer them because they weren't recognied in their "new" purple uniforms, which were actually the old blue ones stained with sweat and rain.

Yes…Supercilious Maximus….I think we have to take the actual colour of uniforms with a large dose of…err….salty perspiration.

Another English researcher told me some years ago, that when the Saxon army was incorporated into Frederick's Prussians, their first blue coats were achieved very simply. They were told to march past a vat of blue dye, into which they used a stick to dip their white coats. Thus turning them blue. But in the next rainstorm much of the dye ran out and they ended up a greyish blue shade. Frederick was eventually forced to give them actual Prussian uniforms.

I dont know the source he was quoting, but knowing what a penny pincher Frederick was supposed to be, I could imagine it being true.

Similar dye problems must surely apply to other nations.

Recently I've changed how I've been painting Hessians. I've had some good luck using a a craft store paint called Soldier Blue. It is just at the beginning of the shades of dark blue. Once dry, I wash the uniform in a coat of Prussian Blue ink. I like the look. For high lighting I'll use the same Soldier Blue and then a thinner line of a shade lighter blue.
Here is a photo of one of my Hessian units painted using this method. Figures are Sash & Saber

vondonop.org/hkuniforms.html