"Indian (Sikh, Punjabi, etc.) Skintones" Topic

How do you paint them? I have used Vallejo Dark Flesh with a fairly heavy wash of Devlan Mud over it, but it doesn't look right.

All you could ever want to know about skintones:
link

Awesome! Thanks!

Greetings

I can't say I've got a complete handle on painting Indian troops in 15mm.

Interesting link but in fact the skintone of people in the Indian subcontinent varies massively from north to south, so having one picture for 'India' is pretty misleading.

You may also be interested in looking at current pictures of the Indian armed forces: link

Regards

Edward

Kustenjaeger's photos are a good guide.

Most Punjabi's I have known could pass for southern Italian others were darker. So Sikh soldiers in my view would be lighter rather than darker skinned but they spend a lot of time outside.

I painted tan over white with a nut brown wash. It worked for me.

Having gone over the pictures in the link, I guess my figures aren't too far off.

There are a surprising number of Indians here in the Houston area, especially in my neck of the woods (near NASA). I guess most of the folks of that nationality (and yes, I am aware they are multi-ethnic) that I know just happen to be darker skinned.

I think I will still try some of the tips from the CMON link, to get some variation, though.

Indians range from fair Gujurati like Freddie Mercury to very dark South Indians. Basically, no matter the skin tone, you're correct.

The bulk of the armed forces are Punjabi so Kustenjaeger's link does indeed work really well. Also, Slowjo, thanks so very much for the link.

Freddie Mercury was a Parsee.

Druzhina, you're right. My Guju friends always claimed him as Guju but I guess that was since a lot of Parsee immigrated through Gujurat.
I still have trouble differentiating between ethnicity and state as this is an example.

Got to take in sunburn as a factor, too. I paint my Sikhs in the Western Desert 1940 a darkish reddish colur, due to exposure to the sun.

To see how they painted themselves, here are links to 19th century paintings mostly by Indians of Indians:
Soldier of Tipu Sultan of Mysore armed with a flintlock musket
Charles Gold's Oriental Drawings, 1806
. Including: Mysore Regular Infantry, Sepoys of the Madras Establishment,
. Officers and Private of the Gun Lascar Corps, Madras_Establishment,
. A Naigue of the Bombay Grenadier Battalion
. and infantry & cavalry in front of Tipoo's Palace.
Four Tribal Warriors, Delhi Area, ca. 1815–1816
Kala with Sabre Drawn and Kala in Skinner's Horse Uniform, Delhi Area, ca. 1815–1816
Sepoys of Madras, Bengal and Bombay, c.1816 after Fitzclarence
Nine courtiers and servants of the Raja Patiala, c.1817. (Jat Sikhs)
Begum Samru's Household, 1820.
Handcoloured engravings by Frederic Shoberl from his work 'The World in Miniature: Hindoostan', 1820s
. Including Muslim Officer; Mahratta Cavalry; Rajput Cavalry; a Seik & a French Sepoy; Sepoy in the Native Attire, a Hindu Soldier & a Brigbasi; & British sepoys
Thakur Dawlat Singh Among Courtiers, 1825
Raja Dhian Singh Hawking, 1830s
Raja Dhian Singh on Horseback, 1838
Procession of the Emperor Bahadur Shah to celebrate the feast of the Eid, 1843.
Procession of Raja Ram Singh II of Kota, c.1850.
A Mogul Trooper, 1858.

Some of these indicate a particular ethnic group.

Druzhina
sites of wargaming interest

Thanks again Druzhina. I've been wanting to do the chariot with Sri Krishna and Arjuna for a friend. Just waiting to find the right figures to do the build.

I sailed with a Parsee engineer, from Bombay, who's skin tone looked like a very pale north european, and a Madrassi engineer who was very nearly black.