"What do you use for strange British facing colors?" Topic

Like "gosling green" for the 5th Foot?

Or "orange" for the 35th?

For my orange facings I like light orange (911). Gosling green is tough though. It should have a yellowish shade to it so I tend to use goblin green from GW with some mixture of yellow till I find the shade I like.

Any shade of light green or light orange, as dyes were imperfect and fading common. We have no idea what the 'real' color would have been as the cloth was not mass-produced.

I used Vallejo Russian Uniform on mine.

Gosling Green is a true olive green – it is the colour of green olives (and goslings)so your modern paints should give you a suitable match.

The closest color I can find.

Whatever I have on the rack that's close. There are so many shades, and cheap at that, at Michael's. :)

strange paints…

I seem to recall one regiment had purple facings – makes an interesting change.

I thought that the purple faced regiment changed its facings to red not ling after the start of the war.

I use Vallejo Russian Green for officers and either tone it down or use a lighter green for the enlisted troops. Same with the uniform coats giving the enlisted troops a faded out look.

The purple faced regiment was the 59th and was drafted into other regiments after Boston and sent home to recruit.

I thought that Ceramcote's "Wedgewood Green" was the answer to "Gosling Green, but it didn't look goose crap enough.
I just picked up a bottle of Americana "Light Avocado" the other day, and will try again. That looks better.

I have a theory that orange and crimson facings in the Hessian regiments are just variants on red. So, I do not give them orange facings and red turnbacks but orange both. It seems to work out.

I had the same theory about orange and purple following the rules for red regarding flags, etc in the British army. However, all the commercial flags for the 35th are … wait for it … orange.
I am not doing the 59th because they do not show up in later battles. I think. So, now I don't have to worry about them. If they were as ubiquitous as the 33rd or 23rd, I might have to worry.

I have seen plates of the 35th showing a nice orange, and also brown. I know that regiments tended to stay with the same chemist for their dyes, so am just wondering if any records show the "right" color.
And yes, I KNOW they fade.

Another difficult facing color, for me anyway, was "popinjay green" for the 54th.

I used uniform pictures from the re-enactor web page as reference and finally found a very close match with FolkArt Yellow Citron (503)

And let's not forget the
light buff
dark buff
feuille mort (Philamort yellow)
bright yellow
dark yellow
popinjay green
dark green
green

EDIT. You beat me to it!

For the AWI period, the 35th was reputedly a dark tawny orange – brown for all purposes. Saw this in a lace pattern book, amongst other places.

The 59th changed their facings from "purple" (actually a pinkish lilac) to white after their return to England at the end of 1775.

Gosling green was formerly known as "goosey green".

Re Gosling Green; Green Tiger is correct as Franklin's British Napoleonic Uniforms states that Gosling Green is Olive or Olive drab for the 5th.

Just imagine the drummers' coats!

Actually, the drummers' coats were reputedly so hideous that one Colonel ordered them changed to white when the regiment was serving abroad in 1811.

"As the Colonel shall decide…"

Which of course says that the coats were hideous in 1775…

Earlier Colonel possibly colour blind?

(Do you know, I think that might indeed be a characteristic of the Percys…..)

John, the 'orange' is orange for Lossberg. (and Porbeck IIRC) Lossberg also had orange turnbacks, unlike everybody else who had red.

the 'crimson' for the Erbprinz regt, was a deeper red than the red seen on the other red faced regiments. (Erbprinz also changed from pink (or "rose") facings earlier in the war.

Yes, dyes can fade, but a coat was in service for 2 years before being replaced. People shouldn't necessarily get all anal about fading.

I don't ordinarily get very anal about facings, but I have heard that Gosling Green and the orange of the 35th were really disgusting. It would be a shame to not try for that revulsion.
Half the fun is picking out the right bottle of paint, just because they WERE different.

brown and green.

I found a suitably hideous color for Gosling Green. It's Vallejo 70881 Yellow Green.
I have no idea why or when I bought it. It's so ugly, there is no danger of running out.
On the musician's coat, it is truly ghastly.
I am looking forward to finishing him, with all the lace and red facings.

If you get a chance, have a look at the end product of a goose's lunch. It's that colour ! Seriously btw.