"Colour of leather belts, bandoliers etc" Topic

Can anyone advise on the range of colours for bandoliers, sword baldrics, and belts in general? I understand that differences in regional practice, mechanical processes and dye recipes would produce an array of tones. However, I have noticed that colour illustrations of Scottish troops tend towards showing them with brown leather, rather than buff. Is this just artistic fancy, or is there a justification for this?

At the moment, for my Covenanters, I'm shying away from the Foundry "Buff" palette, and more towards the "Brown Leather", but I also like the "Rawhide" one as well (the C pot in that one produces a very light tone that I've also found useful for "white" uniforms for this period).

As an aside, I've also noticed that the C pot in the Foundry "Drab" palette also serves well for buff coats, producing a much more faded look.

For the rag and tag of most pre-industrial armies, what might be termed munition leather equipment, such as sword belts, would leather that had been processed to a minimum. Dying it would be a needless expense to the equipment's function. It would be natural, tanned leather. A buff colour, I suspect, would be most common.

The richer members of the army, who provided their own equipment, might bow to fashion and have coloured leather of some kind, though even here a 'disposable' functionality might be warranted to most.

Even the lightest untreated leather goes quite dark when plastered in dubbin, beeswax, oil and any other treatment you can think of.

Even the lightest untreated leather goes quite dark when plastered in dubbin, beeswax, oil and any other treatment you can think of.

Agreed, but soldiers rarely look after their equipment (especially if it does not belong to them).

Sweat does the same :-)

Given the above any brown from tan to darker would seem to fit the bill.

What I use in Vallejo's Leather as a base then highlight with Vallejo Woodgrain. The woodgrain give you a reddish leather look.