"How Bad Would I Be ....." Topic

If I painted a box of Warlord plastic British/Zulu Wars in khaki instead of red ?

Did the uniform cut differ greatly when the colour changed ?

TIA

It's VSF, you are being bad already ;-)

Do it.

It's not as if anyone is going to be confused as to who they are representing even if some of the details aren't right.

I remember painting my Airfix Prussian Landwehr as US-Mexican War troops. And used Airfix French for the Mexican army. Some great fun. Complete indifference to uniform detail pickiness.

I wouldn't be bothered by it.

Mine are in khaki pants and red jacket for service on Mars! :)

Agreed – mine are carrying Imperial Guard issue lasguns!

It's bad.

It's VSF – it's supposed to look fantastic. I can understand if you wanted troops that were historically in khaki to be in red, but the other way round?

I agree with Pedro.

Though khaki drab is a lot easier to paint!

This has nothing to do with the Pulp Era, so i have no idea.

The 1880's funny enough saw a few different styles (and colours) coming into fashion so you are fine if you still want to have some historic connection. If you would like some examples try Perry Miniatures uniform article on their website. You maybe pleasantly surprised how much room you have to play.

Remember that Khaki can be a multitude of colours including a hazy lilac, try for a lighter than Mars-furma (whatever your table is ;) and it will look good also you can experiment with the facing colours and trim to really get the most out of the box.
Have fun. Cheers

My VSF Brits, circa 1890, have been issued red coats as camouflage for duty on Mars. Your troops. Do what you want and enjoy!

You would be very bad. I have done that, and I am a bad person.

Why paint red-coated figures in khaki ? Because I can get them in plastic and therefore cheap.

Why is it pulp ? Because they will be fighting IHMN and Gaslight games in East Africa with characters like Alan Quartermain

I think I'm bad enough to do it.

Then, mount up, sir!

I would simply trim the trefoil off the cuffs of the jackets. Should be fairly simple with plastic figs.

why not paint them very dark green/black and call them the Rifles?

Or grey and call them Volunteers?

Because they will be fighting IHMN and Gaslight games in East Africa with characters like Alan Quartermain…

Then all bets are off. Paint them purple with green hats, or blue with pink trousers. Its not historical gaming, so do as you like.

The only really important thing here is the fact that you are painting them and are going to use them on the table top fighting whatever color the other side is..

By the way Chris I like the khaki trousers and red coats. Good combo!

>>Why is it pulp ? Because they will be fighting IHMN and Gaslight games in East Africa with characters like Alan Quartermain<<

Which is exactly while it is *not* pulp era gaming. It's Victorian, which is it's own genre.

Alan Quartermain ISN'T pulp ?

>>Alan Quartermain ISN'T pulp?<<

"King Solomon's Mines" was published *long* before the pulp era. It's Victorian. The pulp era and the Victorian era are two different eras. The Victorian era ended when Queen Victoria died. The pulp era begins when pulp magazines began to be published.

I've painted 1/72 plastic redcoats with M-H rifles and pith helmets in khaki for my Boxer and late Sudan British. I'm not really worried about button counters, my armies won't win any awards anyway.

The only really important thing here is the fact that you are painting them…

Too true; I bring constant shame to Sir Randall. It's a wonder he acknowledges me at all.

Love the way this threads back and forth 'twixt serious and not. That said, I'm thinking Mr Quatermain has found his way into pulp media adventures, whatever his origins. The scoundrel…

Doug

Then all bets are off. Paint them purple with green hats, or blue with pink trousers. Its not historical gaming, so do as you like.

I completely disagree. VSF and pulp are not an invitation to looney tunes. Uniform colors vary, if they do , for logical reasons. Not because the painter is carried away on clouds of hashish induced whimsy.

Well said Winston. VSF is a serious genre, certainly more so than Zombies or Nazi Werewolves ….

As to whether VSF is 'Pulp' or not, any suggestion that it isn't can only come from someone who believes that The Great War started in 1917 !

The 'Penny Dreadful' magazines of the 19thC invented the 'Pulp' media and story line before even the parents of writers of Batman and Superman were born !

link

I do wish certain people would get a grip and accept that writers in the USA DID NOT invent the genre, they merely rediscovered it in the early 20th C.

I remember when I started painting my British for the Sudan with red coats and khaki pants a friend asked me why, it wasn't historcial. I said I didn't care to much, as I liked how it looked and was basing them off "The Four Feathers" uniforms. Yes it was a bad version of the movie, but I liked the color.

Then last year I buy a copy of "Go Strong into the Desert", low and behold there is a drawing with a soldier wearing a red coat and khaki pants. My friend never said anything after I showed it to him.

>>As to whether VSF is 'Pulp' or not, any suggestion that it isn't can only come from someone who believes that The Great War started in 1917!<<

I have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about. What does "the great war" have to do with when pulp magazines were published? I think that you need to take a look at this:

link

Sorry, I fail to see you point. The first line of the Wiki entry you link to confirms my comment that pulp magazines were Victorian in origin -

"Pulp magazines (often referred to as "the pulps") are inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896"

Whether you take the starting point of the genre as the 'Penny Dreadfuls' from the 1830s as per my link, or 1896 as per yours, Pulp was a Victorian-era invention. End of discussion.

Gutroth

"Penny Dreadfuls'" are not pulp magazines. Only pulp magazines are pulp magazines.

The first pulp magazine, Argosy, *was* launched in 1896, which was during the very last years of the Victorian Era, so I can't argue that, *but* the vast majority of the most well known pulp magazines, like The Shadow, Doc Savage, Black Mask, Weird Tales, and Dime Detective were first published after WWI and lasted until the late 40's-early 50's. So, technically you are right, but I find it pretty hard to accept that the Victorian Era, with any real substance, has anything to do with the "pulp era".

Shadow, you make me cry with laughing.

Quartermain, Varney the vampire, The Knight of the Road are THE ORIGINAL pulp heroes and your parochial Americo-centic views are so illogical and out of place it's really quite sad.

Give it up man.

Gut

"Parochial Americo-centric views"

Wow! LOL

boy, did this conversation take a tangent. To answer the original question, yes the cut of the uniform is different. The khaki uniform use puttees, where the 1879 uniform doesn't. the jacket is more simple and the helmet is the wolesly version. As I sell the warlord British, and have painted up a unit, I wouldn't do it. Old glory Boer War British would be better to paint up. the plastic figures would need lots of conversion, and you would probably damage or break some of them in the process. Also, as I have an Alan Quatermaine figure, I don't care if he is pulp or not. I use him as is and give him Bogie's African Queen to play with.

Thanks Nick very useful.

However, now I have a different problem. In the Black Powder box set 'British Firing Line' all the Tommys appear to have Putees ! The box art also shows them with the correct Kahki stained helmets.

Are they wrong or am I mis-interpreting the figures ?

Puttees are a strip of cloth wrapped around the leg. WW2 Japanese and WW1 troops offen had them(visually thats the groups that came to mind). The Warlord plastics plus Empress metals, and those in the Zulu campain, have leather gaiters on.

Chelmsford ordered his troops to remove the front brass plates and stain their white helmets with tea, dirt, tree bark, coffee, etc. Some units used a cover insted. The idea was a pure white pith helmet with a giant brass plate made you a target. But a red jacket didnt. Later on versions you'd see in the Sudan were already khaki and had a puggare(a rounded of sorts strip of cloth around the helmet).