"Napoleonic French Blue - a Wash/Dip Test" Topic

I made a few tests to help decision making for a webfriend (and myself too).

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Worth a look if you are planning to paint dark blue uniforms such as Napoleonic French.

There will be many other combinations too, what's yours?

is your plan to do the blue and wash and then paint over that for white pants etc ? because i haven't found a wash that i like with white pants .

That depends on how dirty (campaign look) I want the figures to be.

They all look grey to me, or maybe it's just the camera.
I would experiment with a medium or light blue then wash and see what happens.

Any wash I used really dulled the color.

White pants: I painted them cream first, then washed with a medium brown tone.

Washes over yellow and white: The reds were a very bright red, same for the yellows.

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Same wash over Tigermen.

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For Napoleonics and anything else I want with bright colors, I wash, but then manually highlight

Bug has hit. Try again. Paint dark blue and wash with thin black paint – French Napoleonic blue was very dark. Don't wash the whole figure only the blue. Take a different approach for the whites.

Thanks Jim. That does help.

I have some painted figures, block painted to basic gaming standard. The plan was to shade them with dip and then highlight them afterwards.

Initially mainly greatcoated Line and Guard so will be a mixture of dark blue, grey and beige coats.

On the blue the Strong Tone and Dark Tone are pretty similar. However I reckon that Strong Tone will be kinder on lighter colours.

I'm sorry, Jim, I don't find any of them working for me but I appreciate what you are aiming for and that everyone has their own likes and dislikes (an honest opinion – nothing more). If the aim is to be as authentic as possible, go for the darkest. All too often IMHO, wargamers get the shade wrong for French Naps. (some of whom keep repeating the mantra that "you need lighter shades for miniatures").

I would be tempted to try something really dark, like Navy or Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue, and highlight manually with a lighter shade. Having said all of that, although 5 is the darkest, I find 4 rather fetching! How fickle am I? D'oh!

Thanks for all the comments guys.

The tests I performed were for the benefit of a webfriend and I was in a helpful mood.

I have since stripped the figures and will paint them again in a more traditional style.

Westmarcher: For my Prussians first I use Liquitex Prussian Blue which is very dark, then Mix 3 drops of Liquitex Prussian Blue with 1 drop of Americana medium blue for a highlight.

French: I do the same but start with the Prussian highlight. 3 drops of Liquitex Prussian Blue with 1 of Americana medium blue. Highlighted by 3 drops of Prussian Blue and 2 of medium blue.

Just my technique.

My method, which works for me. My spray primer is mid grey. Quick black oil wash (I guess acrylic would do the same thing, but oil is super economical – mixed with turps it dries in no time). Then not quite dry brush (ie, wet brush, but not loaded) of dark blue (base colour). Then highlight with a Royal sort of blue. If you're feeling artistic, another sparse highlight of a lighter blue helps them to pop.

Foundry triad works fine (and quick). The "dip" is in my humble opinion : useless and messy.

Jim

I started with some of my Perry greatcoat Line Infantry. I tried Strong Tone Dip this morning on a sample of 3 models with grey greatcoats. I am going to leave them to dry overnight and see how they look in the morning.

I might try a couple with Soft Tone and a couple with Dark Tone to compare. Then once I have settled on which Tone, I have got a couple of hundred block painted French Line Infantry in greatcoats to Dip and then highlight. Then afterwards some blue Bardin uniforms before turning to the Garde Imperiale…..

Tried the Soft Tone dip on grey greatcoats. Did nt show up enough contrast. Done a few more with Strong Tone – will leae a couple of days over Christmas to dry.

@wargame insomniac

Keep on posting!

Hi Jim.

Not made much progress with being away for Christmas.
Did glue together an Italieri model church as part of scenery plans.

Started a new blog to keep a record of my progress:
link

Will post when I have some WIP pictures.

Cheers

James

@wargame insomniac

Good start on the blog.

Remember to add a 'followers' gadget.

Hi Jim – I might have to google how to do that when I'm home as this was my first time ever entering the blog world.

@wargame insomniac

On Blogger go to DESIGN and then LAYOUT and then select a GADGET, there are several to choose from.

Nice one – thanks Jim!!