"Painting Hunting Shirt Fringe" Topic

How do you guys paint the fringe on Hunting Shirts?
I see that some just paint a darker shade of the base color on the fringe and leave it at that.

Other seem to run a wash into the fringe and then drybrush a lighter color over that, after it dries.

Any other way?
I have some Hunting Shirt figures that are sort of drab and I am looking to spice them up a bit. Suggestion welcome.

Try using a fine brush and put a little GW Agrax Earthshade along the fringe, I like the effect.

I paint the fringe a darker colour than the shirt and then lightly dry brush with a lighter shade.

The Dip.

Give it a wash and then drybrush a paler highlight

Anyone do contrasting colors?

What SJDonovan and freerangeegg said, always assuming the casting is crisp and detailed enough.

And apparently some fringes were in different colors from the shirt, so even more variety possible.

To my knowledge two tone fringe was not used in this period. If there is an instance, it was not common since fringe was usually made of the base material.

I paint mine a base color, do a wash, then highlight by dry brushing.

I see two-tone examples illustrated often in this: link

What about other references?

The fringe was there to make rainwater run off the shirt faster. Over time, the fringe would naturally turn darker from the water stains. That part I'm pretty sure about.

I'm guessing that the very tips would be lighter from being the part of the garment that would rub against trees, rocks and other people thereby wearing the material down.

How about some pix? or links to painted examples?

During the War of 1812, the militia regulations of some states (Maryland and New York, for example) specified fringes of contrasting color for the hunting shirts of rifle companies and battalions. Both used green for the base color. If memory serves, New York went with a yellow fringe and Maryland with red. Johnson's Kentucky Mounted Volunteers dressed in black or grey hunting shirts with red fringe. I cannot cite any specific example of this practice during the Revolution, but it seems a fairly obvious measure for "militarizing" a common form of civilian dress, so it might have been used to some degree.

ah, that book has some problems.

Fringe fading before the base clothing? Perhaps if it was dyed, but most rifle shirts were likely just natural linen.

Do you have an period references to different color fringe than the body of the clothing?

I think some of you are making some big assumptions here. Then again, it is just a wargame army.

Well, I for one wasn't assuming, just asking.

Interesting article here:

link

Apparently,two methods were used to make the fringe: one,simply pulling out threads from the edges,with (I am assuming here,though the pics seem to bear it out) a hem above the fringe. That would be necessary anyway, to keep it from unraveling.

The other method,interestingly, is the use of "fringe tape", a separate piece sewn on the garment edge. As the article states,there were garment makers,fairly large ones at that,supplying these fringe tapes. Much of the material for these seems to have come from "off-cuts" left over from other things. As such,they may have resulted in a mish-mash of different colored material,which could then have been bleached,or "possibly" dyed,for uniformity. I admit I'm just speculating here.

But see page 5 of the article,which has a very suggestive citation from Washington,complimenting the "regiments, companies,and individuals" appearing at a review in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for their garments(including hunting shirts) with "bindings and fringes" in the "colors of the facings of the brigade".

Admittedly,this is cited from a 1787 newspaper account,so by no means decisive for AWI. On the other hand,the article's author calls him the "Commander in Chief",a post he left,of course,in 1783,so the account may be quoting an older letter or something. On the other other hand,this may be loose nomenclature by the author. He does seem rather detail oriented,though,so I would tend to doubt it.

Can anyone here nail down the date of this letter, or address,or whatever it was,from Washington? If not, I'll try to track it down later.

It would be far easier to have fringe of a different color from the shirt if the fringe as produced separately and added on rather than being produced from the same cloth as the shirt itself. Even then if the shirt is dyed after it is sewn, it is likely the fringe would end up roughly the same color. There is evidence indicating there was a domestic lace industry in the American colonies during the AWI, and that industry was tapped within a decade after the AWI to provide add on fringe for hunting shirts. I haven't seen anything to date indicating whether this was happening during the war itself.

My rather pathetic efforts to paint fringe start with painting the entire shirt the same color. I then hit the fringe with a wash and then go back with a fine brush and paint some individual strands a slightly darker version of the shirt color.

Bill,see that same page 5 for James Butland,apparently doing that very thing in Philadelphia in 1777.

I believe your source is one of the ones I'd previously read, but I didn't recall the line about "rifle frocks and overalls, trimmed with binding or fringe of the same color with the facings of the brigade". Thanks for the reminder.