"Color for artillery tubes?" Topic
6 Posts
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Early morning writer | 20 Feb 2017 10:14 p.m. PST |
I've got my FIW artillery on the workbench and am wondering the best color to use to paint the tubes? And the carriages for either side while the subject is up. The ones I've already completed I went with iron tubes and brown carriages with metal fittings. Constructive advice appreciated. And thanks! |
bsrlee | 21 Feb 2017 2:34 a.m. PST |
You would have to look up the specifications of the piece – iron barrels would have been painted black, bronze barrels were generally left bare metal but you can bet the gunners weren't allowed to let them get dull with Verdigris. Iron tubes were heavier than brass for the same bore, which is why you still see bronze barrels into the late 1900's for mountain guns and naval landing party guns. As for the carriages, they would have been standard national colours, red-brown was a cheap paint pigment (iron oxide or red ochre) as was dull yellow (yellow ochre). Iron was commonly painted black to stop rust but could be any colour – black stained wood work with red painted iron work is just so 16th century. |
JimDuncanUK | 21 Feb 2017 3:31 p.m. PST |
Interesting to see 20th/21st Century terminology being used for 18th Century equipment. Tubes would be called barrels and artillery would be called ordinance. What does everyone else think? |
Early morning writer | 22 Feb 2017 12:17 a.m. PST |
Well, I think we all know what a tube is in this context but barrel might have been mistaken for part of a rifle. Perhaps my precision was not historically correct but it was precise in meaning nonetheless. Or so say I. I'd still like an answer to the original question – though burl's information was helpful. |
Rawdon | 22 Feb 2017 10:33 a.m. PST |
Your bronze artillery barrels – or tubes, whatever – should be a gleaming, very bright bronze color. It was a point of pride for the gun crews to keep them polished. (It was also easier to keep them polished than to polish one that had been allowed to oxidize). Any iron pieces should have barrels / tubes painted black. As an aside, I have read contemporary accounts of brass artillery pieces (as well as bronze), yet the modern histories only say bronze. Does anyone have any insight on the "truth"? |
historygamer | 22 Feb 2017 3:56 p.m. PST |
I paint my bronze gun with brass paint and use a wash. All tubes were bronze but had a high brass content. They only get the copper coloring if left unpolished. English guns and limbers are grey as are the RA wagons. Look at the Morier and the de Loutherberg (sp?) Warley camps paintings. Fyi I worked around and maintained a repro gun at Fort Pitt museum for many years. |
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