"Prussian Landwehr - Litewka Colour" Topic

I am painting up some Landwehr and find that in "The Prussian Army by David Nash" he suggests Litewka colour could be black, blue, grey or brown.
I appreciate there were many variations but generally other sources seem to give blue as the usual colour.
Any comments etc appreciated.

Nash is right.

I will be able to do 'mix & match' then.
Thanks.

I'd say blue was more common, then black… I've painted Litewka by battalion rather than mixed on the assumption that whatever colour the Litekwa's were they would've been issued in bulk by unit. I would guess that the later Landwehr would be more uniformly blue. I have no real evidence of any of this but I like they way it looks!

Glengarry5
I am only doing standard bearers and was intending different colours for East Prussia; West Prussia; Brandenburg; Pommerania and Silesia.
The later, 1814, regions of Elbe; Westphalia and Rhein I had planned to do in blue.

usually dark blue, I would not opt for grey, neither brown, the Litewka was the "Sunday" suit – which was taken into the Landwehr

I would make most of my landwehr Prussian blue, vary in a unit of the other colors. Somewhere it has mentioned men in odd color coats would be kept together. Ultramarine is my favorite for a Neumark (I think)battalion.

Pomeranian militia a generation earlier wore grey smocks, so you could justify a grey unit on that basis if you want a break from all that blue? Various shades in any case, whatever the colour, since the men's outfits would be from different sources and of varying degree of wear.

I used dark Prussian blue for all mine, but various shades to denote different dye lots and wear.

mine were mixed by regiment Prussian Blue and Pomeranian Blue primarily

One thing I also did was while cloth bags are the normal make a odd off white or unbleached bag, hats are mostly coat color but a odd black or grey hat in a blue coated unit for instance. In general tried to make them as shabby as I could

the longer the campaign, as in all other armies as well, the more worn out the cloth and makeshifts of all kinds were taken

Get a copy of Dr. Stephen Summerfield's book on Landwehr in the Prussian army. Every regiment is detailed by uniform per battalion.

I have only painted three battalions of Silesian Landwehr and three battalions of Pommeranian Landwehr. I did the Silesians in blue and the Pomeranians in dark grey.

Rod

I wouldn't do whole battalions in uniform grey

Have tried to locate a copy of Dr Summerfield's book without success.

Many Pommeranian Landwehr units are recorded as having dark grey Litewkas. This may have been a common regional clour for the Sunday coat in the population? Regulations stated that the Litewka should be made from the "Sonntagsrock", the Sunday coat, if uniforms could not be manufactured. For issued uniforms, the colour was blue. For local procurement by tailoring Sunday coats, the other colours were acceptable.

Dr Summerfield says

East Prussian – dark blue (light blue among some cavalry)
West Prussian – dark blue
Brandenburg – doesn't mention these
Pommerania – dark blue
Silesia – dark blue
Elbe – dark blue
Westphalia – dark blue, or just "blue"
Rhine – "medium"

He says some Neumark Landwehr had light to mid-blue Litewkas, and that blue or black were the authorised colours.

Thank you for the information. Appreciated

I tend to to the majority of each battalion in one color and like others here, tend to go for Prussian Blue, but I usually make sure that 3 or 4 figures (in a 36 figure bn) will have different colored jackets (usually grey or brown) simply to provide a reminder that these aren't 'line' units of a wealthy power, but 'the best that can be done at the moment'…

There comes a point when you maybe have to step back from authenticable uniforms, and ask yourself how you're going to distinguish these units from one another at tabletop distances.

Flags can help but it was usually only one flag per regiment, and anyway the Landwehr weren't supposed to have even one flag.

At this point you give the odd battalion here or there some sort of distinguishing feature…well, I would.

There are references to black for a few Silesian Landwehr units. The regulation said that if there were Landwehr men in black, they should be grouped together in the same batalion if possible.

At least a few Neumark Landwehr litewkas seem to have been a bit fairer than the usual "Prussian blue".

I think it was Nash ( and have no access to my 3 different copies of it) who mentions Ultramarine for Neumarkers, I did my unit in a sea blue/green.

See also here:

TMP link