"Need Paint for CSA Uniforms" Topic

I'm looking for recommendations on paint ranges that give a good representation of the various different shades of grey and the elusive butternut color

For example, Vallejo triad colors….., Reaper Paint colors…

Ceramcote and Americana craft paints.

It depends on what and how many figures you are painting.

In my case, I built six brigades with the regiment as the smallest basic unit.

I picked a single shade of gray for the main brigade color. Some brigades where lighter and other were very dark. I then used every other shade of gray thru out the the individual regiments built around the brigade base color.

Just to keep things interesting the 1st regiment of each brigade was painted in the most uniform style and each subsequent regiment was painted as more and more ragged.

As far as paint ranges goes it was whatever I found in the paint rack.

Delta Ceramcote – Mudstone
When I ran with the "Stonewall Brigade" 20 years ago everything had to be period. My Richmond Depot II started life as grey, but after a season or two in the Virginia sun it was a almost tan in color. The best butternut is probably going to be one you mix up yourself. There are quite a few surviving examples out there to view. Don Troiani uses the best examples available while do his art. I would trust his renditions as well.

It would also depend on what depot your units would be drawing their uniforms from as well.

I used about 10 various shades of grey craft paint, 10 various shades of buff and browns craft paint.

I would paint about 50 figures at a time.
I woukd do all the greys and not clean my brush as I dipped from lid to lid, then I would add the buffs and do the same thing. Then add in plenty of blue trousers and an occasional red or odd colored blanket roll, etc

Russ Dunaway

Jim,

Confederate uniforms ran the gamut from dark blue-gray ones from England through very light homespun colors. I've found the following web sites to be particularly useful:

Adolphus Confederate Uniforms (detailed analysis of actual surviving uniforms) -- link
This is probably the best on-line coverage of Confederate uniforms by far.

Company of Military Historians (survey of central issued jackets) -- link

A lot depends on what level of gaming you will be doing and which theater (East or West). I game in the Western Theater using the brigade as my basic maneuver unit so my forces are "uniformed" by brigade for the most part. You can see some examples here -- link

Good gaming!

Jim

I painted a 1,000 man army in a couple of months, what I did was put 5 of the same pose figures on a stick and painted them all the same color to speed up the painting by making all the same lines dashes and dots. Once I finished that I would do another set with different colors, then I would just mix the figures up when I based them. It really sped things up. Thin your paint, best tip I ever got.

If you use a wet pallet you can mix any and all colors as you see fit. I am about to start painting some Confederates as well and will be using a wet pallet to get the colors I need. That being said, I use mostly Vallejo paints.

You have a lot of leeway here

I use Tamiya medium or dark grey with a black wash – also use desert yellow with a sepia wash

Folk Art does a nice range of acrylics.

I also echo John's Delta Ceramcoat and Americans ranges.

Eric

Folk Art does a nice range of acrylics.

I also echo John's Delta Ceramcoat and Americans ranges.

Eric

My choice for years has been Cermacoat and Folk Art.

Grossman, you are right with painting the same colors per stick. Speeds up painting quite a bit.
I use craft paint but I also use Howard Hues and the paint from Stone Mountain.

Been painting 28mm rebs for 20+ years and here is the super quickest way to get nice looking Rebs. I use Rustoleum Camoulage spray paint in Khaki#1917 as the base primer and initial uniform color. I usually paint the musket brown and flesh next. Then cover the whole model with Army Painter Soft Tone. Let dry and then dry brush the uniform with
Vallejo Medium Gray #987. Uniforms are done at that point. You can hightlight with additional lighter gray if you wish. It super quick to paint entire batchs of minis. I am usually paint in a batch of 36 to 46 and they look great on a table.

For late war Rebs wearing the dark blue grey English Army cloth uniforms, I wonder if Luftwaffe Uniform from Vallejo would be the best option. It covers great, and it looks pretty close (to me anyway).