"Painting coloured troops" Topic

Could anyone advise me on how to paint the skin for coloured (US) troops?

chocolate brown to raw sienna. Save black for hair color.

I agree with mildbill. There's a very wide range of skin tones. Do remember commissioned officers were almost invariably white, and the exceptions tended to be very light-skinned.

On the other hand, you also found white units with colored drummers, and some of the Wisconsin regiments were actually integrated, in the parlance of a later era. In those cases, I'd go to a darker brown for effect.

Depends on the scale – for 15mm I used NATO Brown by Tamiya; for 28m I use a lighter shade followed by a wash with GW Earthshade

I use a chocolate brown or a craft paint dark brown.

Human skin colors exist in a wide variety of hues. African-American soldiers can be painted in many different tones of brown and even black. As with white soldiers, you can use a lighter tone for highlights.

I use the entire spectrum of brown Vallejo paints I had, then hit them with a Citadel Ageax Earthshade on the faces and hands.

I stick to the darker browns. If the brown is too light, then at 15mm it just looks like suntanned skin and another white unit. I want the unit to be instantly recognizable as USCT as much as possible.

This may not be to everyone's taste, but I painted two, 10mm Union stretcher-bearers as African-American freemen using the combination below.

I used a base flesh color (typical Caucasian pinkish hue) but then used Speedpaint (Hardened Leather) as a "glaze" (which Speedpaints do like a charm) over the flesh color.

I was very, very pleased.