"1914 Belgian Great Coats (Again)" Topic

OK, I know this has been discussed before and I went thru a similar bout of drugs and booze trying to nail this down for my 1864 Danes, but here we go again.

I get that Belgian TUNICS in this period were either VERY dark blue or VERY dark green. However, the first plate in Mollo and Turner's Army Uniforms of World War I (the one where they colorized actual photos) seems to show an infantry GREAT COAT as absolute black. I don't have the book, so I don't know what the commentary for this plate says, but it looks like its legitimately black.

Soooo, looking back at my Danish great coat experience (and references most appreciated), my questions for this august body of scholars are:

1. What did the Belgian uniform regulation say the color was?

2. Was the official color – say dark blue, for example – so dark that it it was indistinguishable from black, or was the official color some weird shade like UMBRA. When researching the Danes I noted that some armies of several nations described Navy Blue as a (quote) "shade of black."

3. Is there something I might have missed on this, like maybe Mollo and Turner are simply wrong?

Bottom line is that if the plate referenced is Mollo and Turner's interpretation of dark blue, then the great coat seems something darker, so what is it exactly?

Have you thought about contacting the Danish War Museum? They might know and they may have some examples in their collection

link

I have the original book this imagine was scanned from and the greatcoat is definitely depicted as dark blue.

I have the book, but none of the captions relate to your basic question. They really just refer to the headgear and facings.

Navy blue – "It's the darkest blue," as someone once told me. Of course, all colors tend to fade after being exposed to months of rain and sun.

Also, there are other factors at play: quality of the wool, manner of weaving, the type of dye, the dying process. I know a collector of WWII uniforms who had about a dozen original German "field gray" tunics laid overlapping on his couch. No two were exactly the same color.
Sorry if that's not much help.
Bon chance!

When I researched this, it seemed it was a blue so dark it was nearly black. I painted it slightly more blue since the figures are 10mm.

You might also contact the 'Musée Royal de l'Armée' in Brussels-
(if the Danes can't help)

Does this help?

'Belgian infantry of 1914'

link

42flanker, they look black to me, but then again I go back to the Danes for coat and artillery carriage colors which also seem black. Turns out that by regulation they were UMBRA. The umbra (Latin for "shadow") is the innermost and darkest part of a shadow, where the light source is completely blocked by the occluding body. No joke which is why I'm looking for a regulation to see what it says.

COL Bill