Help support TMP


"paints" Topic


11 Posts

All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.

Please remember that some of our members are children, and act appropriately.

For more information, see the TMP FAQ.


Back to the Napoleonic Discussion Message Board


Areas of Interest

Napoleonic

Featured Hobby News Article


Featured Link


Top-Rated Ruleset

March Attack


Rating: gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star 


Featured Showcase Article

28mm Captain Boel Umfrage

Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.


Featured Book Review


533 hits since 16 Sep 2023
©1994-2023 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?


TMP logo

Membership

Please sign in to your membership account, or, if you are not yet a member, please sign up for your free membership account.
spydr122216 Sep 2023 3:40 p.m. PST

how do u guys feel about 3 or 4 kinds of Blue,Red or Green in the same battalion? i think it would show old and new uniforms.

Rich Bliss16 Sep 2023 3:47 p.m. PST

Sounds good to me.

Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian16 Sep 2023 4:35 p.m. PST

Or maybe in different battalions, reflecting how long each unit has been on campaign?

jwebster Supporting Member of TMP16 Sep 2023 6:29 p.m. PST

Matter of personal taste. My experience is that however careful you are with Napoleonics, someone will find a mistake. So just do what makes you happy

In my opinion, multiple colors in a single unit will look strange unless you have a lot of highlighting and shading of the uniforms. It will also look strange if the underlying tones are different (eg one blue is more green than another)

I have done Spanish units with several shades of brown and that works well, but that would be expected from Spanish

John

Rosenberg16 Sep 2023 11:14 p.m. PST

I think it depends how long a period of time units are on campaign and other factors like weather and dust/mud. My French have a mix of trouser colour.
With all countries I think wargames tend to not use enough figures in Greatcoats. Only some of my French are in greatcoats but none of my Austrians or Russians.

Bandolier17 Sep 2023 1:28 a.m. PST

If you are a good painter and the variation in shades are subtle, it could look very effective.
If you just use say, 3 different blues, it could look a bit odd. Best thing is to experiment and see if you like the result. That's what matters, in the end.

VonBlucher17 Sep 2023 4:28 a.m. PST

Depends upon the year and whether it was the start of a campaign or not. Because of the dyes used my guess is to use the original color and add a little white to it as to add to the look of the color fading from washing and the sun.

Cerdic17 Sep 2023 7:31 a.m. PST

Depends on which army.

In the British army all the men of a battalion got replacement uniforms at the same time. So each battalion should have a ‘uniform' age to their uniforms!

There is an excellent description of this in the diaries of a private or NCO of their time in the Peninsula. Sorry, I can't remember which one as I have read dozens of them!

Other armies possibly did something similar…

14Bore17 Sep 2023 8:59 a.m. PST

Patches on elbows, knees are another way to show wear

Dennis17 Sep 2023 9:59 a.m. PST

I figure that trousers would be the first to need replacement due to general wear, tears, etc. So, like Rosenberg, I sometimes paint trousers different colors to reflect local or enemy sourced replacements-I realize that the style and cut of issue trousers and such replacements would probably be different, but I don't think it's very noticeable in the smaller scales. To my eye that adds a bit of variety without being too obvious.

And, as Skip says, a few patches of different colors here and there can add to the worn look, without worrying about the particular tint a normal uniform color would fade to.

advocate Supporting Member of TMP18 Sep 2023 1:06 p.m. PST

Not the same period at all, but I painted my 15mm Russian Civil War figures in a range of khakis. I could barely tell the difference at 6" let alone 3'.

Sorry - only verified members can post on the forums.