"Louisiana Tigers painted with Contrasts and Speedpaints" Topic

After about a week and a half of painting, I've got about 150 models painted. My latest unit is a version of the Louisiana Tigers, Wheat's Special Battalion.

I'm finding the Contrasts and Speedpaints to be overwhelmingly successful in producing painted models that are not only tabletop-worthy, but actually pop on the table and can stand up very well to models painted with traditional mini. paints.

The palette for my Louisiana Tigers is similar to the palettes for ordinary Union and Confederate uniforms, with one notable exception. I used Speedpaint "Blinding Light" as the base coat for the baggy trousers. This produces a very nicely shade light gray tone. I then did a white drybrush over that to bring it closer to a white tone. Then I deviated from the transparencies and turned to one of the few traditional paints, a Citadel layer color "Altdorf Blue" for the blue ticking stripes on the trousers.

This unit painted up VERY quickly. 16 rank and file models painted in just a single afternoon. I already had some confederate officers, drummers painted and flag bearers painted, so I simply repainted their trousers with the white and blue ticking and made them my command group for the regiment.

Will be basing the unit today.

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Beautiful work! That's nth degree painting!
Huzzah!

The troops look great!

Excellent!!

Remember that Tiger Rifle officers wore all blue. They would look like a union officer.

Looking good.

Spectacular!

Love your work and thanks for sharing the paints used in your color scheme.

Most of the sources I've found for the Tigers has them wearing blue jackets piped in red rather than brown and their fez having a red tassel and red sash under belt rather than blue.

Do you have sources that show they wore brown coats, etc…? I'm asking because I am currently painting up a Tigers unit and want to look at any relevant sources. Thanks!

Jon1967, I have been a Tiger Rifle reenactor for a very long time. The thing is whenever I say something about our uniform the resident experts and authors chime in to tell me I am wrong. Our unit historian is one of the best on the subject that I have ever encountered. That besides being a reenactor was his main function. So I am not going to say what is right or wrong, I am just going to tell you how I paint Tiger Rifles.
From the top. The Tigers carried the 1841 Mississippi Rifle. It had no bayonet lug, so, no bayonets. Pistols in hand on some and knife in the other hand. Both are available in the Perry cavalry sets. Cut down the sword, or any grey plastic arm with a long sleeve and a sword can be cut down.
Now the uniform. Red fez with a blue tassel. Use a different blue from the blue you use on the coat. The trefoil and the coat trim should be the same red. Slightly different from the fez. The sash and the shirt should also be red, with a slight variation from each other. I use antique white on the pantaloons. The stripes should be a wide dark medium blue with a very thin stripe between the wide stripes. They did not have the leather piece above the gaiters. This area should be alternating navy and white horizontal stripes to represent their socks. Gaiters should be white with the best you can do for glass buttons, not buckles. Boots should be tan or a very light brown. NCO stripes should be infantry blue on the cuff pointed up.
There are two stories about the Tigers after 1st Manassas. Both are said to come from Stonewall. Neither proven. As the story goes, Jackson said that no soldiers in the ANV should be wearing union blue. So the Tigers boiled their jackets in walnut shells to remove the blue. The second is that no infantry would be allowed to carry p[stols or knives. Like I said no proof of either.
Hope this helps, good luck on you Tigers. TIG

tigrifsgt,

Thanks very much for the detailed info. I really appreciate it. I already painted blue jackets, but will either change them OR do another regiment with brown as I love the story. I remember reading about Stonewall not allowing his troops in the valley to use the union uniforms after he routed Banks' army.

Also, I did paint red tassels, so I may need to repaint those blue. Again, thanks for the great information!

Kind regards,
Jon

You are quite welcome. TIG

@tigrifsgt,

Thank you for all the extremely useful information and insights!

I admit that I only did very basic and quick uniform research. My first instinct was to just keep the models as they came out of the box of Perry plastics. Of course, that is the problem with "generic Zouaves" or generic anything when it comes to historical units. With the other half of the Perry box I made a regiment of the 5th New York Zouaves, which these models are much more closely based on. I did not notice that in all the artist's renderings of the regiment that indeed none have bayonet scabbards because as you point out, they 41 Miss. rifles could not take a bayonet.

Also excellent info on the gaiters and socks.

I will be clipping the bayonets off of my regiment and repainting the gaiters and socks to match your information.

Thanks again, it's super fun to learn something new every time I delve into a new painting project!

Baranovich, you are welcome also. Glad to help you guys.

I did forget to tell you guys that the barrel on the 1841 Mississippi was browned. It is just a different process to keep the barrel from rusting, like blueing. It is a controlled rusting process which is cleaned off and then an oil is applied to stop the rusting.

Jon, the 10th N.Y. wore brown zouave jackets with red trim. Medium blue pants with a red stripe down the side, and turbans.

tigrifsgt,

Again, thanks for more great information. I have a 10th NY regiment in 15mm I did years ago, but hadn't thought of doing one in 28mm. I may need to look into that at some point.

Kind regards,
Jon