Painting "Red Coats"

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Orctrader
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Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Orctrader » Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:52 pm

My first post here so forgive me if this is the wrong area.

By way of introduction I'm only a painter - my website is in the signature - and intend to paint a unit or two. Drawn in by the recent transfer and re-branding of Copplestone's "Glory of the Sun" to Northstar - 1672 I've purchased one of the foot Battalion packs and ordered a copy of BLB2 - having read reviews that mentioned "painted regiments/guides."

Now, painting more than 10 figures will be something of a departure for me and, time being short, I will likely modify my technique. Perusing the galleries here I see lots of nicely painted red and scarlet coats so would appreciate comments on "how you paint yours?"

Number of layers, which (red) paints used, etc. :)
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Churchill » Mon Nov 14, 2011 11:35 pm

Ray.
Last edited by Churchill on Sat Mar 01, 2014 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by quindia » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:51 am

Hi, Orctrader!

This is as good a spot as any for your question. I am lazier than Churchill's painter. I generally use triads and count this as good enough for turning out regiments.

For a bright red, I tend to use Vallejo Red (70926), Flat Red (70957), and final highlights of Scarlet (817)...

Image

For a faded, campaign look I use Foundry's Terracotta A, B, and C...

Image

Hope that helps!
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by EvilGinger » Tue Nov 15, 2011 4:10 am

For British red coats I use Miniature Paints dark Red as a base coat for officers and Miniature Painters Terracotta for Nco's highlight is Miniature painters scarlet for both & low Light is to darken the mid colour to taste with Miniature Painters Umber, though in bulk I only base coat and then highlight and then wash with a mixture of Umber & Gloss varnish which has the same effect. Peat ink also works for this, but needs a little bit of Varnish to fix it.

Sashes I tend to do scarlet & highlight with orange which I blend in with red ink & very light drybrush works well I find.

:evil: Ginger
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Orctrader » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:59 pm

Thanks for the recipes. Useful. Very, very useful. :)

(And some lovely looking figures.)
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by barr7430 » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:58 pm

You use colour in a very interesting way in your own minis to. Had a look round your galleries... nice brushwork 8)
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by quindia » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:36 am

barr7430 wrote:You use colour in a very interesting way in your own minis to. Had a look round your galleries... nice brushwork 8)
+1 - nice work!
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Ben Waterhouse » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:56 am

Very, very nice figures Mr Orcrader; I like the bright clear colours and the smooth change in highlighting especially on the Front Rank civilians on your site.

Best
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by obriendavid » Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:15 pm

He's even into Project X just like you Barry :lol:
Cheers
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Orctrader » Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:30 pm

Thank you gentlemen for the kind words on my painting. :oops: Glad you enjoyed browsing my website. :D

As mentioned in my original post, having decided to try painting a unit rather than single miniatures or groups of just a few figures I'll need to experiment with some "faster" painting techniques. Currently, usually takes me a few hours just on a single "simple" figure. So with 24 for the BLB battalion I'm going to try and reduce the time-per-figure, if only slightly. (Bit of a perfectionist. :roll: )
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Churchill » Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:57 pm

Ray.
Last edited by Churchill on Sat Mar 01, 2014 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Orctrader » Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:15 pm

Great looking unit Ray. :)
Churchill wrote:...Depending on the time period a futher Pike base behind the command base.
That's what I went for. As I said, drawn in by the ex-Glory of the Sun battalion deal from North Star. :roll:

And now I have them they are such great figures I want to paint them...eventually.
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by CoffinDodger » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:18 pm

Image
There's a wee shot of one of my Copplestone units: in this case it's Dorrington's.

Jim
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by john_de_courcy » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:27 pm

Great figures Ray, Clarence and Jim.

So nice figs on the website also Orctrader.

Some good ideas for red.

Interesting as i am painting my first red unit. I did a 5 step thing to probably achieve something similar to triad. :lol:

i.e.
VMC burnt cad. red base, heavy highlight VGC Gory Red, wash GW Baal Red, highlight VGC Gory Red+ VGC Blood Red (1:1), final highlight VGC Blood red.

I wouldn't recommend my method, it was just the paints i had at the time and it was very ad hoc but it looked ok in the end so am repeating it til i have finished the unit My game colour red paints are quite thin so are quite transparent which probably makes my approach work ok. Having said that I have started to pick up some more model colour reds to try the next time.

Pictures of the finished unit will probably be up somewhere around here in a week or so.

Kris

EDIT: here is a pic of the red from the method I mentioned:-

Image
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Re: Painting "Red Coats"

Post by Belg » Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:18 pm

Churchill wrote:Hi ?
[omissis]
Image

Image

As you can see he uses many different colours combined in layers and highlights before getting to the end result.

Hope this helps,

Ray.
Congratulations for your excellent work of painting.
I noticed that you have painted the Trumpeter's uniform with the same color as that of the troop, instead of "inverse color" as I found it written for the drummers of the Infantry.
Do You have found sources from which it follows that the uniform of Cavalry Trumpeters was the same color as that of troops?
Please, can you give me the source?

On the other hand, I then noticed that the Officer, Ensign and Trumpeter have the color of the horse blanket in "inverse color". From what source have you taken this information?
The Officers, Ensign and Trumpeters of Cavalry did they have the
the horse's blanket in the "inverse color", opposite to that of troops?
Thank you.
greetings
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