WSS French test!(need input)

OK, so after two years I've finally given in to having a section of the FORUM specifically set up to discuss painting techniques, display examples, show your latest projects and chat about this vital part of the hobby. Manufacturers please feel free to post up your sculpts, ask questions about what the gamers are after and generally promote your work.. no charge! Painters, please also feel free to post up your work for comment and critique. I can't promise the unreserved adulation characteristic of some other fora but I would hope you'd get constructive and measured comment!
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Gunfreak
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WSS French test!(need input)

Post by Gunfreak » Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:02 pm

So I got out my FR figures again, my question is, is the grey to light? I know by the 7YW it was somewere between light grey and off white.

But during the WWS it was more mid grey, so is this to light a shade of grey?

Image

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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by EvilGinger » Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:03 pm

very nicely done as ever. As for the question I would personally do French a silver (bluish) grey for any period up to the end of the succession of the lower American colonies.

For this I would tend to use something like the old GW Space wolves grey mixed 50/50 with white for the shadow 25/75 for the mid tone and actual whit for the top highlight. if I was not speed painting I would also create intermediate tones between the shadow & the mid tone by mixing them 50/50 an the same between the mid tone and the highlight

I would tend to do Danes in the shade you used & Dutch a slightly darker grey over all.

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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by Scruff » Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:09 am

to me they look ok, after all I am sure that uniforms faded

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Russian James
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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by Russian James » Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:59 am

Remember, they would fade to a natural, 'linen', shade, not to white...
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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by EvilGinger » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:52 pm

Natural wool, as the coats were mostly wool like most other outer clothing. Natural wool is a very varied colour, but the stuff that got dyed started off some sort of pale cream and was bleached before it was dyed and it was usually dyed as yarn rather than cloth.

Uniforms could also go whiter because of the habit of rubbing pipe clay into stains when they could not be washed. this would be most prominent in places where one would expect to pick up persistent stains such as around the knees. Its also important to remember that fire arms produced a lot of dirty smoke and embers so these would dirty the uniform further in use.

This is before we consider the effects of mud & rain and sun which all add up and even modern dyes are subject to.

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Ben Waterhouse
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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by Ben Waterhouse » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:54 pm

I tend to wash white with very diluted pale yellow for the natural effect, rather than grey. For the French I sometimes wash with very, very dilute blue on a white base.
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EvilGinger
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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by EvilGinger » Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:02 pm

I wash all my figures after block painting with either Peat Brown ink in gloss varnish or as peat brown ink is not available form Spirit Games & Army Painter Strong Tone is with that instead. I also lightly dry brush every thing with Miniature paints Pale flesh or Coffee this I find gives me the required slight browning as well as picking out the detail nicely.

I prefer using Tamyia thinners as my wash medium as the stuff tends to flash dry rather than running off and pooling around the figures feet.

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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by 18th Century Guy » Mon Jun 17, 2013 3:41 pm

I think it is fine and if you like it then that is good enough. People can argue all they want but no one can tell with any certainty that your color is wrong.

One thing to remember about the WSS period is they had not started to use pipe clay because all of the belts were in a natural leather color so I doubt they would be clay piping their uniforms in this period of the 18th century.
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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by Dfogleman2 » Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:14 pm

I like the fusils/muskets. The colors look very much like the real thing. What colors and washes do you use.

As far as the coats are concerned I think any shade of light gray or whitish color is defensible. We really do not know what they looked like. My guess is that the colors varied from battalion to battalion and even company to company depending on the manufacurer of the material, its age and the weather conditions that the material went through.
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Re: WSS French test!(need input)

Post by Gunfreak » Tue Jun 18, 2013 3:32 pm

The muskets are Foundry Musket brown triad.


First a very dark brown color, black brown really, then a dark wood brown, and finnaly a red/brown wood color. ¨

They are Numberd Musket Stock Brown A, B and C you can buy the triad at cavaler books for £8 I think.

They are great, works for anything that is dark wood collored.
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