Followers

Friday 28 December 2012

The Christmas Brigades - Base Coats

Once the undercoat is dry I continue with the next step and that is to cover the main large areas of colour. In this case my regular Union Regiments get Sky Blue trousers.


This can be applied fairly quickly with a large-ish brush as it goes nowhere near the face or hands and it doesn't matter if it overflows a bit onto the boots or the jacket. They will be overpainted later in a darker colour.


 
This is where I start adding any fine detail (as far as fine detail and the 'toy' soldier style goes) and in this case it is a thin dark blue stripe down the trouser leg. My understanding is that regular infantry get a dark blue stripe, cavalry get yellow, artillery get red and militia get white.


This unit is destined to be Berdans Sharpshooters so they get both trousers and jacket in dark green with no trouser stripe. Again this only has to be tidy around the neckline and around the hands on the rifled musket. It won't matter if the backpack gets covered, it will be overpainted later.

A family crisis has interrupted this painting session so the blue coats will have to wait until next time.


9 comments:

  1. Continuing to move along nicely...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Slow but progressive...

      ...and I'm starting to pull away from Bob Cordery :)

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. They are rough and ready at the moment, they should look fine once completed. Even Peter Johnstone at Spencer Smith Miniatures has said that he 'hardly recognised' them.

      Delete
  3. You might want to check your sources on the pant stripes. I believe they were intended for NCOs only. You got the colors correct (I don't know about militia).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comments re. trouser stripes. My understanding is that all ranks could wear stripes but many privates didn't bother as they had to do the sewing themselves. My guys are all 'Old School' so therefore all of them know how to sew.

      Delete
    2. Gotcha.

      But you realize you just raised the bar for any Zouave units you might enlist into your army. Zouaves must know how to embroider.

      Delete