A Painters Guide

Napoleonic Uniforms and Figures

by Ian 'Iron Duke' Barstow

With the plethora of paints available on the market these days, it is often quite difficult to determine the best paint for the job without expensive experimentation. Thus, I thought a few souls might find the following tips on paints and painting equipment useful. Starting with paints, I have decided that rather than review various ranges I will tell you what colours I use and leave the decision making up to you, the reader. All these colours apply whether you undercoat in black or white. I personally use black undercoat except on largely unadorned horses which I will refer to later on. All colours are acrylic unless otherwise stated. I would always recommend acrylics if only to give your brushes longer Iife. Suggested Acrylics WHITE Humbrol no.5034; for all general uses. BLACK Citadel Matt Black (or whatever stupid name they are currently calling it.) Use a car spray tin for undercoating unless you are a masochist. I use Car Plan matt black. RED: Colour Party no.13; This if used thickly gives the best covering and is suitable for British uniforms. A touch bright but you want that effect on your figures, don't you? BLUE: Humbrol no.5025; I always use this for French jackets unless a client specifically requests a darker blue. In fact I generally use it for all blue Napoleonic jackets unless otherwise asked. It's an excellent colour to have in your collection and like the red gives a brightness to your figures and works very well with the varnishes I use. DARK BLUE: Humbrol no.5077; The darker option although for my money it doesn't cover as easily and is prone to tonal differences even on the same figure. Still, it keeps Dave Bygrave happy and it's on my shelf. PRUSSIAN BLUE: Humbrol no.5043; Dragoon blue that is. Enough said. LIGHT BLUE: Humbrol no.5065; Light blue overalls and the like. MIDDLE GREEN: Plaka no.43; From the excellent German company Pelikan, this is ideal for Italian jackets and various plumes. For the purist it may be too bright but particularly in 15mm you need a bit of brightness (as I keep on warbling about.) If you cannot get hold of Plaka then Humbrol no.5037 does nicely. DARK GREEN: Cobur Party no.4; For your Chasseurs of the Guard etc, and if you want to tone down on the brightness, then this is for you. Ideal for British Riflemen and that ilk. RUSSIAN GREEN: Humbrol no. 5030; works well for all the Czars blokes and is adequate as a stopgap for various other green requirements. BASE GREEN: Humbrol no. 5078; This colour I find ideal for base painting. It does not clash with any of the other greens and looks very natural. The only one I use, (unless I've just run out!). YELLOW: Citadel Sunburst Yellow; Yellow is one of those colours that always seems to cover badly, particularly with black undercoat. Using this paint I put a brush-end (not the business end) worth on my painting palette and leave it whilst I paint another cobur on about 5 figures. By this time the yellow has thickened up enough to cover adequately. Be brave with your coverage. ORANGE: Citadel Hobgoblin Orange; Exactly the same as the yellow except that you need to give it even longer to thicken up - maybe up to 15 minutes. Ignore the stupid name, Citadel just want to appeal to the under eights. CRIMSON: Plaka no.28; Technically Deep Madder, this colour is perfect for British officers' sashes and anything else which you think is similar. It is beautifully rich but work with good ventilation and don't sniff the pot. If you do then don't blame me if Citadel paint names begin to sound sensible. SILVER: Citadel Mithril Silver; Dig to the bottom of the pot for the good stuff, and ignore the rest. Very good for dry brushing. Very few acrylic metals work well and this one can be used before you varnish. GUN METAL Citadel Chainmail; Exactly as above. Get both and you will probably end up using one or the other exclusively. GOLD: Winsor & Newton Gold; Acrylic tube from art shops which covers well and allows varnish well. BRONZE: Winsor & Newton Bronze; as gold. Together they can be mixed to make a very pretty brass. I use this for guns and dry brush gold over it to highlight the barrels. LIGHT GREY: Humbrol no.5064; Good for British trousers and overalls, Brunswick Avant-Garde and various Austrian Irregulars. I use it for the bog-standard greatcoat. MID-GREY: Humbrol no.5027; A richer looking grey for options regarding greatcoats. I use it for Austrian Jagers and officer's overalls. MUSKET BROWN: Humbrol no.5062; Not technically for muskets, but I like the slightly brighter effect to pick out the weapon. A good stock colour with multi-purpose capability. BUFF: Humbrol no.5063; This is good for bags and similar, and is another stock colour with plenty of uses. DARK BROWN: Humbrol no.5029; Stock colour which might well be preferred as a musket colour. BROWN: Humbrol no.5026; Another brown option, I like to have as many brown options on hand as possible to give variety to equipment, especially amongst irregulars. These last four are all suitable for those of you who paint ACW Butternuts as well. FLESH: Humbrol no.5061; For my money the only flesh worth having unless you mix your own. OIL PAINTING Some swear by it, I generally swear at it. It's a brush killer and requires proper cleaning agents and it makes sniffing Plaka paints quite pleasant. I only use this medium for horses and on a white undercoat. The technique is to thin down the paint to whatever degree you fancy and splash it all over. The paint spreads and bob's your uncle. It can look very pleasing. The colours I use are Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber and Madder Brown. This provides all the variety, along with black that you are likely to need. All these come from the Rowney Georgian range. I strongly suggest that you use a drying gel as your thinner. This makes the paint dry in a day rather than a week. Finally, ignore those who say that you cannot paint acrylics onto oils. If I can, you can. All these colours are in my collection and are used for Napoleonic figures to the exclusion of practically all others. The titles are my own. Do not look for them but rather simply ask for the code number unless a name has been given. BRUSHES There are now so many different brushes available on the market that they merit serious discussion. Firstly, do not buy cheap, crap brushes. Not only are you doing you figures no favours but you are actually slowing down production. A poor brush - or an old one - which loses its point does not work effectively. You should endeavour to buy your brushes from art shops. Yes, I know that you can pay £ 1.50 a brush, but so what? Why buy loads of figures which are just so much scrap metal until well painted. The best brushes I have ever used are by Maimeri. if you can find them, use them. They retain their points beautifully and are also the only manufacturer I've come across who make the Hawaii Brush (00000). Got it yet? Unfortunately Maimeri brushes appear to have vanished down Wiltshire way. I have been assured that their brushes are now manufactured by Osbome & Butler but would you trust a shop owner who's trying to flog you some kit? Anyway, we'll see. Various people swear by sable brushes but I have always been satisfied with nylon, as both Maimeri and O & B are. I would not recommend Winsor & Newton COTMAN brushes (blue handles) although I am currently using their SCEPTRE GOLD sable/synthetic blend with satisfactory results. I also quite like Prolene brushes by Pro Arte. I have no time for Humbrol brushes which are poor quality in my opinion. The novelty handle grip is useless as well. If I have not mentioned it then I have not used it. As far as cleaning your brushes is concerned, by using acrylics all you need is water. I clean by dipping in water, then wiping carefully on an old T-shirt and then protecting the point by licking it into shape. As far as I am aware this is not dangerous to your health and it is important to keep the point. A variety of brushes is required and I generally use all brushes between a size 2 and 00000 with the majority of the large work being done with a single 0 and the number of 0's increasing with detail down to a 0000 or 00000 for hands and faces. VARNISHES To make it sound really impressive the Iron Duke uses varnish made exclusively by Maimeri. To be precise, l use Vernice Finale, which is artists matt varnish 1622 for Oils and Acrylics. It is very expensive but comes in a big can and has two outstanding qualities. Firstly, to my mind it is unmatched in it's ability to bring out the colour of acrylic paints and it is also multi-purpose. By using it in thin coverings it remains a glorious matt, but by one thicker coat it becomes a silky gloss finish. The one stipulation required is that you shake it very well before use, but any male who has come through puberty will have no problem there. The ladies will just have to practice or find a suitable looking man. l'm sure they know what I mean. UNIFORM GUIDES The one thing you need when paintinq is research. For the Napoleonic wargamer there are three main providers. Firstly, the Osprey series which cover most of the stuff you will need but at about a fiver a shot can work out expensive. Secondly, the Philip Haythornthwaite series from Blandford. I use the Armies of Waterloo and the Peninsula books extensively. There are also books on 1812 and a general period book which are useful to have. hnally there is the ubiquitous pair of volumes by Funcken which no serious Napoleonic garner should be without although they can be inaccurate and I always take one of the others in preference if I've got it. In fact, I will always buy the relevant Osprey book if available when I come across a new subject. Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #7 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com