#16-3: I was looking for uniform information on the Newcastle Mounted Rifles and Buffalo Border Guard of the Zulu War. Glenn Grundei responded: The Buffalo Border Guard (total strength of 22 men) wore a black pillbox cap with a band of black braid and a silver badge, a black Bedford card tunic with black velvet facings and white metal buttons. The breeches were also of black Bedford cord and were worn with black field boots. The Newcastle Mounted Rifles (total strength of about 30 men) probably did not have a uniform as there were only about 30 volunteers from Newcastle who called themselves - the "Newcastle Mounted Rifles" - by the way, their leader was Captain Bradstreet and five (seven given by Morris in WASHING OF THE SPEARS) died at Isandhlwana. #15-3: Richard Houston was looking for colors for artillery used during the Colonial period. Mark Stevens of Columbia, Miss. responded: The British painted their army carriages a dark gray with black metal fittings. British naval carriages tended to be a light gray. The British also used Khaki paint during the 1898 Sudan re-conquest and 1899-1902 Boer War. Winston Churchill - while a war correspondent in South Africa - described the Colt machine guns of the South African light horse as being "pink", evidently a khaki shade. Since Frontier makes a nice Cold gun, this would make a useful addition to a Boer War era army. The French painted their carriages olive drab with black metal fittings and wheel rims. The French later switched to a gray color sometime in the late 19th century. Photographs of WWI French "75's" show them to be very light in color so I suppose a light gray was used. Americans have always used olive drab with black metal fittings. The Italians tend to follow French fashion so I suppose they used olive drab also. Russians used a very dark green similar to Humbrol rifle green (modern). Austrians used a dull yellow with black fittings. Prussians (and I suppose the later German Empire) used a blue-gray that was more blue than gray. If in doubt you can always use natural wood carriages with gun metal or steel fittings. Most rifled field pieces were made from steel. The Russians used a bronze krupp gun, however. The French used bronze rifled muzzle loaders until converting to breech-loading, steel rifles after 1870. Remember that the water jackets on Maxims and pom-pom guns were bronze or brass. Also the receiver of the gatling gun was made of bronze. #17-1: Todd Fisher, 6908 N. Oakley, Chicago, Ill., 60645 is wondering how to obtain a set of Column, Line and Square rule. Back to MWAN #17 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 Hal Thinglum 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