The colour palette

[goat major]

I like a palette of complementary tones but don’t choose deliberately bright or dull colours just whatever seems right.

[Ilkley Old School]

I am glad the Act if Kindness episode of Callan was in colour.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 3251198455

[FreddBloggs]

Funnily enough the Callan film was on over the weekend!

[grizzlymc]

Wot Fred said. Any peasant levy might have a few chaps whose tunics have been dyed, but unless its done by a trained and knowledgeable artisan, the dye will fade and wash out quickly. Many of those veggie dyes will turn a pale sort of shit brown within a year. On the Bolivian altiplano almost all the poor people have a poncho made of greasy wool died with a sort of cochineal derived from a lowland beetle. They start off a sort of brick red and fade to a reddish brown in a year. Mine looks like cammo for the red dirt of the altiplano. I would guess that throughout the pointy sticks period, that poncho would be as bright as any levy would use.

[Penda]

It's not just figure colours though, bases come into the consideration too. Most you see in pictures or at events are often too dark. Lighter bases lift the figures I find and to some extent compensate for earth shades in clothing. Generally though the smaller the figure the brighter the colours need to be. Best advice I ever had on painting and from a professional artist.

[FreddBloggs]

Yes, this.

I changed my bases colour to a beige with a thin brown wash, and I think it looks much much better.

[grizzlymc]

Wot the copper sed

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Lighter bases lift the figures I find and to some extent compensate for earth shades in clothing.

As a rule of thumb, I would agree 100%. However, just to prove that every rule has an exception (except that rule of course), there's an American chap called Axebreaker (Chris something) who did some amazing AWI Perry riflemen on "waterlogged" bases that were really, really dark and yet showed up the figures perfectly. Damned if I can find his blog now.....

[Penda]

His blog is called Bunkerhill. His figures are photographed against a dark background usually I think. I generally use light colours on my modest efforts, a wash of Steel Legion Drab, or Country Maple, or Light Earth Basetex. The static grass is usually light, except for Mutiny and Pendawar, I just thought it set everything off better.