The Loose Association of Wargamers

A request to all those who have painted a unit in all-black outfits (needn't be period-specific - could be anything from Ancient Arabs, through Napoleonics, or mid-/late-19th Century, to modern riot squads).

I've just prepped, greenstuffed, and primed (in Halfords dark grey) a load of 28mm Perry Peninsula Brunswickers - about 80 in all. My question now is how to proceed, given that I want to end up with a "dusty" look -
(a) overspray them all black and start from there, or
(b) do a simple black wash over the dark grey primer, allowing the grey to "come through" to represent fading (and possibly spray officers/NCOs black to replicate finer cloth)?

I'm more inclined to go with (b) for all ranks. Details of how you did it would be appreciated; photos even more so.

My approach is (b). I use Vallejo German Tracker Black as a base with a black wash over.

See the Tercio of the Sextons on this page for actual examples:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=93251.15

I have use the Andrea Black Paint Set but as it’s a 6 layer approach, it takes a bit of time and the results weren’t significant.y better tbh.

Thanks - that's very much the sort of response I was hoping for. Did you go over and highlight the grey post-wash?

I've looked at Andrea six-stage sets in the past - mainly reds and whites - and thought "that's a lot of trouble for a 28mm/15mm figure". I would tend to see them as more for those painting to "collector" standards. I would also imagine that the level of usage across a six-shade set would be very uneven!

Did add a little highlight to some figures, but again I’m not sure if the extra effort was worth it. A lighter/darker grey coat does add some variability in terms of wear or quality of cloth. My main base coat is Vallejo 333, for lighter I go Neutral Grey 70992 or darker use Dark Grey 70994 or German Grey 70995.

I used the Andrea set on my Blackshirts for VBCW, I’ll be posting pics in a couple of weeks. Good, but I won’t use them again.

Undercoat black, give it a second coat of black and then highlight with panzer-grey on the cloth and a very dark black/red-brown mix for the belts.

undercoat black then paint everything white apart from the flesh
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white..................................


..............then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white
then paint everything black again, then paint everything white
then paint everything black, then paint everything white..............

Then stop and leave them white if you want them to look like Austrians but if you want them to look like Brunswickers give them ONE final coat of black

And with all that paint on them, they will look as if they are in greatcoats.

Brendan, I’m not much hope in this issue aside from adding green, purple or grey to your colours, which I acknowledge is as much use as a serviette in a Gauteng thunderstorm, but given your track record, I do look forward to seeing them in a future show

Someone, probably on The Place We Do Not Name, did a tutorial on painting black which IRRC highlighted with purple. It was very effective. Of course in 6mm we just paint them black.