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Theo

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Jun 17 06 10:30 AM

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Good morning guys,

I am about to paint my French artillery guns and I am having some difficulty settling on what colours to use. I have books with depictions of the damn things and technical descriptions of how they mixed ochre to paint their guns. What I would appreciate is if you could please share what colours you use to paint your French artillery pieces. Vallejo, coat d'Arms and GW are all easily available to me so if you are using any of these please shoot. I don't mind mixing for the second or third coat; I often do it anyway. I just need somewhere to start from.

Oh and for anyone who hasn't tried it, Humbrol 53 is perfect for painting the metal parts of the guns.

Thanks and have a good weekend all,
Fanis

http://makedoniawargaming.blogspot.com/
http://wdlovesme.19.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1489

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#3 [url]

Jun 17 06 11:42 AM

I think I bought Vallejo Japanese khaki (or green or sand or something) for the purpose though I haven't painted any French guns since getting it.
Howard Hues make a specific colour for the purpose.

Swampster

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Theo

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#4 [url]

Jun 17 06 12:22 PM

Thank you guys and my apologies for bringing an old and worn topic up. I did trawl through our archives but did not find anything relevant. Sadly I did not check TMP where such a discussion had taken place before and where suitable Vallejo codes are being suggested. My bad.

for anyone who is perhaps interested in this have a look here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=73370

cheers,
Fanis

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#5 [url]

Jun 20 06 4:01 PM

French green

Hi Theo

Having dutifully read my Osprey on the subject regarding the mixing of the the green from x parts yellow ochre and y parts black I experimented with these two colours form the Vallejo range. The best mix resulted in a colour which is a near as makes no difference to Vallejo 880 khaki as mentioned on the TMP site.

I've tried it out and think it a good dark base colour to be lightend for a highlight. Vallejo actaully give Russian green as a conversion colour for the old Humbrol French Artillery Green although I think the Russian green to be too bright and not grey enough.

Regarding Howard Hues colours, their range does look tempting but I have read lots of negative reports about the opacticy of these paints which has convinced me not to bother with them.

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Theo

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#6 [url]

Jun 20 06 6:25 PM

Thank you very much Timmo. Your post pretty much decided me in favour of placing an order for some Vallejo so as to get this Khaki Grey. There were some other colours I wanted to look at anyway so it's as good an occasion as any for an order. By the way I remember you saying something about a Derivan shade of blue which you particularly liked. Could you please remind me what it was?
Cheers
Fanis

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#7 [url]

Jun 20 06 8:38 PM

paints

Hi Theo

Arrrgh that second Swedish goal!

Right back to figures – The Derivan colour is French blue – its great when mixed with black for that really dark but not Prussian blue colour and great straight from the bottle for mid-tone. It dries much lighter than its wet form which looks quite black.

If your ordering Vallejo those colours I used for the white coats I send the pics of are Stone grey, silver grey, off white and white incase you wanted a system for doing white. Just a thought.

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Theo

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#8 [url]

Jun 20 06 9:20 PM

Thanks again Timmo; the only thing that annoyed me with Derivan was that when you twist the cap shut there is always a good bit of paint ejected. It is just bad designing of the bottle plain and simple. Other than that their paint is really really good. And their black is MATT!

on the subject of white; because I did not have Stone Grey I used Medium Grey then Silver Grey and the Offwhite and it turned out really well too at least on 18mm ABs'. I will also order Stone Grey because I will be needing to paint some 28mm soon for a Pulp thing I have wanted to do for a long time now and it would be good if Stone Grey provides a more gentle gradiation up to white.

Cheers,
Fanis

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#9 [url]

Jun 21 06 6:50 AM

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Theo

Yup never could work out why Derivan thought that design was a good idea as you end up with a dried crust around the top of the cap all the time.

Glad the white are working out well…

I recommend the Vallejo stone grey as its a soft warm tone – its just a personal thing but I prefer the warmer more yellowy greys to the colder bluer tones. I just think they look more natural when depicting folds in fabric. I also think they look a bit more dusty due to the soft tone and anything to help my Peninsular armies look dusty (except for dust) is welcome. I'm now paining boots and gaiters is various warm greys rather than black and whilst I need to improve the effect somewhat it is working out.

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#10 [url]

Jun 26 06 1:19 PM

Theo

If you do use the Derivan blue the following may help:

Over the weekend I was doing some more French Line and decided to define the mix for the dark blue. As mentioned I'm using Derivan French Blue and Vallejo black for this.

Out of the bottle the blue looks thick, deep and glossy, thin this as usual and spread it out a bit on a white palette, this will make it look much more blue. I mix in black until the blue turns to a colour where you're not sure if its really going to come out blue or black – your kinda unsure of it– that's right, that's the 'wet' colour you're aiming for! Use neat blue for mid tone and add white to the mix for highlight.

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