Choosing colors for German & English Colonials

[ErikB]

I just got some Copplestone English and German colonials.  What awesome figures!

They both seem to wear roughly the same colors, a desert yellow to khaki depending upon how worn out the clothing has become.

So, does anyone have some suggestions for different color schemes for these guys that are historically accurate?

I think I can do a desert yellow clothing with brown webbing for the Germans and a lighter khaki (graveyard earth highlighted with kommando khaki) with light colored khaki webbing for the Brits, or even the same colored clothing with brown webbing for the Germans and khaki/stone for the British..

Does this sound right?  Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks a bunch.

[carlos marighela]

If the Copplestone British you are referring to are from the Back of Beyond range then they should be wearing blueish grey shirts. That would differentiate them pretty readily.

[ErikB]

I thought that the Aussies wore that chambray (sp?) color in WWI and the Brits wore khaki?

And we're talking about colonials in India and Africa, right?

[Plynkes]

What exact figures are you referring to? The Copplestone British infantry are 20th Century Tommies in tropical gear, ideally placed for World War One and various obscure colonial outings.

The British uniform was indeed a light sandy khaki, but the Copplestone figures aren't wearing their jackets - they are in shirtsleeves order, as was very common in hot climes. The shirts were grey, as Carlos has already said.

[Plynkes]

Here's how I painted some of mine (from last year's LPL) to give you some colour ideas...



Can't remember what the exact combination of paints was, sorry. I'm useless at that kind of thing. I really ought to get back into the habit of writing such things down, and then not losing the bit of paper I wrote it on.

[ErikB]

So they don't fit these kinds of guys (other than being on foot, not horse)?

http://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/kimberley/lord-roberts.jpg

or

http://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/kimberley/french-cavalry.jpg

[Plynkes]

Unfortunately not really. Those Copplestone figures are usuable for 1908 at the earliest (maybe later, I'm not an expert on the various changes to 08 pattern webbing over the years - and I'm not sure when they started putting hosetops on their puttees either, I think that was during the Great War), so they miss the period of the Boer War (as shown in those pictures ) by a handful of years.

[timg]

Yup, the old greyback shirt kind of speaks for itself colourwise. The Aussies tunic in WW1 was initialy i believe made from a material that faded to a similar shade in the climates they fought in though by the Western Front the colour stayed the proper khaki.

The helmets on the Copplestone (initialy worn around the Boer war only by officers)and the 08 web gear make them ideal from then on up to early WW2 (as some British units in India still had outdated kit and also bazaar made shirts often in this color) but no earlier. Before then your looking at the 03 leather webbing and for Boer war initialy slade wallace and then the bandolier style towards the end of that conflict.

Think hosetops came in with the Scottish units in WW1 like Plynkes says and got adopted in shorts order buy other units soon after being another usefull piece of kit to slap regimental distinctions like like flashes etc.

The german KD did seem to have a more yellowish cast than the British version.