RCW/BoB for Newbies

[eptingmike]

Hello all,
So mostly I am just a lurker in these parts, so please, be patient. 
I am curious, for someone who is interested in the Russian Civil War and Back of Beyond settings, what sort of painting advice can you give?  I have some Old Glory Russians, Vallejo paints, and some Ospreys.  Yet, I still cannot quite 'get it.'  Perhaps it is due to my having not painted much in the last 4-5 years but I cannot seem to find paint combos I like.  Any paint combos you like?  Shoulder boards...sheesh I cannot even begin to admit how confused I am on this subject! 
I would love to hear what you have to say and would especially love to see some painted examples/how-to's.
Thank you
Mike

[Ataman]

Well, who exactly are you trying to paint? The RCW and BoB settings provide a huge variety of potential factions to paint, and huge variety of 'uniforms' within those factions!

I'm guessing from the shoulderboards comment you are painting up some Whites. Do you have any theatres in mind (South Russia, North/North-West, Siberian)?

As for what paint combos 'work,' that's much more a matter of personal taste. I personally use a mixture of predominately Reaper paints with some Vallejo game colour thrown in.

With some notable exceptions, the bulk of your army is going to be wearing khaki with some coloured bits for accent. That being said 'khaki' encompasses a massive variety of different hues and shades. The Imperial Russian standard was a greyish-olive colour, but that was more wishful thinking than anything concrete. The uniforms faded quickly, and that combined with re-supply meant that even well-equipped Russian units wore a plethora of different shades of green (I intentionally painted my White troops this way).

For the overwhelming majority of uniforms I use the Reaper 'Undead Skin' triad of Ghoul Skin, Moldy Skin, and Bloodless Skin. These three paints very accurately match the greyish-green uniforms I mentioned earlier, and I can vary them very easily to create interesting but still cohesive mixed-shade uniforms.

That being said, it would be perfectly acceptable to paint WW1-RCW Russians in standard brownish khaki, bone, and even white. As for vibrant colours, that largely depends on what force you are trying to paint. I'd be happy to provide more detail if you provide more information on your plans.

[eptingmike]

Thanks for your response!
The forces I am trying to paint up are sort of generic Whites and Reds.  I also have plans of painting up some French to act as Poles.  I suppose it is a bit of a 'fool's errand' to be so worried about the correctness of the paint scheme when I have no particular unit or front in mind! 

[Hammers]

Thanks for your response!
The forces I am trying to paint up are sort of generic Whites and Reds.  I also have plans of painting up some French to act as Poles.  I suppose it is a bit of a 'fool's errand' to be so worried about the correctness of the paint scheme when I have no particular unit or front in mind! 

I second that you should not try to go for something you think is correct but rather something which looks 'about right'.

[eptingmike]

Mostly I am just concerned about White officers with the shoulder boards and such.  I cannot make heads or tails outta that subject!  The Ospreys just left me more confused than enlightened! 

[ts]

Try the site
http://kolchakiya.narod.ru/index2.htm
It is in Russian, but use Google Translate button and it is rather understandable.
First you has to look around the site, choose your subject and then you will find a lot of useful colour plates, also giving a lot of different shoulder straps for the many regiments then existing in Siberia.
A similar site for the Southern Army does not exist, but on the internet you can easily find shoulder straps for the so-called "coloured regiments".
Further try the Forum of
http://siberia-miniatures.ru/
Go to either
http://siberia-miniatures.ru/forum/showforum.php?fid=12
and look for single posts
or go to
RCW. Table of contents / Оглавление
http://siberia-miniatures.ru/forum/showthread.php?fid=12&tid=185
where you can find an index and choose specific areas.
For special questions, ask the site owner Cuprum.

[sepoy1857]

For Reds and Whites (both dressed alike except for pagoni/shoulderboards and Cockades) like to use Vallejo Panzer Aces. I use the base colour as the base (of course) and just lighten with the highlight colour...works a treat! Produces great, realistic faded greens/tans. Before that I tried a lot of colour schemes which didn't work for me.

[Patrice]

Shoulderboards depended of the regiments etc and apparently could be any colour. I decided to avoid green or red shoulderboards, and use yellow or blue shoulderboards for my White faction, to distinguish them easily from the Reds.

[Ataman]

In my opinion, if you want a generic White force your safest bet for shoulderboard colour is plain blue. Every White faction, barring maybe the Northern Army when they received British uniforms, had some troops with blue shoulderboards.

[sepoy1857]

Well if you want really generic you can go with Khaki green pagoni - good for WW1 and RCW.

[Wirelizard]

Well if you want really generic you can go with Khaki green pagoni - good for WW1 and RCW.

Yes, keep in mind that shoulderboards were apparently reversible - one "field" side in khaki to match the uniforms, one "dress" side in regimental colours.

I did actually use red pagoni for one set of my White infantry, just because it's a good noticeable colour on the table, and it was apparently the standard colour for rifle regiments. My other unit of Whites have blue pagoni with red trim, which is based very loosely on Cossack uniforms - some of them also have Cossack-style pants in blue with a wide red stripe down the side of the leg.

I use the same base colour of khaki for all my Russians. To visually distinguish between White and Red, the Reds have much darker uniforms, with some shadowing and practically no highlights. The White khaki is highlighted, and for White officers I go up to a final highlight that's nearly white, to really make their uniforms pop. It's a definite Hollywood history approach, with grubby bandit-like Reds and dress-uniformed Whites, but it works on the tabletop!

I don't use the same brand of paint as you, but a while back I did a short writeup on the colours I use for my RCW/WW1 Russians that might give you some useful ideas. I also had some Russians in LPL7 earlier this year, both White Cossacks and some generic Reds.

[sepoy1857]

Yes, keep in mind that shoulderboards were apparently reversible - one "field" side in khaki to match the uniforms, one "dress" side in regimental colours.

Yes I am aware of that, but if you want totally generic looking troops it's not a bad idea rather than seeing a bunch of odd, non historic colours IMO. Just painting all the Rifles with raspberry or red wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[eptingmike]

Thank you all so much for all the suggestions and ideas!
As an aside, how would these figures do
http://www.oldglory25s.com/images/WRUS18.JPG
for sailors in BoB?  To my eye they look pretty good, especially as a great coat covers so much.