British uniforms in the 2nd Afghan war

[sunspear]

I really want to buy some of the Perrys new British Afghan infantry troops. But to be honest I don't have a lot of knowledge of the war. I have googled some images and I have seen the khaki uniforms and the blue uniforms and sometimes a mix of both. The Perrys box has them in the khaki. This will honestly be a modeling project for me, more than a gaming thing unfortunately but I love the models and I would like to get some paint on them. Any help from those more knowledgeable would be greatly appreciated.

[vodkafan]

There are always Osprey Men at Arms books. I find them pretty cheap but well worth the small outlay. For instance MAA 201 has 2 pages of plates of  British troops on NW Frontier and Indian service  in the khaki . There is probably at least one title special for the Afghan Wars too.

[guitarheroandy]

Most British troops wore khaki in this conflict although they sometimes retained the home service trousers. Puttees seem to have been a variety of colours, khaki, brown, black, blue, depending on lots of things - branch of service, regiment, rank, etc. There are several other threads on here about it.
I painted my Brits' puttees all khaki as it makes the troops useable for other NWF conflict in later years too. 

[Steelwraith]

Weren't a lot of the khakis worn made locally? I was given to understand it was also common to use tea to dye their sun helmets so they wouldn't be so starkly white. If this is so, the uniform would be rather not so uniform.

[Plynkes]

Weren't a lot of the khakis worn made locally? I was given to understand it was also common to use tea to dye their sun helmets so they wouldn't be so starkly white. If this is so, the uniform would be rather not so uniform.

Staining the white helmets was common in South Africa, for instance in the Zulu War. In Afghanistan however the troops mostly had khaki helmet covers, which is what the Perry figures are depicted as wearing.

[Mad Guru]

Lots of useful replies above!  Here are 2 links to some additional info on the same topic, one from here at LAF, the other from over at TMP, both of which include visual reference:

TMP Link re: "Second Afghan War British uniforms" -- http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=352208

LAF Link re: "British/Indian Second Afghan War uniforms" -- http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=23446.0