Infantry Blue MC752

The blue of the foot regiments

Infantry blue accompanied European and American armies through most of the nineteenth century. It was dark enough for the dirt of a field campaign not to show on it, and at the same time distinctive enough for a commander to recognize his own unit at the far end of a battlefield. It reached modeling practice as a difficult opponent: on the large area of a coat it looks flat, while on a small figure it easily slips into black.

Working with the blue

The key lies in the so-called scale effect. The smaller the figure, the lighter the tone should be, because distance and the scattering of light darken a color optically. On small figures, therefore, lighten the base coat slightly and keep the dark variant only for the folds. On large busts, by contrast, start from the shade as it is and build the highlights by mixing in ocher or light blue; pure white would chill the tone into a deathly one.

Paint properties

This is a line intended for the brush: the pigment is ground fine so that it does not fill the engraved lines, and the surface stays matte once dry. It is thinned with water or with a product from the same manufacturer, and the dropper doses drop by drop, so a mixing ratio can be written down and repeated at any time, which is more useful with larger groups of figures than anything else. For an airbrush, thinning is necessary; for that, however, the manufacturer has a separate line with a different consistency.

Complementary shades

Buff and white tones for the trousers and the straps and harness are usually taken alongside the uniform blue, plus a warm brown for the leather equipment and a metallic color for the buttons and fittings. The trio of blue, buff and brown covers a surprisingly large share of the figures from the period before field camouflage colors came in.