Painting footplate crews

[Silverstreak]

Is there a paint out there which is as near a match as possible fo replicating the washed out blue colour of the overalls and tunics that footplate crews wore back in steam days

 

Or if a mixture is required whats paints are needed.

 

I have a few O gauge locos that require footplate crews which I sourced but they require painting

 

Regards

Bob

[N15class]

I always paint figures by spraying them all over black, then dry brushing the colours on, The black then gives you your shadows and textures. I think you will have to just mix and match to get the colour you reguire. With the dry brushing method, you can get a lot of various shades of one colour on the figure.

[Rhys]

I always paint figures by spraying them all over black, then dry brushing the colours on, The black then gives you your shadows and textures. I think you will have to just mix and match to get the colour you reguire. With the dry brushing method, you can get a lot of various shades of one colour on the figure.

 

I have found using a black undercoat is a bit dark. I use a gray undercoat, then build the colours up from dark to light with some drybrushing. Final coat is a wash of Tamiya X19 smoke (a 'transparent' colour) diluted 50% with water and a tiny drop of detergent, which flows into the folds and crevases. Its a much more subtle effect which I think would be far better suited to O scale.

[Chris Chewter]

Its a shame access to the old RM Web has gone missing, as there was a great thread with photos about footplate crew uniforms.

 

The first question is which era are you modelling. Anything pre BR you'd need to ask someone else, however with the BR period, any shade of blue from Oxford blue through to light sky blue is acceptable. The reason for this is the uniforms were not colour fast! Whilst having no connection with Geoff Holland from Footplate Equipment, his overalls page gives a good example of the differing shades of blue to be found!

 

http://www.footplateequipment.co.uk/footplateclothing.shtml

 

Travel to any preservation railway, you will find some crews who are wearing original "blues" from the BR era, which are faded to a pale, almost white shade. (I was on with a driver the other weekend with a very pale set!) The modern uniforms available don't appear to fade as quickly.

 

I do recall hearing somewhere about crew bleaching their "blues" because they were too dark. There was a idea that the lighter the shade, the more experienced you were, because they'd been through the wash so many times!

[N15class]

I have found using a black undercoat is a bit dark. I use a gray undercoat, then build the colours up from dark to light with some drybrushing. Final coat is a wash of Tamiya X19 smoke (a 'transparent' colour) diluted 50% with water and a tiny drop of detergent, which flows into the folds and crevases. Its a much more subtle effect which I think would be far better suited to O scale.

 

Sound like an idea I might well give it a go.

[Silverstreak]

Many thanks fellas for the replies all very useful. I take it that there is no exact shade of paint available Its just a matter of mixing certain shades - Any particular recommended coloured paint /shade / name/ maker would be great to know. I appreciate that uniform colour can vary from Dark blue for newish issued to light washed out grey /blue for older overalls. Ive never really had to do figures before so this is a new venture for me