Verlinden 120mm Napoleonic Guard Grenadier Paint Colors

Thanks again.  That is a very interesting history on the color. I will see what I come up with.  I'll try mixing the Humbrol Midnight Blue with 30% white as the article suggests,

Actually I would of suggested either Andrea or Vallejo, but these are acrylics and require a different painting technique.   On Andrea's web site their figures are provided with a link to paint colours.   The blue they suggest is Prussian Blue while the red is just Basic Red.

I have found though the name of the blue dye Napoleon used for his soldiers - woad.  

In the above comparison pic, the right hand holds indigo, while the other has the woad.

Still though, when you do an image search on this colour, you will get some variety.  The woad dye wasn't colourfast, so it would fade.  Uniforms were usually replaced yearly, but being elite troops that the grenadiers were, perhaps even more often?  An interesting read here:  http://www.miniatures.de/preussisch-blau.html  

All being said, whatever variance you come up with, your preference of shade is up to you.

regards,

Jack

Very helpful, thank you.  I didn't mean to limit to just two paint brands, those were the two I happened to be looking at at the time.  I am open to other suggestions if you have them.  When figure painting, I prefer enamels over acrylics due to the drying time and ability to blend layers.  I don't have much experience with oils so I'm a little reluctant to go there.

Napoleonics ... quite a colourful era,  but for me it has been a while since delving in this area.

Midnight blue from Humbrol would be my pick if limited to those two paint brands.  It could be darker, maybe a black primer underneath where the blue will go would help?  The few books I have only occasionally refer to it as royal blue.  

The colours of the uniform were pretty much meant to represent the tricolour flag.  Pants could be either white or offwhite for summer.  Gaiters  were issued in three colours: white for summer parade, black for winter, gray for long marches.

Period paintings are also interesting sources of reference:

HTH

regards,

Jack

The Osprey Men At Arms series has several references concerning the Guard.  All of them have color plates.  www.google.com/search