Are you painting an officer or soldier/NCO? Different shades of red apply: officers cloth tended to be scarlet and was of better quality. Other ranks clothing was of cheaper quality and so the shade could vary a lot, from dark red to an almost brick red.

This may read a little stupid but unless anybody was actually there it would be hard to really says, any surviving uniforms may be not as it was 200 years ago, so you can only do what illustrations and paintings portray.



This would be a good a place as any to start from.

Other than that as Richard wrote.

I would go with what Bablefish has said

Am just painting a bust of a Coldstream Guards private at Waterloo, by Stormtroopers. Have primed with Vallejo grey primer then gave the whole thing (except the face) a drybrush with thinned down black ink to pick out the lines and shadows. Then blocked in the red jacket with 3 coats of thinned down Vallejo dark red (946) as a base coat, which looks quite dull and subdued. Will then cover with thinned vermillion (947) to add a little brightness, with highlights produced by adding a little (I stress a little) yellow and the tiniest touch of white to the vermillion. Don't overdo the white as everything will just turn pink. Shade with the addition of a little deep green (970) to the vermillion. This works for me, experiment with the nuances before applying to the figure. Same general approach should apply when painting an officer's scarlet. Subtlety of colour transition is the watchword as I've found that reds can easily turn to something sludgy if you're not careful.

Have fun.

I second what Babelfish, Malc, and Richard have said.

Some Pictures I took during a visit to the Belgian Army Museum at Brussels - illustrating the difference in the dye and qualitity of material between Officer`s uniforms and rank and file that had an effect on the color of the tunic.

Malc, you do yourself a disservice as you are 100% spot on. The uniforms were hand made in what would almost be considered a cottage industry by today's standards. The fabrics and dyes are not like those we enjoy today. Nowhere near as durable for a start, not as consistent either. Plus throw in 200 years of exposure to daylight and.... they all deteriorate.

I would suggest, start with a darker shade that you otherwise would, or the red will start to look washed out. Start off darker still for officers. I hope this makes sense.

Second that - if I remember the technique of Bill Horan correctly he told that the red tones of British uniforms are best highlighted by mixing flesh tones into the red. For extreme highlights I added in one case small amounts of buff tones into the red what worked well but it was not for a British uniform.