Acrylics Vallejo White vs Off White

[Gary D]

Hi guys and gals. I am about to start painting Mr. Corry's Sgt. Masterson figure and and am a bit stumped on painting his trousers. They should be white, and we all know not to paint anything pure white or you can't highlight etc. I was wondering if I should mix vallejo model color white with flesh, or paint them with vallejo off white. I'll be using oils with tit. white as the highlight and paynes grey as the shadow.
As the figure is set in France, I thought a "cool" effect would be better (hence the paynes grey).

Am I on the right track or is there a better mix for Sgt. Masterson's trousers?

Thanks,

Gary

 

[Einion]

I was wondering if I should mix vallejo model color white with flesh, or paint them with vallejo off white.

VMC Off White is just white paint mixed with a bit of something else to tint it slightly. No reason you can't do the same yourself for a slightly different colour if you like.

Einion

 

[Gary D]

Thanks Einion. I actually have both colours. I guess I could have worded my question a little differently. Would it be better to airbrush a mix of white with flesh, or use Off White airbrushed as the base colour, or is there a better method/colour mix I should be using.

Thanks

Gary

 

[Einion]

I think it depends on the result you're looking for. Either colour could work perfectly well as a basecoat, might not even make that much difference.

BTW, Payne's Grey used by itself for shadowing will make this look very blue as it's usually just a mix of black and French Ultramarine (so basically it's a very very dark blue).

Einion

 

[PhilinYuma]

Hi, Gary. Like Enion says. My guess, though, is that this figure is a "one off" for you, rather than part of a Peninsula War collection, so the following may help:
The Battle of Barrosa took place on the 5th of March, 1811, on route to Cadiz, which is on the southern tip of Spain, only about 50 miles from Tripoli in N. Africa. This is a hot, dry area, with 300 sunny days/year (only a few fewer than my own Yuma AZ!) and in March, the temperature was around 20C (70F). We also know that the ground was so dry that guns could be transported off road. The soil was sandy and the vegetation scrub.
I just dug out my copy of this figure, which is based on the pretty accurate picture by Dighton, and things seem to be pretty straightforward. The facings are moss green but had probably faded a bit. The sergeant's stripes would have been mounted on a patch of this color.
The troops had been marching for 16 hours before the battle commenced, so expect the sergeant to be pretty grimy and his pants to have all sorts of yellow ochre in them. Also, if you are up for it, his "mosquito" trousers notoriously shed their buttons, so feel free to remove a few. Finally, and perhaps this is obvious, his sergeants's sash should be of crimson worsted and make a contrast to the faded scarlet of the jacket.
I hope that this may be of some help. There are a number of books that cover Barrosa as part of the Albuera story, and one of the best of these, I think, is Ian Fletcher, Bloody Albuera The 1811 Campaign in the Peninsula: 2000, Ramsbury Wiltshire.

 

[Gary D]

Thanks very much Phillip!!!! Tons of useful information there I will definitely use! I'll weather him accordingly.

Gary