Painting ECW artillery, help please.

[Last Hussar]

What do I paint ECW artillery? Bare wood, did they paint, was it down to the artillery commanders whim?

[Leman]

Good question. the only book I have on this topic is the Osprey New Vanguard 108 on Civil War artillery, which, although it goes into all sorts of detail, does not mention painting gun carriages. However, the colour illustrations show a mixture of unpainted and painted carriages. The artist has generally gone for light red, orange and yellow. I do know that early in the previous century most gun carriages were painted black, red and yellow, including in combination. Logically it makes sense to paint guns to prevent rot and rust.

[Zippee]

Yeah,
don't think there's any direct evidence but there was a very good reason to paint gun carriages, so we can presume they were painted. The other option would be heavy varnich but paint is cheaper and easier.

I went for a deep dull red

ART 01 - Light Cannon - 02 by Zippee Jerred, on Flickr

which looks reasonable, doesn't glare or jump out but still gives a decent contrast to the black metal strapping on wheels and carriage.

[Terry37]

I am certainly no expert on this subject and like others am always interested  if for no other reason that colorful gun carriages look pretty cool on he battlefield. That said, most of my research seems to point toward the carriage being tarred - probably a dark-ish brown color, or oiled, a lighter color, maybe an ocher shade. Metal parts were probably either oiled or painted, which black being, I am guessing, the most prominent color.

I have read that the gun carriages in the Muscovite army of the period were painted red, but no mention of the metal fittings. I also suspect the red was not a bright shade, but a darker shade of red.

Treating the wood and the metal was not done for decoration, but to preserve them in the weather conditions.

That's all I am aware of on the subject.

Terry

[nigel drury]

Ships timbers of the period were generally varnished, which tended to yellow over time.