Elephants

[OldenBUA]

From my personal observation, it has long been established that there are two camps when it comes to painting elephants. The Browns and the Greys. Even a trip to the local zoo by my fellow wargamers never decided the issue over here.

As evidenced by the recent post on his Siamese army, Mad Lemmy is obviously in the Brown camp, but well, he's mad you see?

So, which camp do you belong to?

[Ithoriel]

Grey as a mouse, Big as a house

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Voted for 3, except that the elefants at Kursk were plain dark yellow 

[Raider4]

Voted for 3, except that the elefants at Kursk were plain dark yellow 

And they were still Ferdinands, weren't they?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

My roman elephants are grey, so no.
It depends where they are from.
Elephants are pink, they are just dyed by the colour of the mud they roll in to keep bugs off.

I researched Thai elephants, and used photos from Thai elephant sanctuaries, plus our honeymoon photos of Sri Lankan nellies, so I went for a brown/grey base coat, some very dark grey, with flesh highlights and toes.

Except the royal 'White Elephant which are pinker, but not albino.

[Raider4]

Elephants are pink . . .

Only towards the end of the evening!

[Orcs]

I do not have any Elephant armies that I have painted. I do own some 6mm Elephants in an Indian army and a Ferdinand on my 20mm ww2.

I have a Revel acrylic  colour called Mouse Grey No 47 and It does seem to have a brownish tinge to it. Ironically given the Elephants reputed dislike of mice I would probably use this colour 

[OldenBUA]

OK, that's what you get for just going by memory. Fixed the ww2 reference for you all.

As to 'mad' Lemmey's extensive answer: I meant no offence by my remarks, and your rendition certainly does them justice. It's just that I remembered the (sometimes heated) discussions on the subject from all those years ago. For the record, in the DBM days, I had Ghaznavids and Seleucids, both with elephants. And also Swiss, with a single one. You know, bred from the ones abandoned during Hannibal's foray in the Alps. Well, that's my story anyway and I stick to that.

[steve_holmes_11]

Grey - darken than you imagine, with characteristic fade to pink and "freckles" on lower ears and upper trunk.

[steve_holmes_11]

OK, that's what you get for just going by memory. Fixed the ww2 reference for you all.

As to 'mad' Lemmey's extensive answer: I meant no offence by my remarks, and your rendition certainly does them justice. It's just that I remembered the (sometimes heated) discussions on the subject from all those years ago. For the record, in the DBM days, I had Ghaznavids and Seleucids, both with elephants. And also Swiss, with a single one. You know, bred from the ones abandoned during Hannibal's foray in the Alps. Well, that's my story anyway and I stick to that.

There was this film, with Oliver Reed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Brooks

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

And they were still Ferdinands, weren't they?

Both I think 

[paulr]

Greyish Brown

Pierre the Shy and I know the Military Historian for Sir Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old he was given a t-shirt by the colourists working on the film

Brownish Green
Greenish Brown

His two most common answers when asked what colour anything should be, this was usually followed by a long discussion on the actual colour

[Raider4]

Grey - darken than you imagine, with characteristic fade to pink and "freckles" on lower ears and upper trunk.

Wild elephants appear brown because they wallow in mud and cover themselves in dirt to protect their skin.

[Raider4]

Both I think 

My understanding is the 40-odd survivors of Kursk were upgraded with a cupola and a bow machine gun, and were then renamed as Elefant.

[O Dinas Powys]

Depends on the species!

Asiatic elephants do this:

Grey - darken than you imagine, with characteristic fade to pink and "freckles" on lower ears and upper trunk.

Neither species of African elephants do!

Mammoth are orange-brown and hairy