What paint do you recommend for Napoleonic french infantry blue jackets? I painted my first units with Vallejo medium blue. Although the shade looks about right to me, the finish is too glossy.
I always give my figures a couple of coats of varnish, one gloss for protection and one matt to give the right finish. Currently I'm favouring brush on varnish but sprays can be very quick.
So if the shade of blue looks right to you - I'd just look to apply at least a coat of matt varnish over this.
The blue of French jackets was quite dark. I use Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue 70-899, dry brushed with Vallejo Prussian Blue 70-965 and highlighted with Vallejo Flat Blue 70-962. I use this for all dark blue Napoleonic uniforms, Prussian, British and French.
As John Cook says, the blue of Napoleonic French jackets was very dark. For example, here's a portrait by Jacques Louis David of the man himself in his blue uniform. The artist was a contemporary of Napoleon so would have seen the real thing first hand.
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46114.html
I no longer have a Napoleonic collection but would be tempted by Dark Prussian Blue which I use for my 10mm Prussian SYW, 10mm American AWI Continentals and 15mm Union ACW as my "go to" shade. However, although glossing followed by a matt varnish coat, I sometimes feel in certain light conditions there is a slight 'sheen' to my 15mm figures so have been looking at Vallejo Game Colour Night Blue and Imperial Blue lately, wondering if these might also be suitable shade wise (but without the 'sheen').
Interesting. I have found that Vallejo paints and flat varnishes sometimes have a slight sheen to them. It seems to vary from bottle to bottle. It might be that I'm not mixing them enough. Not sure. I have stopped bothering with a gloss varnish undercoat as it seem to make little or no difference to the durability of the finish. I just apply two coats of matt by brush. I tend to avoid spray varnishes for all kinds of reasons that are well enough known I think.
Thanks for those answers, I will invest in some matt varnish and some darker shades of blue.
You can always claim your first units' jackets have faded ;)
At this scale, I feel the figures benefit from a bit of brightness, so that they stand out, but that is probably a fault of mine as I like to paint the figure rather than 'the unit'. I use Prussian blue and then after the wash either a highlight of Royal Blue (a bit too bright) or a mix of the Prussian blue with a TAD of ivory added, which you can take to your own desire of lightness. If too light, it can look a bit cartoony, but I am OK with that.
I too prefer a bighter shade than being historically accurate, so that the figures stand out more when on the table. Otherwise they can look too dark to me.
I should have also said that before highlighting I give my figures a wash in Vallejo Sepia Shade 73-200, thinned to about 50/50 with water. This fills in all the nooks and crannies and gives the figure a dusty, dirty appearance which I like, particularly for my Peninsular project. I don't like the toy-soldier parade-ground finish that some people prefer and I also tend to remove plumes, for the infantry anyway.