Hi - painting a number of Napoleonic Prussian units using speed/express type paints. Bought a number of different blues at the weekend but none have turned out what I would consider a suitable colour - does anyone have a recommendation?
Thanks in anticipation
Speaking as a lazy painter (in as much as I hate painting) I would remind you that the dyes of the period were variable, and probably not fast.
Go with dark blue. That's it. As long as there is little variation within a battalion you are probably right.
I know nothing about speed/express type paints. I use Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue highlighted with Vallejo Prussian Blue for all dark blue Napoleonic uniforms. One of the reasons dark blue was popular was becasue it was relatively stable.
I've got the GW Dark Blue contrast (can't recall the silly GW name) and it seems much too dark for Prussian Blue.
I have found that the Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue is a good colour, and can be thinned nicely to give the effect of a contrast style paint. Or as John says can be highlighted easily - a tiny amount of white added to it works as well.
I am currently using Contrast Ultramarines on my 1870 Prussians. This gives a suitably dark enough blue without it looking almost black. Finding a colour you are happy with is a real case of pot luck. Nobody that I know of makes Cornflower blue, which is a pain if you are painting a lot of mid/late C19th armies. However, as chance would have it, I stumbled across Green Stuff World's Ultramar - much lighter than the above mentioned Contrast paint - which makes for an excellent single coat Bavarian blue of the period, which was actually darker than the colour often depicted in uniform books.
This is Green Stuff ultrama on some 1866 Bavarians. Compare to the command group where I mixed different colours to try and get a satisfactory Bavarian Blue.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53186594420_f6cf2261b5.jpg)
I am now going to try Contrast Celenium Blue to see how that works on a pure white undercoat.
I would suggest an experiment along the lines of:
Undercoat black
Dry brush white
Wash with a contrast blue
Add highlights if necessary with a lighter but darkish blue
Jim