Xpress Wagram Blue Acrylic

A blue for uniformed ranks

Wagram Blue is a deeper blue tone without garishness, the kind that suits period tunics, caps and trousers. It is uniforms above all that are the motifs where a paint which creates its own shadow pays off the most, because from a modeling point of view a uniform is primarily a large area of cloth divided by folds.

The drudgery saved on a whole unit

Painting one figure the classic way is manageable. Painting twenty figures of one regiment is a different task: each needs a ground, a shadow into the folds and a lightening on the edges, and all twenty have to look the same. Anyone mixing the shadow blend himself will use it up around halfway through the unit, and the next portion differs from the first. The difference stands out at once in a display case. A ready shade with a built-in shadow cancels that trap and shortens the work on a unit to roughly a third of the strokes.

Where the shade suits

• Period uniforms of infantry and cavalry
• Naval coats and working clothing
• The blue features of flags and standards
• A damped blue on the wooden parts of wagons

Practical conduct of the work

With a unit of figures it is sensible to paint the same part on all the pieces one after another, while the brush is loaded the same. The paint is applied over a light gray or white ground; the gray one gives a more faded, more worn impression, the white one a more saturated tone. Lightening the edges stays optional and in smaller scales the whole thing does without it.

Completing the equipment

A blue tunic usually goes with leather straps, brass buttons and white belts. Those are painted last with opaque paints, because a translucent coat would lose its brightness on them. The order of work that proves itself is to lay the large blue area first and to draw the small accessories out only once it has dried.