Just an observation

[Ochoin]

Brightly coloured figures look, I guess, a bit "toy soldier-like". I've noticed that the more (for want of a better word) serious collectors use subdued colours. Indeed, a "campaign look" is de rigueur in some quarters.
Interestingly, uniform plates *tend* not to do this, preferring brighter hues.

Being heavily entangled in the ECW at the moment, this has been borne home with many web images of gamer's P&S & Horse regiments in beiges & browns. I'm sure as weeks & months of soldiering unfolded, and the uncertainty of re-supply, uniforms did become dirty, tatty & a bit woebegone. However, I still prefer brighter colours. A carmine red coat more than a scarlet one, a flat green more than a lime green, but still, quite bright.

This is in no way a criticism, just, as the title states, an observation.

domnhall

[cernief]

I would not call it more serious collectors. I have figures dating from the 1970s, and I have almost every set you can imagine, that are ancients, by the decent manufacturers. That I wouldn't call nonserious. I guess what I am balking about is the usage of the word collectors. I'd much rather it be the word painters.

[steve_pickstock]

Brightly coloured figures look, I guess, a bit "toy soldier-like". I've noticed that the more (for want of a better word) serious collectors use subdued colours. Indeed, a "campaign look" is de rigueur in some quarters.
Interestingly, uniform plates *tend* not to do this, preferring brighter hues.

Being heavily entangled in the ECW at the moment, this has been borne home with many web images of gamer's P&S & Horse regiments in beiges & browns. I'm sure as weeks & months of soldiering unfolded, and the uncertainty of re-supply, uniforms did become dirty, tatty & a bit woebegone. However, I still prefer brighter colours. A carmine red coat more than a scarlet one, a flat green more than a lime green, but still, quite bright.

I think it's pretty much down to personal taste. I know a chap who paints everything in flat colours - no washes, no shading, not even a dry-brush, just solid plain colours. It's his personal taste, possibly even how he sees the world. I know people who paint everything to what you could call 'Golden Demon' - competition standard - with exaggerated shading and highlighting, and don't get me started on painting eyes.
I'm no great shakes as a painter, I just aim for something I can put on the table and not be ashamed of. I aim for a presentable figure with appropriate colours so sometimes I'll go with dull colours and sometimes - depending on status or role they'll be brighter.
It's also important to take scale into account. A 28mm figures requires different techniques to a 10mm, 6mm or even 3mm. I tend to go brighter and simpler in the smaller scales.
(Notice that I'm avoiding dyes, that way lies madness)
Any how here is a picture from a muster in the mid 10's (I think), having marched us up the hill on the right, they then marched us along the top and then back down onto the battlefield (yeah they wrote a song about that) but it's a good illustration of what worn colours look like at a distance.

[Michael Robert]

Hello,
colour is a good topic. I think like Steve, it is the colour you like which counts. In reality colour in the past, in particular on clothing, was much more subdued than today. The pigments were of poorer quality in terms of ageing and light-fastness. Bright colours were for the "rich" and "esteemed", for the church or apparatus. You find evidence of bright colours in rich architecture of the ancient, but these are ceramic colours, inorganic pigments (Babylon, Ninive, Egyptian graves, Orthodox and Catholic churches).
Personally, I prefer dull colours for the rabble and bright colours for the officers, knights, Noble. These differences tend to be less marked starting from the 18th century on.
Greetings
Michael