The 42nd, the forty-twa or just the Black Watch

There are some regiments that just have to be done.  And since the old 42nd has always been my home regiment, it's a must.

Here's the progress to date. After the undercoat and the red and then the tidying up of the straps, I moved on to the kilts. This is a technique I've used for years to get a good kilt effect and it's not too much work.  First the kilts are painted a basic dark-ish blue, but not too dark.

Then a dark-ish green overstripe is painted - two horizontal and several vertical, trying to get the stripes as even in width as I can. This gives a good basis for the government tartan. I always avoid a central front stripe because I want the blue squares to be the central focus on the kilt.     

Then a slightly tricky bit is to paint a thin line of a black wash on the outside of the green stripes. This is to give the impression of a darker green line, and not a black line. 

And that's pretty much the kilts done. I could add a slightly darker wash to the stripe areas at the sides of the blue, but since these are 18mm figures and most likely to be seen from 3 feet or more away, I'll leave them as they are. 

Of course, it was at this point I remembered that Black Watch pipers wore the Royal Stewart tartan. I wondered if I should re-do the drummer's kilt as a colour contrast. Information on the tartan worn by drummers is uncertain, so I decided to leave the drummer in the government tartan. If anyone says different, I'll just claim that this is the drummer's campaign service kilt. 

I then added the white on the belts and as an undercoat for the pattern on the socks and the dicing on the bonnet.  They're starting to look the part.  I've still to add the stripes on the flank company shoulder rolls, but that can wait. 
    

Now the red dicing effect on the stockings. I had a bit of trouble figuring out the sculpt lines on the models, but I eventually figured that the lines in the middle were the garter.  So I went on that basis. Any paint overspill will be corrected later when I do the gaiters.

And finally the dicing on the bonnets. A horizontal red line first, just to make sure it's even, then the vertical lines. I don't think I'll add any dots where the lines cross as they are starting to look quite good - or at least they are to my eye.      

Next will be the muskets, gaiters and anything else I've forgotten, and then I'll move on to dark greys for the bonnet feathers.  More later.