Hi, any suggestions for best colours for ACW Confederates. I'm particularly perplexed by butternut, though being colour blind doesn't help!

Cheers.

i use the Foundry Triad paint sets.

Could I suggest you try this:

Adolphus Confederate Uniforms offers Frederick R. Adolphus' scholarly research, articles, and his book Imported Confederate Uniforms of Peter Tait & Co...as well as large images with construction detail. - Contact Us

 Click on the headings New Research and Free Article Downloads  for a wealth of information, particularly the three articles from the ACW Gamer magazine near the bottom of the free downloads menu.

Thanks very much chaps, much appreciated.

As many modern US articles now make apparent, many existing grey uniforms have been affected by light over the years and have faded to a pale brownish colour. This gave the impression that the majority of ordinary soldiers wore butternut coloured uniforms, which is not the case. Secondly, butternut uniforms were produced but mostly in the early part of the war. This was because the Confederate commissary had not got up to full steam and requested that soldiers' families provide them with uniforms  where the state did not have enough to go round. The rural population used readily available cheap butternut dye to colour these uniforms. By 1863 the state and Confederate suppliers were much better organised with several main supply depots across the Confederacy plus more imported uniforms getting through the blockade. Nevetheless, there was no standard grey colour - the tone varying from almost white to dark bluish grey depending on which depot had produced the uniform. Many of the imported uniform items were of the bluish grey variety (which led to friendly fire incidents). Similarly the regulation light blue trousers were rather uncommon. Many were infact captured Union trousers, and these were eventually ordered to be redyed or bleached before wearing, again owing to friendly fire incidents. This is not to say that home made uniforms and butternut disappeared entirely. Rather they became less common as the war progressed (contrary to the oft pedalled myth that the Confederate army of 1864/5 was just a bunch of ragamuffins).

This is also true of the Union armies. No two uniform manufacturers used exactly the same tone of blue, so a wargame army with every Union soldier dressed in a jacket painted from the same paint pot will not look entirely accurate (although it does look good on the tabletop).

I like yor last post dourpuritan. Exactly to the point.

Stone Mountain miniatures has great paint called Colors.  They are pretty big bottles and cover really well.   I use them for 15mm figures and would use them and will use them for 6mm figures for sure.   But they are inexpensive and have lots of colors including butternut and light butternut!