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Post by bruce on Oct 23, 2018 3:33:11 GMT
Any thoughts on painting drums? White drum heads? Dirty white? Brown/tan wooden looking drums? Are there any specific colors for individual countries or units? Bruce
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Post by tim on Oct 24, 2018 12:47:45 GMT
Drum heads, cream (natural hide tanned and stretched) French drums brass body, blue rims and white cords. Russian drums, brass body, rims green and white dogtooth pattern. Cords white. British drums, vary a bit but mainly body in facing colour, rims blue or red, regimental arms painted on body and white cords.
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Post by bruce on Oct 24, 2018 18:41:39 GMT
Thanks Tim! Very helpful. Would never have thought of brass. I have sadly neglected my drummers and a look at Google illustrations did not reveal any type of widely held standards that I could see.
Some of H&Rs newer castings have drummers noticeably shorter than the flag bearers. However, per Col. Elting, it took a full size man to carry and play the fairly heavy and awkward drums while keeping up with the officers - drums were the walkie-talkies of their time. Drummer boys did not appear until the later stages of the war when France was low on manpower and began using 13 & 14 year old drummers. Elting also notes that drummer uniform color was often at the whim of the regimental commander. As long at the color contrasted with the regiment's and could be easily spotted on the field, colonels could indulge their own fashion sense.
When I was very young and began getting sets of plastic soldiers for play, I never wanted drummers. I only wanted guys with guns. Apparently I still need to correct this tendency! Bruce
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Post by profjohn on Oct 28, 2018 20:14:19 GMT
I think Austrian and Prussian drums also brass with an alternating black and yellow rhomboid design on the rim (not universal) for Austrians and a red and white dog tooth for Prussians - sometimes the red on top sometimes the white plus some regiments seem to have had the Austrian-style rhombi in red and white. I always put a dot of brown just where the sticks meet the drum to represent the wear on the skin you see on old drums.
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Post by profjohn on Oct 28, 2018 20:41:35 GMT
It just occurred to me ..... drumsticks.... As far as I know most nations kept the natural wood colour but the Prussians painted them black. You probably know that some Prussian regiments had white flagstaffs and some black and I wondered if drumsticks were painted to match. But it seems not.
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Post by profjohn on Oct 29, 2018 0:08:11 GMT
This query nagged at me! A little more research has revealed that Russian drumsticks were painted yellow, white or black depending on the colour of the regimental flagstaffs and the matching NCO halberd staffs. This was new to me - I had thought it was only the Prussians who painted flagstaffs to differentiate regiments.
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Post by tim on Oct 29, 2018 6:25:40 GMT
Pretty good page on Russian flags here which mentions the coloured flag staff system:
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Post by Sho on Oct 29, 2018 10:18:44 GMT
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Post by bruce on Oct 29, 2018 17:17:55 GMT
Fascinating stuff! I am getting ready to touch up all my drummers, had never learned about the Prussian flag staffs, must revisit them as well. H&R figs are the original mass effect figs, do not have much detail. Although the castings have become more detailed and paint friendly, they are not in the same category as Adler. There are no drumsticks.
So...I try to pick out some common distinguishing marks for each nation or branch of service, often just one or two, to include. Often helmet or shako badges, cross belts, or the tin water battles on some Russian packs for example. Drum colors can work too.
Thanks for the flags and fanions guys. The Russians certainly went wild with their colors! Bruce
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