Tartan Paint?

Introduction

The "Black Watch" Tartan

Earlier today, I read the latest update from fellow blogger Clint: Another "Paint Monkey" Day .  One of the things he mentioned was his trepidation at attempting to paint tartan.  Since I was due to write an article of my own today, I thought that I'd share my experiences of attempting to represent such patterns on 28mm models.

What is "Tartan"?

At its simplest, "tartan" is the name for a pattern of coloured horizontal and vertical stripes.  It's commonly associated with Scotland and especially with Highland clothing such as kilts, though the patterns can occur on almost anything (taxis, rugs, tins of shortbread...).  North Americans often call tartan "plaid", though in fact that's really the name of a particular type of Scottish cloak rather than the pattern on the cloth.

There's a considerable amount of folklore around Scottish tartans (such as "4 colours for commoners, 5 for lords and 6 for royalty"), but the reality is that most of this is a modern invention.  Whilst patterned cloths have been used in Scotland and elsewhere for a very long time, the modern notion of tartan and the association of each pattern with a particular clan probably only dates back a couple of hundred years or so.

As I expect that a large number of my readers will be wargamers, tartan is important mainly when it is part of a military uniform.  Typically (but not always) that will be for a Scottish regiment, probably some time between the Napoleonic wars and the end of the Victorian/colonial period.

Painting Tartan

Some of my Dark Age Scots, wearing imaginary "tartan" patterned tunics or plaids

There are several problems with trying to paint a full tartan on a 28mm model.  The pattern will be very fine and would require an immensely steady hand and fine brush, plus a large number of different colours (in tartan cloth, the shade changes where a horizontal and a vertical stripe of the same colour meet).  This would try the patience of a saint and in any case the effect would probably not be visible.

Instead, I have a simple 4-stage recipe that gives an approximation of tartan.  It's good enough for me, anyhow; see what you think...

Step 1

Block fill the area with the predominant colour of the pattern.  For the Black Watch tartan that is illustrated above, that's a dark blue shade.

Step 2

Paint horizontal and vertical lines of the pattern's secondary colour.  These shouldn't be the finest lines you can manage (those are reserved for step 4!), but the tartan will look more realistic if they are reasonably narrow.

Step 3

Paint the intersections of the lines with a different shade of the same colour.  Depending on the tartan, this might be lighter (as shown here), or it might be darker.  If you can paint these intersections as squares then so much the better, though roundish blobs will still work.

Step 4

Paint lines of a highlight colour both horizontally and vertically in the gaps between the earlier, slightly broader lines.  Note that for my "not Black Watch" tartan I have omitted the red highlight altogether and have only shown a single white line instead of a double one.  It's all about giving the impression of the pattern rather than being a perfect reproduction!

Conclusion

Another "tartan" with quite a coarse pattern.  I'm not as good at fine lines as I might wish!

All the normal rules of painting miniatures still apply when attempting tartan, of course.  A thin wash is good for adding some shadows, for example.  Obviously you can attempt a much more complex scheme than my recipe if you feel capable of it, but the 4-step method works for me.

There's just one thing that I can't help you with.  Painting tartan, or indeed any pattern, is straightforward when done onto a flat surface.  However you'll just have to figure out how to cope with the folds and creases in the model's costume for yourself!