Uniform
The Watch uniform isn’t really described anywhere in the books other than helmet, breastplate, knee breeches and boots with nothing on colours; although Vimes does comment in one book that he preferred a uniform you could lurk in. At the start of the series the equipment was old and rusty and fitted where it touched. The ‘official’ Paul Kidby illustrations are a bit drab and plain while the original novel illustrator Josh Kirby used gold metal and red and white.
The illustration of Nobby in the Peeled Nuts, a historical re-enactment society, is a very over the top Elizabethan style with multi-slashed clothes, enormous ruff and a multitude of feathers which is partly why the toned-down Empire style was chosen to be the base for this army.
For colours we wanted to honour the Kirby red and white but keep it lurkable. While looking for a new paint supplier over the past months I found a range by Humbrol intended for model railways. They had a good selection of colours but many had a gloss finish and were not clearly marked as such; I did find matt versions of a dark red, fawn and a mid-blue which have been used. Good paints but need to be stirred rather than shaken to mix.
To start our next batch of figures we have:-
Lance-Constable Slapper
His claim to fame is that he was one of the men sent to take over from the Palace Guard after an assassination attempt was made on the Patrician. Being a typical Watchman he has ‘acquired’ a non-rusty helmet and the longer spear of a replaced Palace guardsman.
