Colour of boots?

[hammurabi70]

Beyond that, gloves and boots are the most debated item of modern kit and swapping items with Allied forces is a frequent thing .. everyone else has been stuff.

Many thanks for the interesting post.  My WWII armies have traditionally always been issued with brown boots, which merge more easily into the basing surface colour! However, should I be thinking in terms of black boots?  The Soviet KIRZA boot shown in wiki is black.

[John Cook]

British and German leather boots were black, but use a dark charcoal grey paint, such as Vallejo's grey-black, as black is much too stark.  The same goes for tyres.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Correct, British would be shiny

[hammurabi70]

Very helpful; shiny black boots because of polish or natural lacquer?  My teenage preference for gloss black paint for everything would seem to be vindicated!  Discovering gun-metal paint and opting for brown might not have been so helpful after all.  Good point about the tyres, which I normally did in black too.  Gun metal has always been a tricky point because of the widespread use of wood in making gunstocks but I felt that it gave the right image, even if not technically correct, to do all the weapons accordingly.

[John Cook]

Only shiny in barracks or on leave.  In my own late 20th century experience ('71 to '93) boots became dull very quickly 'in the field'.  The leather gets wet and scuffed, such that no amount of polish can make them shine.  We also used neatsfoot oil in an attempt to waterproof them which makes it impossible to shine.  You can certainly keep them clean but not shiny.  What squaddies boots were like during WW2 I'm less sure about but I doubt it was much different.  I remember my father telling me that in North Africa soldiers' boots lost all their colour with wear and tear, and lack of polish, and were almost white, and that on other occasions engine oil, in the absence of anything else, was used to keep them waterproof. 
The metal of modern military weapons is quite far from the gunmetal colour that comes out of bottles.  It is less metallic and much darker, though edges will show wear and the natural metal will show.  It 10mm, do you really want to go that far with detailing?  I use 50/50 mix of Vallejo grey-black and gunmetal for small arms.  I was wondering, how do you finish your figures?  Do you give them a dark wash and then dry brush to highlight?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I use black for weapons. Particularly the Falklands stuff, SLR's by that stage had black plastic furniture, and the barrels always were black. Boots - you were supposed clean them once a day.

[John Cook]

I don't game beyond 1941 at the moment and anything 'Cold War Era' is coals to Newcastle stuff to be honest, though I've always been tempted to do a Dhofar War project.  Yes, you are right, most British, and US, small arms of that era had black furniture.   

[Techno]

I use black for weapons. Particularly the Falklands stuff, SLR's by that stage had black plastic furniture, and the barrels always were black. Boots - you were supposed clean them once a day.

Be really nice to see some piccies.......But we never,ever will.

[Orcs]

I use black with a dry brush of gun metal for small arms  that were mostly metallic - MGS etc. For rifles, they normally end up a shade of brown. I do not normally pick out the barrel. I have done, but you cannot see it on the table top unless you use an unrealistic bright steel colour.

[Last Hussar]

What's that got to do with boots? 

[John Cook]

What's that got to do with boots? 

You need to read the whole thread.  Gunmetal for weapons was brought up.

[FierceKitty]

Gunmetal for weapons was brought up.

Might still be wise to have a stomach pump too.

[fsn]

I thought that British officers in WWII wore brown boots, and everyone else wore black.

I seem to think there was an episode of Dad's Army that mentioned this. (So it must be true.)

[Last Hussar]

You need to read the whole thread.  Gunmetal for weapons was brought up.

Stop defending Orcs, its against Mess rules.

[John Cook]

I thought that British officers in WWII wore brown boots, and everyone else wore black.

I seem to think there was an episode of Dad's Army that mentioned this. (So it must be true.)

Yes, British officers bought their own uniforms and their boots were brown, similar in pattern to the black ammunition boots of other ranks but lacking hob nails.  I would be unsurprised if on service they wore the same kits as their men though.  Officers still wear brown shoes on formal occasions.  Desert boots were also 'fashionable' in N Africa.