WWI Guards Division Forum

Gents,
As most of you know, the correct color Blanco from WWI is not available. This past weekend, I spoke with Rich Moncrief of the CEF Highlanders and he too has been trying to address the issue. He has found that Behr "Highland Isle" paint is the correct color and when applied with 1/4 paint and 3/4 water it gives the correct appearance of blanco.

According to "To Hell and Back with the Guards" the Guards used a lot of Blanco, so I believe having our webbing Blancoed is better than not doing it.

I am considering trying it. Any thoughts?


Regards,

Jim

I think that is a great idea. It looked good on sgt moncrief's gear so it should be ok for you guy's gear.

Bomber Macgregor

Sir James,

Don't do it. Moncrief's mixture sounds plausable but is it worth messing up some PO-8 gear in an experiment?

Get a hold of Lee Trolan (we have his email) and find out where he got his tube of blanco toothpaste from. I'm sure there's someplace out there that is selling the stuff.

Also, stay away from Jerry Lee's round disc of soap. I tried it and it didn't work.

Corporal Walsh

Back when I first started doing Guards we found this stuff called Quippy. It was #103 Color and came in a shoe polish tin. It worked really well, I know that it is still available on the other side of the pond.
Horton

I actually still have some of that in a shoe polish tin, but have not been able to find anymore. I bought mine from Tim Kuntz (aka Shackelton) He said he bought the last bit he could find in India.

Do you have any idea where we could find some overseas?

As for the paint, I an planning on practicing on some spare post WWII webbing that I have. Once I fine tune it and compare it to some gear that I have with the correct Blanco on it, then I will consider doing it to my P08 Gear.

Jim

If I recall I think it was being sold by the guy in England who is make the Slade Wallace gear.

Over on the WW2 reenactors board Jerry at WPG mentioned a shoe cream, the name escapes me at this moment, I'll have to see if I can find the post.(I think it was "Tarragon" or something like that). He matched two colours with early and late war WW2 blanco. If I recall the stuff used early in WW2 was the same as the WW1 stuff.

The stuff that Jerry at WPG was recommending is "Tarrago Shoe Cream". He posts a web link http://www.shoeshinekit.com/tashpo.html
He recommended Shade 48 as a very good match for Light Khake Green.
Might have to give this a try.

I think that I will wait for you guys to try out the blanco experiment. The gear is not cheap and I don't want to have to get a new set for my own mistake.

Horton and Tony,
Thanks a lot for the leads. I found my old tin of Quippy and looked up the website for Carr & Day & Martin who made Quippy. I sent them an email to see if it is still available. I will let you know once I hear back from them.

I think the Tarrago is a good lead too. I will have to get in touch with them.

Thanks!

Jim

I ordered some of the Tarrago paste. Comparing the remaining Quippy that I have to their color chart, I went with the Antelope. I think that is the closest to the WWI color.

We shall see... I will let you know the results when it comes.

Jim

Good luck with that.

Yo Jim,

Any news on the blanco ?

Did you receive any?
Have you experimented with any?
Drop a line and update us!!!!

Corporal Walsh

Hey,
I did get the "blanco" show polish just before Christmas break and tried a little of it out on the back of some of my webbing. It works great! It holds well and is the right consistency even though it is more of a paste than a shoe polish. It even dries without turning to dust that gets on everything. The only catch is it dried much lighter than I anticipated.

I plan on ordering some more in the next shade darker in an attempt to match that proper "pea green" colour. Once I find the color that works I will let you guys know. I think we have a great lead though.

Jim

Sir James,

Anything new to report on your blanco experiments?
You were looking to try the next color shade in your last report.
I thought that it was unusual that you didn't get any flaking on your last try.

Corporal Walsh