Crown buttons - darkened or painted?

[soldataltengarde]

how do I darken tunic buttons?.. I read where they were painted field gray or brown.. is this correct?

Chris R. Michaelis suggested this on FB: Walt, To darken brass buttons you can use a product called, appropriately, Brass Black. I don't like it as it does not dull the brass - only darkens it and it will shine up with use. I dull my buttons with black powder dissolved in water. It actually dulls down the metal. AFAIK buttons on the M1907/10 and transitional tunic were natural metal. The M1915 Bluse buttons were painted. Of course later in the war all buttons were supposed to be subdued, so I guess any tunic could have painted buttons. I'll leave the definitive answer to someone more knowledgeable than myself. And note I know very little about specialized unit uniforms as my main interest is common infantry.

I tried the "black powder" method.. only slightly darkened them.. maybe painted brown or feldgrau would be better... Any comments? Maybe Herr Wolf has the "definitive" answer.. I still don't have the $ for the "bible" reference book!

[kingkaiser]

I had a similar problem with the buttons on my M1915 greatcoat. Dan (Herr Wolf) suggested painting them "Nutmeg Brown". This worked very well. "Nutmeg Brown" really comes very close to duplicating the color of the paint used on the buttons found on M1915 tunics and M1915 greatcoats. I've seen "transitional" tunics with buttons painted a matte or flat gray----almost battleship gray, or the color of a gray primer. With either color, try to find some good enamel paint. If the paint is acrylic or water based, it will come off if you have the garment dry cleaned.

If you don't want to paint your buttons, you might be able to age them by heating them up over a flame. The result you'll get depends on the type of metal. Some metals, when heated, will permanently darken. I've tried this a few times, and I've ended up with either a dark, flat gray color, or a dark, flat, bronze-like copper color. After doing this, the metal will continue to patina over the next several days to weeks. I've been pleased with the end results.

[soldataltengarde]

Thanks Doc (king kaiser). I have some brown enamel.. I'm going to try that!

I ended up painting them a dark brown.. looks good!

[kingkaiser]

Another paint that works really well is Testor's Earth Brown Model Master Enamel Paint, product number 2108. I tried this color out on some repro buttons, and I found the color to be very close to Nutmeg Brown and the color commonly found on originals.