Help redsigning a tartan

[Benning Boy]

Could you point me to some tartan design site or separate programs that are easy to use? I don't want to design a new tartan, just make a minor change to one. Being 28 years in the Army, I love the US Army tartan, but being 28 years in the Infantry, I detest the gold stripes in the tartan "for the cavalry." I'd like to know what the Army tartan would look like with the gold stripes changed to Infantry blue

[Rick Y]

One of the advertisers on XMarks has a tartan designing program. http://www.scotweb.co.uk/ Look near the middle of the homepage and follow the link.

[figheadair]

I'd like to know what the Army tartan would look like with the gold stripes changed to Infantry blue

A bit like this

[Benning Boy]

That's kind of what I had in mind. It gets rid of that gosh awful cavalry gold. Looking at the reason the original colors were chosen, I think the amount of black and dark blue should be reversed. The black is for the beret, which is a minor part of the uniform. Dark blue is for the original blue uniforms -- think Federal, Civil War -- however, dark blue is the color of the current Army Service Uniform. So I think those two colors should be reversed. The olive should be more olive, too. Wish there was some way to specify standard Dalgliesh yarn colors.

I don't get the green shade that's supposed to represent the original sniper uniform. There never was such a thing, unless you count the green of Berdan's Sharpshooters, which is still a historically insignificant color.

ETA: I think now I'd replace that "sniper green" with a stripe of white. The official US Army flag has a white ground, and white is the color of peace, that which soldiers defend, and that which they wish for.

[PiperOfThePlains]

You could see about having Matt Newsome of Newhouse Highland help you. He's an advertiser at the bottom of the page. He does great tartan design works, and I believe you'll find him to be very helpful; although, you might have to wait a pretty long while...

[Benning Boy]

I plan to engage Matt on another project. I'm having trouble with it, as I'm starting from scratch, and my sense of color and design isn't very well developed. Maybe I'll get him to help with the Army tartan later, but for now I thought perhaps I could just play around a little with it

[OC Richard]

Thing is, if I was designing a tartan based on the US Army Dress Blues, I would have gold/yellow in there regardless of what branch of service, due to the gold buttons and trim; the ground colours would obviously be dark blue and light blue, with gold/yellow lines



I designed this in five minutes... based on the uniform above. (Green ain't in it.)

This has the wider gold in the light blue, and the narrow double gold in the dark blue, just like in the uniform above



On this one I was thinking about Infantry rank bars, sky blue inside with gold border

[artificer]

That's kind of what I had in mind. It gets rid of that gosh awful cavalry gold. Looking at the reason the original colors were chosen, I think the amount of black and dark blue should be reversed. The black is for the beret, which is a minor part of the uniform. Dark blue is for the original blue uniforms -- think Federal, Civil War -- however, dark blue is the color of the current Army Service Uniform. So I think those two colors should be reversed. The olive should be more olive, too. Wish there was some way to specify standard Dalgliesh yarn colors.

I don't get the green shade that's supposed to represent the original sniper uniform. There never was such a thing, unless you count the green of Berdan's Sharpshooters, which is still a historically insignificant color.

ETA: I think now I'd replace that "sniper green" with a stripe of white. The official US Army flag has a white ground, and white is the color of peace, that which soldiers defend, and that which they wish for.

I did all of what you asked... apart from the white



ith:

[Guinness>water]

Artificer,
the one I created looks similure to yours. Can you put the one I linked to up with yours? My computer isnt cooperating with me today.

Thanks.

[Benning Boy]

Wow! Thanks guys. I've been playing around with the Scotweb designer, but have come up with nothing near as nice as what y'all have.

OCRiichard, your design really captures the colors of the dress uniform. It's a little more the officer uniform than the enlisted uniform, but it works nicely. I like the idea of being able to incorporate an Infantry blue stripe between two of the gold lines in you second effort. The pattern would allow one of any branch to have a custom weave with the specific branch color between the stripes. Notice the officer in the first picture has the maroon stripe of the Medical Service Corp within the gold stripes on his coat sleeves and the trouser legs -- also the cap. I wore the same with Infantry blue where the maroon is. We could all be happy with variations on that tartan -- except maybe the armor branch, the cavalry guys, but they don't count.

Guniness>water, your New US Army tartan is a real improvement on the original versions. I could wear that.

Artificer, you nailed the olive color the original pattern is missing. Olive drab will long be associated with the Army, although I suppose the younger generation will soon come to think of ACU green as their color, it's more like German feldgrau, maybe sand. At a minimum there should be a shade of green honoring The Big Green Weenie.

The original US Army tartan is supposed to have black from the beret. The Army uniform has included a lot of black, ever since the green gas station attendant uniform was adopted decades ago -- black shoes, black belt, black necktie; black in things like Ranger tabs etc. There's still a lot of black in the current uniform. I don't have a big problem with black in an Army tartan.

Several shades have been called Khaki over the years. It has historical significance. No problem with that either.

The original tartan called US Army is sort of OK, I just have a problem with the cavalry gold. I want Infantry blue. I suppose others might prefer their branch colors. But as far as I'm concerned the entire Army exists just to get infantrymen on the objective, without the Infantry every other branch has no purpose. I'd be happy with an Army tartan where Infantry blue dominates.