Roman Tunic Off White Colour
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Roman Tunic Off White Colour
Hi All,
I am almost ready to prime some Mid Republican Romans and was wondering what would be the best match for their off white tunics using Vallejo paints. I am thinking simple white would be too bright.
Also does anyone know a good Painting Guide with pictures?
Thanks for any advice,
Brian
I am almost ready to prime some Mid Republican Romans and was wondering what would be the best match for their off white tunics using Vallejo paints. I am thinking simple white would be too bright.
Also does anyone know a good Painting Guide with pictures?
Thanks for any advice,
Brian
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- Senior Corporal - Destroyer
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- Senior Corporal - Destroyer
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The Roman method of bleaching involved days of vigorous agitation and tens of litres of urine, impossible in the field, so the white ones should all suffer from the "dingies".
Madder also varies enormously from batch to batch, and is enormously sensitive to variations in preparation and fabric, so the reds should be all over the place as well, dark to light, and orange to pink.
Make the officers/NCO's the brighter/more saturated ones.
Madder also varies enormously from batch to batch, and is enormously sensitive to variations in preparation and fabric, so the reds should be all over the place as well, dark to light, and orange to pink.
Make the officers/NCO's the brighter/more saturated ones.
The short answer is that you can paint them either way, because the evidence is inconclusive.BrianC wrote:Thanks for the info guys, can I assume I would be safe in assuming that I can paint up 1 legion with Red tunics and one with white keeping the same colour with each legion?
Brian
In his 1987 article, Nicolas Fuentes analyzed the available evidence and came to the conclusion that ordinary legionaries used undyed wool for their tunics, which would have been off-white in color. Red would have been reserved for centurions and higher ranking officers. In his 2002 Osprey book, which looks to have been written in part to refute Fuentes, Graham Sumner concludes that legionaries "probably" wore red tunics while on campaign, and white ones for dress parades. While Sumner's Osprey piece is more recent, I find him to be somewhat selective in his discussion of the evidence, leaving out a number of important details that might weaken his own argument.
A very good summary of the Roman tunic color debate, with bibliography, may be found on the Legio XX reenactment group site: http://www.larp.com/legioxx/tcolor.html
Cheers,
Scott
If you paint pale sand carefully, and then wettishly dry-brush ivory, you'll get a very nice tunic. Hit a few highlights every figure with true white and the result will be spectacular--truly, it's one of the better paint combos for linen out there.
Also, try Wargames foundry paints--their raw linen series is green based, which, although weird to the eye the first few times, looks very satisfying--and if you alter every other figure or so with the Vallejo trio above, you end up with a "uniform but pre-industrial" look without a lot of fancy painting.
Also, try Wargames foundry paints--their raw linen series is green based, which, although weird to the eye the first few times, looks very satisfying--and if you alter every other figure or so with the Vallejo trio above, you end up with a "uniform but pre-industrial" look without a lot of fancy painting.
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Having some experience of the military way of thinking (which will not have changed over the ages) I would be most surprised if the following was not correct -I don't think we know for sure if they wore white, or red, let alone when they wore it.
But having said that, there are some suggestions they wore brilliant white for parades, at least some of the time.
A spotless clean white tunic is the antithesis of any metallic object (whether cleaned or otherwise) so it is inevitable that any self respecting officer would not miss the opportunity to to let his men demonstrate their soldierly prowess on parade by wearing the two together without a mark or blemish.
Conversely, as a white garment shows every mark and stain so easily, it is unlikely that this would be worn when doing any other task if there is an alternative. Any red or brown shade would certainly help to hide the most likely marks - rust, earth, blood, etc, so these would be the first choice for normal duties.
Whilst on campaign there would be a wholly different set of criteria where replacement garments would be provided from wherever and whatever was available. To use an example from a completely different period, the Duke of Wellington is on record as saying that he didn't care what his soldiers looked like as long as they fought well.
In addition, it is also clear that red is an aggressive, eye catching colour and looks good! There was an article in the papers recently that suggested that football teams who usually wear a red strip won more frequently than teams that wore other colours. The suggestion was that the colour enhanced the attitude of the wearer at the same time as intimidating the opposition. I understand that drivers of red cars are statistically more likely to be involved in accidents, as well.
Having said all that, it's all down to the man in charge really isn't it? If the general says to his Chief of Staff "The soldiers will be dressed in Blue" then that's what they will be dressed in!
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