"Swabian Footmen Shields" Topic

I have a bunch of Swabians (OG15) with the kite shield slung on the back and long swords. What colors should the shields be and is there a particular design or is it the typical 11 century fair?

John

Typical 11th century.

John: Are you basing them for your own rules or something else?

Hi Honor,

Basing them for Crusader and to use for my own rules. I am going to have 28mm squares and use two on a sabot for an element in element based games.

John

Hi John-
I've recently been painting up a an 11th century german army, focusing on the Duchy of Swabia. I had initially intended to make a Swabian army but I have since expanded it into a more generic German army.

I did a fair amount of research on colors, but found info limited. What I did was make a few a priori assumptions. First, since the Hohenstaufens were Swabian I included a fair amount of black and yellow. Not too much black because it made my figures look too dark, and not too much yellow because… well yellow is a pain in the butt to paint with. Next I checked out the crests of some of the towns and cities from the region. I worked off the logic that the city crest colors may have evolved from early usages.

Hope that helps some. Best of luck with your project.

Cheers!
~OD

Hi Old Digger,

How about the banner? Black Eagle on a yellow field (or a variation) or is that too recent? I like the way you think.

As for the yellow, I tend to paint yellow items white first. So really you have to paint the darned thing twice. But it does make the yellow pop!

John