"ECW Armor / Sashes? Colors?" Topic

2 questions

1. Armor – in some of the color books on ECW the armor is shown black. Was armor painted black in ECW? or should it be metal all the way?

2. Sashes – most are shown Red. Is there some general rule here for Scot Covenanters and Montrose Scots officer sashes?

Black Armour
Armour that was blackened or painted to prevent rusting. This involved coating the armor with "dirty" or used oil (e.g., linseed or olive oil) and burning it off, or boiling the armor in a pot of oil until the oil "cooks" into the steel and then burning off the excess. If brought to the right temperature (270-300C), the oil residue (including the burned carbon in the oil) bonds with the surface of the metal, giving the armor a dark, glossy finish. Another method, which produced a dark grey to light black finish, was to soak the metal in tannic acid extracted from tea, oak bark, peat bogs, etc.

The practice of blackening plate and mail armor was common up until the late 15th century, especially among German mercenary knights employed throughout Europe. The practice disappeared as the quality of the metal improved, as traditional blackening methods would not work on chromed or modern galvanized steel. A similar practice, however, continues in the modern day as "blueing" done with a chemical agent rather than with oil and heat.
link

So does that mean that by 1640 it was no longer in use?

Yes it was still used at this time, but like many practices of the time it was not universal.
Armour could also be russeted – controlled rusting using vinegar or other oxidising agent etc, and then sealed with oil, which gave a dark brown finish.
Bright or white armours were also evident, though I'd perhaps suggest that these may not have been as practical for common soldiers in a war where supplies were often limited.

Thanks.

So what about the sashes? I see both Blue and Red and Orange, with no real ryhmne or reason? I am concentrating on Scot Covenanters and Montrose Army

That's the joy of ECW research. There were conventions in place (Royalist = Red, Essex = Orange) but then there were so many exceptions to make it madding. I'm painting the sash on my Royalist Rose Red or Dark Blood red because it looks good. That seems to work.

Hmmm, if you blacken a breastplate that way, can you also use it as a wok?

The sashes were traditionally in some way associated with the unit; the notation of "orange==parliament" was largely because Essex's colour was orange -- he issued suits of clothes in orange to his regiments where possible, there's orange flags and so on.

However, it wasn't unknown for royalists to have orange as well so it's not an absolute decider.

I've done some troops with orange/red sashes, and I've done some others in various colours -- purple, light blue, yellow -- so they can be on either side.

I am reminded that the in/famousLobsters were recorded as bright … hmm.
Furthermore that sashes did exist in different colours but red/orange-tawnry was accepted as delmiting your side.

I trust this is cavalry.

For my minis I generally paint the sashes red for Royalist and orange for Paliment although as has been mentioned both sides could have either. Their could also be sashes in other colors for individuals. As for armor I tend to paint mine in both a glossy black with silver edging and in more rusted looking colors as well as a gun metal color.

I believe that the Scots favored blue sashes, from the national flag (saltire of St. Andrew) -- is this true?

I generally use red or pinky red for Royalist and orange for my Earl of Essex forces. I read somewhere that as Orange was so strongly associated with Essex its unlikely to have been used by Wallers forces and yellow has been suggested to me as his colour.

I do mix them up a bit though. For example my Hasselrigs lobsters have mostly yellow but there's one blue and one black in there as well.

Its possible that sashes were uniform only at troop level if that.

Beware! Thread necromancer!!!

I just got my first box of Wargames Foundry Royalist Cav. Id like to paint at least a few of the figs in black armor. How would you do this? What highlights would you use…like, a dark blue? Or would you drybrush some silver?

Ooopsie – I mean Warlord Games FWIW.

I do blackened armour this way – since most of it isn't black like black paint is black (if you see what I mean!).

Mix burnt umber or van dyk brown with french ulramarine to give your self a "dark" colour – you can bias it slightly toward brown or blue, depending on what you like. Use this as a base. Shade with black, then highlight with lightened mixes of the base. A final drybrush of the base colour plus some brightish metallic shade gives the impression of where the colouring has worn off the raised / exposed edges.

Van dyk or burnt sienna plus a smallish amount of ultramarine works well for russetted armours.

I'm not sure if this piccy shows it off very well, but here goes:

picture

HTH

Huh – thats interesting. Thanks for sharing your thought…that is a good idea, and from what I can tell, I like it on the pic you posted up. Ill have to give soem of that a try and see what I can do

Thanks – all I can say is it works for me, and it isn't over-complicated (loike what I be, really -;))

There is some evidence that Thomas Fairfax wore a blue sash and that this was his family colour. I've read a quote from a NMA cavalry colonel, in which he talks about the tensions between regiments sporting blue sashes in honour of their commander, Fairfax, and others that preferred their earlier scarves, which I assume were orange.