Bill N | 09 Jun 2012 12:01 p.m. PST |
How common was blackened armour in the Thirty Years War, especially near the beginning? For no reason other than looks I've done about 1/3 of my pike in blackened armor but none of my shot helmets so far are blackened. What would be a more reasonable percentage for both? Does the army make a difference? |
Phillius | 09 Jun 2012 12:50 p.m. PST |
Personally, all the armour will be blackened on my TYW armies. I think it was standard practise to protect it from the elements while out on campaign. |
Uesugi Kenshin | 09 Jun 2012 4:12 p.m. PST |
I read recently that some mounted units would purposely let their armor develop a layer of rust before they put a protective coating over it so they would achieve a red- brownish hue. Not sure how common it was. |
Daniel S | 09 Jun 2012 5:05 p.m. PST |
That is "russetting", what today is known as "browning", it was done by the armourers before delivery as it requires knowledge and skills that the average trooper did not have, not to mention that it is fairly labour intensive. To answer the original question blackend armour would be very common indeed on the TYW battlefield. The evidence suggests that in many armies it would be dominant type of armour. True "white armour" i.e highly polished armour seems to have been restricted to armour made for parades & cermonies rather than for use in the field. The non-black armour would be a fairly dull metal grey rather than the highly polished armour of previous centuries. (With the rare exception of course) The black armour could actually be fairly varied in apperance due to the diffrent methods used to create the black surface. Some are a grey or grey-brown colour mixed with black while other are much darker, almost pitch black in some cases. Some samples
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Lorne P | 10 Jun 2012 7:07 a.m. PST |
Wow, Daniel S!! Those are some great photos! |
Daniel S | 10 Jun 2012 7:43 a.m. PST |
Glad to be of help Some close ups of infantry armour
Borrowed from the excellent link |
Uesugi Kenshin | 10 Jun 2012 7:55 a.m. PST |
Those pictures are great. The charging cuirassier is amazing. Interesting to see the bow in the pike as well. |
Daniel S | 10 Jun 2012 9:16 a.m. PST |
That is Herr Doctor Marcus Junkelmann link who is mostly known for his extensive work with Roman subjects. However he has a keen interest in several other periods as well including the TYW and has written a full lenght biography of Gustavus as well as several shorter texts about Tilly. A bit more of his TYW work is found here youtu.be/CTc5jSo8A_8 Once you get over 10 feet or so all polearm shafts start to bend a bit. You can counter this a bit by making a tapered shaft but 98-99% of reconstructions don't use such shafts because they are time consuming and requires a fair bit of skill to make. |
Uesugi Kenshin | 10 Jun 2012 11:27 a.m. PST |
Yea, same thing happened to me once I turned 40 Daniel. ;-) |
Jagger | 10 Jun 2012 3:56 p.m. PST |
When did blackened armor began to dominate over white armor? Was it in the 1530's or so? |
Daniel S | 10 Jun 2012 4:24 p.m. PST |
Well first you get the "black & white" armour which began to appear in the 1540's. Just to confuse later day readers the period documents insist on calling this type "black" as well. Which makes it close to impossible to separate the "true" black armour from the black & white suits. These two types coexisted with the ordinary "white" armour for a good part of the 16th Century. it is only around 1600 that the black armour seems to have become the most common type among all troops. So the colour of the armour would depend on the location, the year and the kind of armour. |
Bill N | 10 Jun 2012 9:28 p.m. PST |
Thanks for the input. I guess I will be needing to make some adjustments. |