| Nick B | 21 Dec 2013 7:46 a.m. PST |
I am starting a classical Indian army to face my Alexandrians but am having some difficulty in getting illustrations to guide my painting. Any book/source suggestions, please? Cheers Nick |
IGWARG1   | 21 Dec 2013 8:04 a.m. PST |
Get Warhammer Ancients "Alexander" supplement. It may still be available on line or even in your local store. It has lots of photos of painted minis and some tips on painting them. Otherwise, just search for images on the internet. Indians are some of the easiest army to paint from the period. Darker than usual skin and white clothes. Equipment is leather or wood, painted any color or left as is. Skirmishers can be from native tribesmen and may have very dark skin. The "ball" on top of the hair can be just hairstyle or cotton, probably white. It may be obvious on the miniature or not. Shields can be painted, left in natural leather or cow spots design. Shield designs were too complicated or time consuming for me to paint. I just used cow hide for mine. Armor is bronze/brass, weapons are iron/silver. |
 Stosstruppen | 21 Dec 2013 9:26 a.m. PST |
If you can find it the Duncan Head book Armies of the Punic and Macedonian Wars has a section on them. IGWARG1 has given you the basics. |
| 79thPA | 21 Dec 2013 9:38 a.m. PST |
As noted, the infantry is pretty basic and easy to paint. IIRC the nobles wore multi-colored/layered sandals and some of them dyed their beards red, green or blue. The above mentioned book is good resource. |
| Black Cavalier | 21 Dec 2013 9:57 a.m. PST |
Doesn't the paint soak into the figures too much since they're Porus Indians? |
| TBeyer | 21 Dec 2013 10:26 a.m. PST |
What about watching the Oliver Stone movie 'Alexander'? A train wreck of a movie and I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the Indian costumes and weapons, but then who really knows exactly what an ancient Indian army would look like? As Igwarg1 says probably white for most of the clothes but the wealthier could be pretty colorful. |
| Nick B | 21 Dec 2013 10:35 a.m. PST |
Great – thanks for all the suggestions guys. |
| JJartist | 21 Dec 2013 11:05 a.m. PST |
My attempts… make sure you prime them so they don't soak up too much paint… link This is a useful source: link Modern Indian illustrations often add more color than we are privy to in our sources and period art:
Alexander's Taxilian ally (Stone):
link
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 Bobgnar | 21 Dec 2013 11:27 a.m. PST |
JJartist, thanks for all the great pics. Glad to see Elephants without howdas. In that last El picture, is that just quilting or is it supposed to be some sort of armor. |
| Swampster | 21 Dec 2013 12:22 p.m. PST |
"What about watching the Oliver Stone movie 'Alexander'? A train wreck of a movie and I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the Indian costumes and weapons, but then who really knows exactly what an ancient Indian army would look like? As Igwarg1 says probably white for most of the clothes but the wealthier could be pretty colorful." Robin Lane Fox – historical advisor to the film – said in a lecture that the whole reason for the look of the Indian battle scene was to contrast with earlier scenes Hence it was set in a jungle and people wore colourful garb. There was no attempt to give an historical look.
We do have written descriptions of their appearance and later colour images which agree with the majority being in white. |
| JJartist | 23 Dec 2013 7:16 p.m. PST |
Part of the problem is Oliver Stone admitted that his entire India shoot was compromised and had to be redone…. so it's parts or parts… I have no idea what he was thinking with the confused jungle battle and the surrounded by elephants situation… but maybe the first shoot was better??
It's mostly sad that Alexander the Great movies are so rotten… maybe it would be better if they did a Persian version where he can rightly be the evil maniac… |
| Locknar | 24 Dec 2013 6:11 a.m. PST |
The Oliver Stone Alexander film was a major flop but some of battle scenes will never be produced again without major CGI. The Indian battle is pretty cool…real elephants and all. Unfortunately a huge amount of film stock was ruined when it was sent back for processing as the airport x-rayed it! They couldn't afford to do any more reshoots so they had to work with what they had. Hopfully someday a better film will be produced or a film/TV series about the successors. |
| cameronian | 26 Dec 2013 4:29 a.m. PST |
I did a Classical Indian DBA army some time ago and had the same colour problem. However I stumbled across this somewhere on the 'net about colour in Hinduism: red, for shakti (prowess);
blue, bravery/manliness/determination;
yellow, knowledge and learning; competence;
saffron, battle colour of the Rajput warrior caste. So I ended up with a lot of saffron. |
