"black linothorax" Topic

Did they exist, it wouldn't mater if it was linne or leather, i know both could be colored. But did they?

Not that it maters, have decided to paint a unit with it, just curious if it existed.

I don't know, but it was cool to see it at the beginning of Ollie Stone's "Alexander" movie. Go for it! Maybe some red or yellow trim.

I don't see why they couldn't. I generally favor varied armor looks for Greeks in a unit, since most of the time they provided their own armor.

Doug

It probably wasn't used that much. To dye linen black they would most likely have used lamp-black, which didn't hold to well, and would fade fairly quickly into gray. I think it would have been rather expensive, too, and so limited to wealthier hoplites.

Pity. It would have looked rather smart.

Come to think of it, what about the black tunic reported for Perseus' Thracians? Wool, perhaps.

It will look awesome, and it's possible, so go ahead and do it. You'll be more likely to finish painting the figures if you are inspired by the paint scheme.

I think walnut can dye things black, although usually it produces a brown colour. I've seen shirts dyed black for the French and Indian War period with walnut dyes.

I'd say go for it.

I'll probably use a very dark grey to simulate black that normaly works best

Logwood dye can produce a black color. So can iron dyes, and walnut dyes.

Now, initially these will be nice, solid colors. However, with exposure to the elements, they will, indeed, begin to fade. It's the one drawback to organic dyes from the ancient world. It's similar to blue jeans dyed with real indigo. They will maintain a nice dark blue color for the first couple months, but the more you wear them out of doors, the more they will begin to fade.

This is one of my concerns about painting ancients (and any other army up through, say, WWII): They would probably start their campaign with brightly-colored clothing, but by the end of the summer, there would be a great deal of fading & muting of color. It comes from both the exposure to sunlight, but also dust, mud, etc.

I'm always of two minds with this and am considering going over to a more muted/faded palette for the next army.

Thespians were noted for their black cloaks… not much is known about whether that also applied to the rest of the kit… obviously for movie uniformity this reconstruction is fun:

Did a test figure. Looks cool. Black armor gold trim and gold plated shield. Gonna be a very fantastical pyrrhic royal guard unit.

Gonna post pictures tomorrow when its daylight

I don't see any problem with black coats, or linothoraces. Quite possible to achieve and dependign what one uses not that expensive. Durign off-time I could see soldiers repainting their shields or dying their garments with pigments available on campaign.