"Convention be darned" Topic

A couple of today's topics on unconventional painting schemes, are along the lines of something I have been thinking on. That is how many of you have a particular unit painted slightly off convention – just because.

I am thinking of painting a unit of Carthaginian veterans with black shields to advertise no quarter, etc. Because, why not?

Couldn't look any worse than a unit of ancient Celts I have (70's vintage) where they are all left handed.

When I first got into minnies in the early 80s (I was kind of in the early stages of Imagination I suppose) I painted a unit of horse artillery in black with Polish Crimson trim (kind of like panzer troops) – looked awesome, if not particularly historical.

Anybody else do this with Ancients or others?

This is pretty much the way I roll. If I have an idea that "improves" the historical look, I just go with it. And sometimes, the historical look is just too fiddly for me to accomplish, so I have to something different as well.

Used to have two Britain's elephants I sometimes used.

One was painted pink, the other one was painted white.

Not really 'painted slightly off convention' but my first metal hoplites were painted in Uni colours. That unit is still sort of around, but I've actually replace it with a new, bigger, unit using the same shield design/colours.

No, not really … although some things work for humourous reasons generally, why go to all the trouble of preparing armies in a historical idiom and then paint them as if it was a fantasy game?

We know quite a bit about how ancient armies were equipped and uniformed but there are plenty of gaps where a little imagination is required: our knowledge of likely dyes and patterns plus the odd oblique reference means a best guess approach is attractively productive.

So best guess, yes; 'improved' or even willfully wrong, no.

Phil
Ancients on the Move

Some gamers do that with 18th century "Imagi-nations". I've not come across it the Ancient period though.

A friend of mine painted thousands of 15mm napoleonics which were very difficult to differentiate on the floor during a grand scale game so he painted the blanket rolls/greatcoats on the top of the packs every color of the rainbow. We were able to sort out the regiments/battalions relatively easily with no nitpicking about the non-canon colors. It was practical :-)

In a fantasy vein, 'way back when I was using Airfix Gauls as Orcs – painted up some of Saruman's troopers with different White hands – A peace sign, giving the finger, etc. Just a few troopers out of 60 or so, but *I* knew they were there…

Well, once the horde of Celts is off my painting table, the next project is a pile of a couple Hundred Republican Romans. I've decided to use red tunics for officers, musicians, etc. The rank and file will get a host of drab colors, earth tones as well as undyed wool, linen, etc.

I'm still trying to decide on the shield colors. I may well use different colors for each unit, but with the same device throughout the army. Or, alternately, use the same color for all the shields and vary the designs/emblems. Maybe even leave the odd one plain with no device.

I know that we have a lot of period data to work with, but we also have a lot we really don't know. As Yesthatphil says, many times it's a best guess.

In the end, though, whatever colors or schemes you choose is fine by me because they are YOUR minis and YOUR army, and as long as the TOE/list is good, then I won't harp too much about the color schemes.

I like to paint lots of orange plumes on my French Napoleonics because it looks nice -oh and I don't do flags either cos they're a pain -I mean a bit of material waved above a crowd of 800 blokes -you just wouldn't notice it would you?

Apart from that I try to be reasonably historical even though no one who knows will ever ever ever see my figures…

TKindred, for my Republicans I was quite pleased with different colors or transfers by unit…added benefit is that – with so many little units – if you play model removal you'll easily know from whence the casualties came.

I'd love to post a pic, but (as I display my ignorance) I never figured it out on TMP. Finally have to humble myself and ask anyone: where is the insert pic button?

The only thing I have is a stand of Centaurs posing as some Greek cavalry just to see if anyone noticed, they haven't been in a game yet so we will see what happens.

I am using Ancients for Lord of the Rings, does that count? Happily mixing Dark Age Militia with Celts and early Crusader Normans.

I always go for an educated guess with ancients, trying to avoid too much uniformity. Depending on the probability of dyes being used in a specific region/period it might well be, that the shade of blue, red, green etc. is a bit too bright or would have been hard to procure, but then in 15mm it is also about contrast, so I guess as long as it is all within reason a bit of imagination based on historical sources and likelihoods is ok for me.

Unless I have a specific heraldic reference, when I'm painting anything pre-18thC I just go with the flow.

I have been a Viking/Saxon re-enactor for over 30 years, so I'm quite knowledgeble about what colours can and cannot be achieved with natural dyes and mordants, and how quickly some can fade on exposure to daylight.

Whatever the official or linguistic colour was, it will soon fade a bit, so my paint pot line up includes a myriad of off-whites, greens, browns, muddy reds and grey-blues.

My one exception to this is when painting shields. As the enemy facing aspect they are always given strong colours.

However I do keep thinking about buying a couple of armies and just spray painting one Red and the other Blue all over ….