| JC Lira | 15 Oct 2015 7:59 a.m. PST |
I've painted up some Old Glory Arthurian cavalry and right now they have decent looking monochrome cloaks (red, green, purple, and blue). I'm thinking about adding some designs to them. How appropriate to the period (which i know is very conjectural) and how good do you think they would look with: Plaid -- and has anybody really achieved a great plaid in 28mm?
Celtic symbols -- knotwork, triskelion, stuff like that
Christian symbols -- I don't know that the Chi Rho will look good on cloth. And just painting little crosses may get boring.
Arthurian symbols -- know any? Feel free to comment on shields too, because I do those next. |
| MajorB | 15 Oct 2015 8:02 a.m. PST |
Plaid -- and has anybody really achieved a great plaid in 28mm? Just buy some Tartan paint. ;-) |
| advocate | 15 Oct 2015 8:10 a.m. PST |
I might be wrong but I don't think the symbols you mention would have been woven onto cloth; I think plain or (very simple) check/plaid, is the answer. The symbols would do for your shields, though I expect rather more were plain (and plain white 'lime washed', at that) or had very simple designs rather than the complex patterns on many of the transfers currently available (which has not stopped me from using them). |
| warwell | 15 Oct 2015 8:29 a.m. PST |
The tunics of the time could have patterns (called clavi and orbiculum) woven into them. Not sure if they did the same for cloaks. For more info:
link |
| GurKhan | 15 Oct 2015 8:40 a.m. PST |
FWIW, the main (only?) possible source of sub-Roman British illustrations, the Vergilius Romanus MS which may be a 5th-century British work – link or link – shows clavi and/or borders on some of the tunics, but no patterns on cloaks except that one or two seem to have plain narrow borders. |
| Lewisgunner | 15 Oct 2015 9:53 a.m. PST |
I was puzzled by the references to the shields being n some way unusual. They look very like other shields in manuscripts of the same period! |
| Who asked this joker | 15 Oct 2015 11:21 a.m. PST |
I think that symbols on the cloaks would not look very authentic. For the most part, these are very simple people. They probably had there own comforts of home with them including their favorite cloaks which likely had borders for fancier cloaks and plaid or simple solid earthy colors for everyday cloaks. |
| Mark Plant | 16 Oct 2015 3:05 p.m. PST |
For the most part, these are very simple people. Not the cavalry contingent. They would be nobles. I would be amazed if they didn't show their wealth and prestige through dress. Every other society has, unless they were ostentatiously not doing so (i.e. puritans). |
| Oh Bugger | 17 Oct 2015 4:48 a.m. PST |
Indeed and we have literary evidence that clothes were a way of showing status among the British. The nobles and their retinues would be quite fancy. |
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