"EIR tunics" Topic

Having to paint some EIR auxiliary and legionary figures; what's the latest verdict about tunic colour?

Whatever they liked with white and red being most popular. There is no evidence that they wore 'uniforms' as we might understand the term today.

I have long argued for unbleached linen or wool tunics. The men had to provide their own kit from their pay, and unbleached certainly is the least expensive and easiest to obtain.

I actually use a pale yellow formine as I personally think it looks best at 28mm scale, as I can highlight it slightly with an off-white to get an unbleached look.

In addition, shades of grey, even some mouse-brown, would be useful to represent local varieties of wool.

I reserve red for Centurians, Optios, Legates, Tribunes, Musicians, etc. Command types, to set them apart.

V/R

Yes white-beige dull, red yes dull, blue yes dull, green yes dull, orange yes dull, pink yes dull, yellow yes dull, brown yes dull, grey and black yes dull.

My first unit has a range of reds/pinks with the colours dull and faded ( I use skin and creams to mix the colours less vibrant hues) unit two off white to off cream. Third not decided yet.
Red was the predominant colour but I'm led to believe very dull brick red.
Finally these lads are yours so if you want go bright red us button counters will glower as red as you legions while the rest of the crowd will say Oooo! Nice! :)

I don't think they actually provided their own kit from their pay. I think was more a case of the kit was provided and the cost deducted from their pay at source.

My first historical army was EIR and, of course, I painted them all red tunics – Hollywood version of course. I haven't played them in a very long time (Republican Romans were always my thing.) But now that I've done some Dacian units I'll be going back and rebasing and redoing tunics for the EIR. Glad to hear these suggestions again!

On a related note, and I hope this is seen as extending the thread and not highjacking it since it relates to the EIR kit, do you guys think shield design was uniform at this time? I've heard at least one source (I can't remember which ATM)stating that soldiers were able to recognize common shield designs (I think it was related to Caesarean civil wars).

If EIR I'm fairly certain that shield emblems were uniform in a unit, and each unit had a different design. I recall in Tacitus during the 69 AD civil war that it is implied that shields were distinct for each unit.

Legionaries I do red or white, depending. Auxiliaries are more likely to get grubby off-white or brownish.

Sumner, both in the book that Gattamalata linked to and in the first of his Roman Military Clothing Ospreys, has collected quite a lot of evidence. There are several references that indicate that red was seen as the appropriate colour for Roman citizen troops (that is, mostly, legionaries), at least to wear in battle. There is also a good deal of evidence that many soldiers possessed several tunics, so you could quite possibly see a legionary wearing red in battle, white for certain ceremonies, scrubby undyed offwhite for everyday fatigue duties, and anything he liked when out for a drink.

Thanks for all the answers; seems red is the most mentioned colour so probably choose that.
Question about shields; shield emblems the same for a unit? Is that for a whole legion or for a cohort within a legion?

Orange (Daylight signal red) to brick red.

Variations in dyes and fading.

As Robinson noted in Armour of Imperial Rome the uniformity of a Roman unit would be in each man having helmet, body armor, shield, sword, etc. with a variety of styles and types in each category.

Praetorians might have been more standardized.

Brownbear: Whenever I've seen shield uniformity mentioned it's been at the cohort level. The idea being that soldiers could quickly identify their cohorts for purposes of regrouping, and of course there are benefits for commanders too. The legion is too large a tactical unit for that to be useful. Whether legions tended to have, say, the same colour shields, with different designs to distinguish cohorts… that would be a nice idea, but I suspect it's wargamer fantasy. Even the report of shield uniformity we have is, if I remember rightly, from a single source, writing generations after the fact.

If identification is the reason for different shield motives/colours etc, then I would think that tunic would also be of a different colour.
Commanders would look from behind so tunic colour would be easier then shield motives/colour (at least when the legion isn't running away (but probably they would have thrown away their shield but wouldn't be undressed)