"What Color for War Wagons?" Topic
7 Posts
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Terry37 | 03 Feb 2019 12:12 p.m. PST |
I am starting to work on the War Wagon that will serve as the Stronghold for both my Russian and Polish late 17th century armies. I know most have painted their wagons just a wood color, but have to wonder if maybe they were painted some color like the artillery carriage to protect it form he elements???? Any thoughts or suggested on how such would be painted? Thanks, Terry |
Gonsalvo | 03 Feb 2019 12:57 p.m. PST |
The dark red color (as in barn siding) looks good on the Hussite War Wagons by Kingmaker (1st Corps) on their website; I went with various wood tones for my own, though. |
enfant perdus | 03 Feb 2019 1:53 p.m. PST |
In that region I would expect pine resin or possibly pitch to be used as weatherproofing, given its abundance as a natural resource. For actual paints, I would only expect simple mixtures using red or white lead. As Gonsalvo suggests, red looks good and is logical given that red barns originated from the utility and relative cheapness of red lead and linseed oil formulations. |
robert piepenbrink | 03 Feb 2019 2:10 p.m. PST |
Don't forget milk and rusty iron--another common cheap red paint. But it tends to be an "off" or "dull" red. I think any deviation from "cheap" is likely to be in the direction of heraldic colors. |
Terry37 | 03 Feb 2019 2:54 p.m. PST |
Thanks gentlemen!!! Really helps! Terry |
bsrlee | 04 Feb 2019 5:41 a.m. PST |
At least one German manuscripts (an Inventory of Maximillian's artillery and hand guns) show black wood and red ironwork, the opposite of what most people would expect. I beleive the wood was artificially blackened with an acid (aqua fortis) and the red would probably have been iron oxide and a drying oil like linseed oil (yeah, barn red). Unfortunately the Dover reprint of Wagner's book on Medieval weapons etc. reproduces nearly all the color plates as grey scale – as it has loks of stuff on Germany and places East. |
Swampster | 04 Feb 2019 10:28 a.m. PST |
I don't know about Russian ones. The German ones in the Schlacht im Wald painting are an ochre colour. While this could be paint, I think it is supposed to be bare wood as the same colour is used for barrels, part of the drawbridge and some weapon staffs. The inventory of Maximilian shows quite a few artillery pieces with the red and black mentioned above but others in bare wood. The limbers are also bare wood. The wagons on Maximilian's triumph are also bare wood – for decoration, some are covered by a coloured cloth rather than painted. Just about all medieval wagons – including ones in high status use – in manuscript pictures are shown as natural wood, so they don't seem to have seen the need to waterproof. This may or may not apply to Russians a couple of centuries later. |
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