Dark age Briton - Who fought and what made them different

[Kikuchiyo]

I'm looking to put together a few 10mm Warbands for Dux Bellorum and Apart from the Roman British I'm struggling to figure out what makes the major protagonists different enough to stand out as Irish, Picts, Early Saxons etc.

Even when I look at the fantastic 28mm ranges out there I can't really tell. Does anyone have any advice

[nicknorthstar]

When I did a similar project in 15mm, I used painting to make them stand out.

Saxons all had blonde hair, and large round shields painted in a similar brown. (all in trousers as well).
Irish all had red hair, saffron tunics and small shields painted differently to the Saxons.
Picts all had black hair, no trousers just tunics and the square shields.

[Kikuchiyo]

Painting could be the answer, for some reason I seem to be pattern blind on the period, I can't seem to pick out the differences in the armour or weapons, clothing colour might be the only way I can group them

[WorkShy]

In 28mm, you tend to see certain tropes used. So Romano-British will look late Roman. "Celtic" (Welsh, Irish/Scotti, Picts) will often have bare legs or trews, rather than trousers. No shoes. Rolled cloaks, painted in simple plaid type schemes. The Welsh will often get short hair and moustaches but no beards. The Picts lots of tattoos, perhaps naked (Attecotti). Crossbows and square or I shaped shields. The early Germanics can get small buckler shields. Vendel type helms. Clothed with pelts and furs.

These are just ways to create artificial differentiation. They often have little in the way of substantive evidence. If there were clear differences in fashion they would have been at a tribal level, not at a more macro "cultural" level.

So my take is basically take the tropes that you like and dump those you don't. I tend to use some form of unifying colour scheme for a specific warband. So clothing, shield design/shape, banners etc. It's all rather arbitrary though. I happily use some tropes but totally reject others. My early Saxons ain't getting those silly little bucklers.


 

[Kikuchiyo]

All good advice thanks

[Rotundo]

An easy Saxon difference, the little caps they wear. My Danes/Norse always have round wooden shields. Irish have some red heads and alot of green. Romano-Brits red (Roman) capes. Normans in a blue theme. Welsh are next. Still thinking on it. Picts will be very colorful.

[SJWi]

Kikuchiyo, at the risk of just repeating what other have said most of your troops will be armed pretty similarly. Armour and swords are pretty rare except for leaders and elite units/bodyguards, leaving most troops with spear and shield and the odd bow of sling. "Stereotypes" could have Anglo-Saxons with more blond hair, moustache and some "phrygian" caps and trousers, with Scots/Picts bare legged. I would look at the painted examples on the Gripping Beast website under "Age of Arthur". It covers Anglo-Saxons, Picts, Irish as well as Romano-British.   

[Kikuchiyo]

Thanks, I've been looking at the gripping beast stuff

If I had more space I'd have bagged a load, the first corps stuff looks great too