Dark ages, etc damaged shields

[Mike L.]

Could anyone share some techniques to make slashed/scarred/damaged shields? My 28mm Vikings need to look like they have seen some action.

[Andym]

Keep it simple, just paint some lighter slashes across them in lighter colours than your base colour(orange for red, sky blue for marine blue, eg) then just paint a thinner slash in a dark colour(maybe even black) that leaves a ragged line of the lighter colour alone the bottom. It's done on this to make it look damaged...

[Mitch K]

Somethingto keep in mind before going too mad with damage is that shields were "consumable items". They were not expected to have long service lives, and users would expect to replace them regularly.

[Mike L.]

I did some poking about on the Web and found this: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html#Construction%20and%20dimensions

which may be of interest to those seeking historical accuracy for their Viking shields.