How do you paint Dark Age armies?

[Jiron]

Hi,
I am finally quite close to have my Anglo-Saxon army for Lion Rampant glued together. Now I am considering the painting. I am myself split between the "historical" and "I like it" attitude. Let me elaborate:

1) Historical attitude - I will try to paint every model a little different. Using the colours that were common in the era. However, I'm afraind that for that many models it is impossible task. And I don't really like it when the miniatures in the large force look all different.

2) I like it attitude - what I mean is that I will choose a colour scheme for the army and paint them up, using those colours. It will make each model part of a larger force. I liked it the way in the Medieval II PC game. All the soldiers have been the same but had different shield markings and so on but always in the same colour scheme.

What do you guys 'n girls think?

[War In 15MM]

When I painted my Medieval collection (not Dark Ages) I selected what you would call your #1 though mine isn't historically accurate in terms of an actual military force of that time.  It's a large force of figures but I didn't find the use of a variety of color schemes either difficult to do or unattractive... of course unattractive is in the eye of the beholder.  You can see the results at www.warin15mm.com/Medieval-.html

[DancesWithHippos]

Do what you like. If anyone protests, just fight them and take their minis.

[FierceKitty]

I remember when I was younger I couldn't resist the look of units in one pose. The result was some really silly grouping (a unit of Celtic fanatics all waving their swords and shields in the same way?), and I feel a wally that I ever did it that way.

[Johnno]

I had mine commissioned and they wore an assortment of historical-ish coloured clothing and the shield's tied them all together.

How many figures are we talking about?
Not sure of the rules but maybe the "elites" could be option #2 and a bulk of the rest option #1?

[Jacksarge]

I've gone with option 1 for my collection, I don't think uniformity seems a good fit for the "Dark Ages" - but hey, as the other guys have said, it's your collection you can do whatever you like 
Perhaps another option is to give yourself a particular palette of colours to work from, like greens, browns, greys, then save your stronger, brighter colours for heroes & elites?

[racm32]

I gave this a lot of though when I was painting my Normans and Anglo-Saxons, specifically in shield markings. I found through research that in the Dark Ages you where less likely to find the large force uniformity in clothing colors as each individual was responsible for providing their own equipment which meant they chose what they liked. Also heraldry was not prominent yet so you where not likely to see a lord's men in his "colors"

[Basin is BACK]

As far as I understand it, whilst there were plenty of dye colours available in the dark ages, they weren't 'fixed' like modern dyes and often faded quite quickly. Because of this, a lot of my troops are wearing pink tunics (faded red) and other bright shades (there might be a link to my blog in my signature).

I know it doesn't answer your original question, but here is a link to a sample 'dark age' palette on someone else's blog which might help with attitude 1:

http://www.modeldads.co.uk/Life-at-the-Front/wordpress/a-viking-age-palette/

[Calumma]

Here's another very useful link:

http://1000footgeneral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/dark-ages-color-palettes.html

[has.been]

A friend did what I thought was a very good idea. Each unit has a limited pallet (this helps I.D. who is in which unit)
e.g. 1st unit = red, yellow & white,
      2nd unit = blue, green & grey, etc.
All units get to use the drab colours (e.g. Browns, off whites etc.)to 'fill out' the painting
Then take one of the colours & go through the unit.
 1st figure gets red trousers, 2nd gets red jacket, 3rd gets red shield .... well you get the idea.
When finished give your average units a wash/dip etc. to tone them down. 
For your elite units I would use the showy stuff (checks/stripes/shield transfers etc.)and not give them a 'tone down' ,
after all "Dey is de posh ones"
"how do you know he is the King?" "Well he ain't covered in shit" (Monty Python, Holy Grail)

[Dr. Zombie]

A friend did what I thought was a very good idea. Each unit has a limited pallet (this helps I.D. who is in which unit)
e.g. 1st unit = red, yellow & white,
      2nd unit = blue, green & grey, etc.
All units get to use the drab colours (e.g. Browns, off whites etc.)to 'fill out' the painting
Then take one of the colours & go through the unit.
 1st figure gets red trousers, 2nd gets red jacket, 3rd gets red shield .... well you get the idea.
When finished give your average units a wash/dip etc. to tone them down. 
For your elite units I would use the showy stuff (checks/stripes/shield transfers etc.)and not give them a 'tone down' ,
after all "Dey is de posh ones"
"how do you know he is the King?" "Well he ain't covered in shit" (Monty Python, Holy Grail)

Pretty much this.
I paint in batches of 6-8 figures at a time and paint one color at a time to different parts of the minis. Trying to reserve the brightes color to the riches looking guys.

I find that the chainmail and/or helmets that most wear is enough to give a somewhat uniform feel to everything.

[Jiron]

Thank you all for your insight and help. We are talking about approx 80 models. Anglo-Saxon Thegns and Ceorls in equal measure.

I'll run some experiments on "spare models" and will see what happens.

[Altius]

I try to lean toward historical, but I'm not very dogmatic about it. My dark age armies tend to have a lot of drab earth tones in them with a few splashes of brighter (but not too bright) colors in them.

I do have one not-very-historical idiosyncrasy with my dark age armies, and that is that I'll use certain colors more often with each army. So, for example, my Late Romans and Brits tend to have more off-white and red than the others. The Saxons have more brown and the Picts have more yellowish (closer to khaki). You'll see the full range of colors in each of my armies, but those ones predominate. Probably not historical, but I like the way it looks and it lends a light touch of uniformity.

[Patrice]

Perhaps you'll be happier about various shades/colours if you imagine them as the tribal warriors they were, all individuals. To wear a sort of uniform would lessen their fighting spirit.

Also the nobles and leaders may have a thin line of brighter colour, even silver or gold, at the hems ot their tunics, representing rich embroidery; this may be useful if you want to make a difference for better and more trained fighters.