Painting guides – Horses and others

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

http://www.modeldads.co.uk/Life-at-the-Front/wordpress/horse-colours-and-patterns/

http://balagan.info/wargamers-guide-to-horse-colours

http://iowagrognard.blogspot.com/2014/01/horse-color-charts.html

http://www.jenniferhoffman.net/horse/horse-color-genetics.html

https://meeples.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/painting-norman-cavalry-the-horses/

My (old) favorite horse color:  Rife Butt (Howard Hues) + Tanned Flesh (GW).  This combination produces a Chestnut color which varies from a dark brown up to a warm brown/red.  Adding Graveyard Bone (Reaper), creates a chalky brown/grey which could be roan or grey.

I think both my Rife Butt and Tanned Flesh have both dried to mud at this point.  Ruddy Brown (Reaper) is the base for my most recent unit of cavalry.  Also from Reaper, Heartwood Brown for dun, Fair Skin for tails/mains, and Dusky Skin for grey.  Foundry triad Chestnut and TerraCotta have joined my painting table.  Expect to see them used in the future.

I’ve often tried to answer the question – what would horses of the ancient period look like.  Appears my solid chestnuts are all wrong….

An international research team under the direction of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, Germany is sorting out the millennia by using horse color. The ancients loved spots, they tell us. Spotted and “diluted” horses were more populous from the beginning of domestication until the end of the Roman Empire, whereas solid colors (bay, black and chestnut) were dominant in the Middle Ages.  Source:  https://equusmagazine.com/blog-equus/coats-many-colors-dna-ancient-horses-54695

A pair of handy reference pages.

Spanish Scutarii

Unit of Gripping Beast Scutarii primed black (by a previous owner….)

Paint Plan: 

Tunics 

• P3 Hammerfall Khaki
• P3 Traitor Green
• Vallejo Khaki
• Reaper Stained Olive (brighten as needed)

Red:

• Vallejo German Red Brown
• Reaper Gory Red
• (R) Rach Red

Shields:

• P3 Hammerfall Khaki + Red accepts
• (R) Stained Olive + (R) Ruddy Brown w/ (R) Saddle Brown highlights

Skin:

• (R) Suntan Flesh + Army Painter Soft Tone

Metal:

• (V) Chainmail
• (R) Tarnished Brass
• (SW) Armor Wash

Leather: 

• (R) Ruddy Brown w/ P3 Gun Corps Brown highlights + (SW) Dark Sepia

Cap:

• (V) Leather Brown

Trim:

• (R) Witchcraft Purple