08-19-2021, 05:55 PM
Hello everyone! Hope this post is OK; I looked for similar threads but didnt find one.
I am currently painting a 28mm early imperial Roman army with Victrix models, which are absolutely beautiful. The thing is, I first painted a unit of legionaries, and I painted their tunic red and used red decals for their shields.
Now, however, I intend to paint an Equites unit, followed by a regular Auxilia unit. For these models, however, there either are no red shield decals available (auxilia) or I don't really like the ones that are available (equites). For this reason, I intended to paint them blue, using blue decals.
My doubts are as follows:
1. Is it OK to mix different colour schemes on a single roman army? My intention was to use Red for legionaries and praetorians, while saving blue for auxiliary units. Would this be a big issue? I read some historian (Vegetius) mentioned soldiers using dead enemy soldiers' shields to confuse their enemies, so I'm unsure at the level of standarisation of shield colours and designs, hence my question.
2. Would blue tunics make historical sense? I know the general consensus is soldiers used to wear off-white tunics, and that dark red tunics are also considered to be likely due to the cheapness of the dye and their association with Mars, but I never read anything about blue tunics; if they're ahistorical, then I'd rather just paint the Auxilia with white tunics, and save the red ones for the legionaries (as my completed legionary unit already wears red).
Thank you again for your help!
I am currently painting a 28mm early imperial Roman army with Victrix models, which are absolutely beautiful. The thing is, I first painted a unit of legionaries, and I painted their tunic red and used red decals for their shields.
Now, however, I intend to paint an Equites unit, followed by a regular Auxilia unit. For these models, however, there either are no red shield decals available (auxilia) or I don't really like the ones that are available (equites). For this reason, I intended to paint them blue, using blue decals.
My doubts are as follows:
1. Is it OK to mix different colour schemes on a single roman army? My intention was to use Red for legionaries and praetorians, while saving blue for auxiliary units. Would this be a big issue? I read some historian (Vegetius) mentioned soldiers using dead enemy soldiers' shields to confuse their enemies, so I'm unsure at the level of standarisation of shield colours and designs, hence my question.
2. Would blue tunics make historical sense? I know the general consensus is soldiers used to wear off-white tunics, and that dark red tunics are also considered to be likely due to the cheapness of the dye and their association with Mars, but I never read anything about blue tunics; if they're ahistorical, then I'd rather just paint the Auxilia with white tunics, and save the red ones for the legionaries (as my completed legionary unit already wears red).
Thank you again for your help!
