What's on your workbench?

[FreddBloggs]

I meant painted as athenians or mycenaens or myrmidons.... not the cities.

The dulcet tones of the Marsellaise or Ca Ira.

[MarshalNey]

Silly me my mistake. Was there any distinctives in their dress during this period? I have Achilles and his Myrmidons primed (from Redoubt). I got other figures from Foundary that "look" Trojan but Hollywood version "The Warriors Priam Hector Paris and Guards (WG406)£.

[FreddBloggs]

Things like owls for athenians, red for spartans etc. Or you decide, myrmidons wore green etc.

[grizzlymc]

Mycenaens are good though, doing mycenae itself, or one of the other cities?

I dont have the skills for buildings but can slap on paint. I got some classical Perry Greeks from Tim Hall and some metal Myceneans (archers, slingers and great heroes) from Foundary. Enough to keep me busy.

Yeah, Grizz I know what you mean - the beat of drum sounding the Pas De Charge!

I had more in mind the steady beat of British muskets bringing an end to old trousers, followed by a rousing cheer and at them with the bayonet.

[grizzlymc]

Wouldn't most clothing colours be subdued? Their access to dies would have been quite limited.

[goat major]

Away at Brum again. This week's reading : Achtung Cthulhu and the Runequest Bestiary

[levied troop]

Wouldn't most clothing colours be subdued? Their access to dies would have been quite limited.

Not necessarily, they had access to plants and minerals capable of dyeing a variety of colours. Evidence is a little mixed - anything physical that survived tends to be very faded and we’re relying on artistic representation - but reds of all shade, browns, and orange seem to have been common and blue, yellow and green were used. Hittites used red and purple as high status colours, Mycenaeans certainly used used red and yellow. Colours may have been more expensive and more likely to be used as borders or narrow stripes, and bolts of coloured cloth were used a tribute.

Wool seems to be easy to dye and can come in some natural colours (reddish brown and black) linen less so. The pure white look of much linen seems to be achieved by soaking the material in water and leaving it to dry in the sun.

[FreddBloggs]

Just look at crete and the colour information from there.

[grizzlymc]

I guess that crushed malachite or azurite would give them vivid, but expensive, greens or blues. Wonder where the red came from. Yellow, that flower that the Russians used with woad to make green might have been around. If you can stand brownish, that part of the world is full of ochres ranging from red to yellow. Purple came from some sea snail thingy and was vivid.

[goat major]

Purple came from some sea snail thingy and was vivid.

Explains a lot