Painting guide?

Home Forums Historical Test of Honour Painting guide?

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  • #140092
    Bungo
    Participant

    Can anyone recommend a basic painting tutorial for Test of Honour? Initially looking to paint some Ashigaru.

    #140099
    Kieran
    Participant

    most go with this as a first go to.

    #140151
    Bungo
    Participant

    Thanks!

    #140321
    Deadmanwade
    Participant

    If you’re asking about colours for uniforms and so forth, the short answer is that there aren’t any uniform colours.

    The slightly longer answer is:
    There weren’t really any efforts made to equip troops with uniform equipment or clothing. Weapons and armour were produced in large quantities, so would follow certain patterns, but the garments the troops wore wouldn’t. Each Daimyo would call upon his Samurai when he needed to raise a force. Depending on each Samurai’s land holdings, he would be required to raise a certain number of troops. So you would often have Samurai A with his squad of 10 Ashigaru forming a unit with the 15 Ashigaru from Samurai B and a further 6 from Samurai C. So you would have blocks of troops with a mix of all three Samurai’s equipment, plus whatever they provided for themselves.

    When a Daimyo did provide a full uniform it is still not 100% clear what they wore (not many records were kept). For example, the Ii clan and at least one branch of the Takeda clan famously formed forces decked out in red. However, it isn’t clear if this is only referring to the armour, or if every item of clothing were also red.

    Contemporary artists didn’t really focus on the poor peasant Ashigaru and the Samurai could pretty much wear what they liked.

    As a rough guide. Armour and spear shafts would normally be laquered in Black, Red or Dark Brown. Undergarments would be in drab greys, beiges and off-whites for the Ashigaru and brighter more vibrant colours for the Samurai. The lacework and cords on the armour would usually be very decorative and would stand out from the armour.

    Of course, there would be a great range of quality and options depending on the clan and their wealth. The peasant levy troops of a small town Samurai would look considerably worse than the household troops belonging to the head of a large clan.

    Troops would often have a simplified clan symbol on the front of their armour or on the front of their helmet (Ashigaru). Melee troops would often carry a small flag mounted on their back which also bore the clan symbol. Ranged troops wouldn’t as it threw their aim off and it was mainly used to identify friends in combat.

    I hope that provides some answers for you.

    #140327
    Deadmanwade
    Participant

    Here is an image of a large screen painted to represent the battle of Sekigahara.
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Sekigaharascreen.jpg
    If you zoom in, you’ll see that there are no particular colours or uniforms used by everyone. The Ii clan I mentioned can be found on the fifth screen from the right. Their clan symbol is a large yellow square on a red flag.

    Here is a similar screen from Nagashino.
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Battle_of_Nagashino.jpg

    #140485
    Bungo
    Participant

    That is supremely useful. Thank you!

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