Beautiful Brutality: decorated armor explained for a wargaming context pt.1

 When most people think of any pre-modern warrior, the images of knights in shining armor aloft galloping horses, or poor peasants in nothing more than a sackcloth shirt and a rusty spear come to mind. Whilst these stereotypes certainly weren't a false reality across history, the reality is a lot more nuanced, and for this articles purpose- colorful.

Armor, arming garments, and even weapons were often decorated in myriad ways- painted, textile covered, enameled, gilt, polished and heat treated to achieve various colors and designs. What does this mean for wargames and your minis? To most people I feel, not much, because in a miniature context, armor painted in non-metallic colors often doesn't read as armor unless you're handling a model up close. But if you crave color and love garish, clashing schemes- then this may be of interest.

Also too I want to touch on the  dichotomy inherent to armors and weapons of pre-modern Europe. That whilst they are all stunning sculptural, biomechanical pieces of art, they were made with the intent to kill. These are pieces whose existence is predicated on brutality and carnage, and that should be kept in the back of the mind when viewing these pieces, as art created to kill another human being isn't something we touch on today, and often keep those two aspect separate. 

To clarify before diving in, this article will be examining armors in a strictly European context, as that is what I know and am able to speak on with any real knowledge.

First I will start with painted armors- one of the most varied and prevalent forms of decoration throughout history, with the Greeks and their painted shields (And some evidence for the occasional painted helmet), to the first implementations of medieval heraldry, where knights would paint their armor in designs or symbols to be identified on the battlefield, all the way to modern militaries, whereby they use paint in a pseudo-heraldic manner in the form of unit markings. With it being such a widespread and near universal practice, there are myriad sources to draw from. Below are some painted armor from historical sources should you want a point to research more into this.

Fragments of murals from Tinell Hall at the Palau Reial Major, Spain. 13th Century.

A selection of painted Germanic Sallets from the late 15th & early 16th centuries. Also, here is a link to a lecture by Dr. Tobias Capwell (sick ass armor expert, def check him out, has some great youtube videos rating game armors lol). He touches on painted armor, its use cases, units in painted armor, and how Victorians created the myth of all armor being polished. Also he touches on different qualities of armor, how armor would be produced in large scales, and social meanings of armor. Painted armor talk begins at 38:30, but definitely watch or listen to the whole thing! 

https://youtu.be/COAIQPsgZWY?si=vDI3djI8icVLCNV7&t=2307

And a 17th Century Painted Cabasset from the Wallace Collection in the UK

Painted armor served many functions, protection from elements, identification, polishing a turd. Many armors and weapons were painted to protect it from the elements and to prevent rust. This protection also sometimes served a dual purpose in making low quality armors look nicer. Need 100 helmets sourced by the end of the month for your troops? The armorers won't have the time to make neat, symmetrical helmets en-mass. They're going to beat a piece of metal until it will vaguely fit on a head- its going to look ugly. Then passing those helmets off to painters will make the helmets look cohesive, and add decoration that makes a quickly produced piece look pretty decent. A good rule of thumb throughout history is that if an armor for war is painted, its of a fairly low quality, or is mass produced- as a quality clean and neat armor is expensive and will usually be bare metal as its sculptural beauty will stand on its own without need to be covered in paint to distract from imperfections. There are always exceptions to this rule of course! 

Lost track of time. Gonna have to end this here, but ill be following up with fabric covered armor and heat treated/gilt armor. Not doing a full history of any of this cause I could write a fucking book, but just wanna give a little taste to get the creative gears turning a bit!