Some help with painting Numidian shields?

[jdeleonardis]

Ive picked up a couple packs of Numidian cavalry, and I need some help painting the shields, both because 1) I cant get the colors right and 2) Im not sure how to paint them at 10mm scale.  Would anyone mind giving me some pointers?

I painted up some 15mm Numidians several months back, and the shields looked like chocolate chip cookies 


Any help would be awesome.  I dont want 10mm chocolate chip cookies 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Numidian shield are ox hide as well, so browns, greys and blacks.
28mm scale from Little Big Man & Gripping Beast
http://www.grippingbeast.com/shop.php?CatID=156

For Leopard print, light brown ink wash over what you've done and you want a cluster of about 5 dots together to make the spot pattern rather than cookies.
o
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Something like that (but many many times smaller and darker)...

[GordonY]

Very pale skinned Numidians, or am I thinking of somewhere else?

[Rubicon]

Very pale skinned Numidians, or am I thinking of somewhere else?

Nubians from Nubia perhaps..?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Oh how I the next answer and trying to compose it without upsetting people about skin tones:
Nubians are are from present day northern Sudan and are 'Black African' in tone, they were a thorn in the side of all Egyptian rulers from about 1500BCE onwards and the reason even the Romans kept two legions in upper Egypt!
Numidians are from modern day Morocco and Mauritania, and their colouring in the preArab era is more in common with Turaregs and other African nomads, such as Mores and Berbers, which they basically are! Think about Gaddafi and his cronies, really quite pale Mediterranean skin tones, more like the Spanish after a nice long summer...
Now I've insulted everyone, I'll get my coat!

[GordonY]

In that case all my Numidian Light Cavalry must come from Nubia 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I made the same error in my first 15mm armies, they even acknowledge they made the same mistake in the Hannibal WHB supplement! It's one of the common wargames misconception, I cannot remember when it first happened or who did it, I'll let you guys allow the fur to fly!

[FierceKitty]

It's amused me for some time how hard some people have tried to avoid appearing to suscribe to Victorian racial stereotypes. MacBride's book on the Zulus is a good point; he conscientiously painted them about four shades paler than the reality. The Osprey book on the Mughals does the same, only more so, ignoring the difference in colouring between the Turkic rulers and the much darker commoners (who spent most of their lives in the sun, anyway).
No disrespect intended to MacBride's considerable talent as an artist and charm as a man. He is much missed.

[jdeleonardis]

Im gonna try to pull this thread back to its original topic.  I need more help! (and besides, I try to paint my numidians as Libyans anyway  )

Mad Lemmey, do you have any more insight??? Do you have any recommendations for colors or any other ideas?  Am I just screwed???

Here is a quick pick I took with my phone last night.  This is my first batch of 10mm Numidian cav.  I think the cow and ox hide have turned out decently (you can barely see it in the top right corner of this pic), but Im still struggling BIG TIME with the leopard skin.  Do I not have enough spots?  Am I trying to get too detailed by putting the little point of brown inside the black outline of a spot?  THEY LOOK EVEN MORE LIKE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, AND ALL I WANT TO DO IS EAT THEM!!!!

[nikharwood]

I don't think you've gone dense enough with your spots - have a look at these:





You might be better off stippling these rather than painting...

[robert]

If I was doing these I might be tempted to take Nik's top picture - reduce it and print it off, stick it in the shield and then apply matt varnish..............could work?

[FierceKitty]

I don't think you've gone dense enough with your spots - have a look at these:





You might be better off stippling these rather than painting...

Leopards DO have the most intimidating faces of any cat, don't they?
Returning to the subject, do the shields really look that bad when seen on the table in use? 10mm are not designed to be works of super-lifelike art (though they get pretty close under some brushes).

[Luddite]

Aye, they do.  Yum.  


No but seriously, have you looked at leopard skin?

Here:  

I would suggest the following:

Top 50% of shield paint beige
Bottom 50% of shield paint 'ivory'
Then, carefully over the top paint closely spaced SMALL dark brown dots over the top.  Then put an even smaller dot of white in the centre of each dot, offset so it forms a 'c' shape.

I reckon that should do it, but i hope you don't have too many shields to do as i reckon that'll take ages!  

Personally i'd stick to cowhide.  At 10mm leopard skin prints are unlikely to come out in any meaningful detail.

EDIT:  Wow, 3 posts while i was typing!!!  Leopard skin prints are obviously 'hot'.  

[jdeleonardis]

Wow, talk about MEGA quick replies!  Thanks much for both the pics (yeah, ive looked a pictures of leopards, but I just cant get it right.

I seriously love this forum - everyone is so friggin nice!

Returning to the subject, do the shields really look that bad when seen on the table in use? 10mm are not designed to be works of super-lifelike art (though they get pretty close under some brushes).

Yeah, they look pretty crappy.  My wife is occasionally my muse when Im in a funk with colors, or need some advice....last night, I said 'hey, be honest - tell me what you think of these'.  And she said "OH THEY ARE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!  DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD KEEP THEM SAFE???"

Luddite, thanks for the advice.  Ill have to give it a shot.  My first plan was to go ahead and paint the skin a darker beige and blend down to a lower color, but they were turning out so poorly that I gave up on that.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nik has really got it right, I'd stipple dark brown over light brown to up the spot density, otherwise they are looking good!
The suggestions are at the moment that they wore lots of natural tones as far as clothes go, apart from the aristocracy who had access to higher quality materials.
Lawks this has become a busy topic, four replies in as many minutes!