Norman chain mail and 1066 armour/dress in general

[Sunray]

I have a wee project (famous last words) to paint up a few 1066 era figures for a school history diorama.

Way out of my 20th century period/comfort zone.

Advice on shades for helmet/chain mail and other clothing very welcome.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Natural steel paint, or you could burnish them with a suede brush then varnish.

[FierceKitty]

MAIL should be a dark iron in most cases.

[fsn]

Couple of suggestions:

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/gonfanon.html
https://smallsagas.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/saxon-norman-shield-patterns/
https://www.tha-engliscan-gesithas.org.uk/gegaderung/index.php?topic=1985.0
https://www.jennydean.co.uk/anglo-saxon-dye-experiments-part-1/

[fsn]

For mail I usually undercoat in black, then apply a gunmetal and dry brush steel/silver.

Occasionally I'll add a dark wash.

[fred.]

For mail I usually undercoat in black, then apply a gunmetal and dry brush steel/silver. 

This is my normal method too. And use the brighter steel or silver for weapons and plate armour and helmets. 

for clothing 20th century muted military colours work pretty well for early medieval clothing. Maybe adding the odd brighter colour for higher status knights.  

[Gwydion]

Don't be too put off from using colours brighter than you may imagine from watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You can produce quite strong colours from natural pigments. They may of course fade and sun bleach more quickly than aniline dyes.
Natural Dyes

[Last Hussar]

Many years ago when I was a reenacator we had a member who was very "Oirish".

One day he was showing off his new cirtle, dyed a deep brick red. I looked at it and said "after a few washes that will be a lovely shade of orange", and then walked away.

Apparently the reaction was a joy to behold.

[Big Insect]

"he was showing off his new cirtle" - cirtle = female attire - was this an early case of cross-dressing???

On the issue of mail (no such thing as chain-mail - it was a Victorian invention) I black undercoat and then dry brush with a steel or gun-metal colour. You can black undercoat and burnish (with a large darning needle) but you will need to varnish it fairly quickly to stop it tarnishing back to grey.

In the field a lot of mail coats would have gone rusty very quickly - so I suspect that (especially in a damper climate) you'd be better off using a dark brown as a base coat, rather than black, and use your gun-metal dry-brushing sparingly.

Mail coats were mostly transported in barrels when on campaign.
They were also 'polished' by being 'tumbled' in special barrels (a bit like butter churns) filling with fine sand and oil. This was not a practice you'd do on campaign though, as you'd have to detach the mail from its backing arming doublet (probably padded leather or multiple layers of quilted linen) which was a lengthy process. I suspect that the oil made the mail very smelly - especially in hot climates.

The Mamelukes used fine, scented talcum powder (made from ground gypsum or naturally occurring asbestos!) to polish their mail - but again they appear to have used oil as the medium to lubricate the polishing. 

More useless info - I'm not even sure where I acquired a lot of it ... a life-time of obscure reading!!!

[FierceKitty]

I've read that a re-enaction found that mail kept itself rust-free as long as it was worn quite a bit.

[Gwydion]

Sorry to spoil your reverie but 'cirtle' (or kirtle) was a unisex garment originally, only becoming solely associated with female attire in the late middle ages/renaissance.

So in answer to your question re cross dressing - almost certainly not.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I've read that a re-enaction found that mail kept itself rust-free as long as it was worn quite a bit.

Presumeably because the CHAINmail is moving about, so self polishes

[FierceKitty]

Mmm, but they were talking about something which existed.

[Orcs]

Sorry to spoil your reverie but 'cirtle' (or kirtle) was a unisex garment originally, only becoming solely associated with female attire in the late middle ages/renaissance.

But it would not have bothered Last Hussar, he can be a bit of a old woman   

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

But it would not have bothered Last Hussar, he can be a bit of a old woman   

Should that remark come from Alexander - it's a tad Katty !