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Dragon Master wrote:Knights painted their armor: Agreed.

Knights painted every piece of their armor and clothing one bright color: Show me some proof.

I'm willing to bet that you would have never found a knight so colorful in the middle ages.

Black was the most common color I think, but the black knight's helm is very fake.

DM

LEGOFREAK wrote:Recently I have been reading up on the middle ages, and was reading about evolution of armor, and I came across a couple paragraphs that maybe our resident historians could elaborate on.
It said that plate armor was commonly painted, and our conception knights all in plain steel is wrong. The article said that the reason we have this conception is because collectors liked to display them without the paint, to give them a grimmer look. It goes on to say that there was mention of a mercenary company that earned the nickname the "white company" for its lack of paint.
If this is the case then there isn't any reason why the KK2 line would not be good for realism...
well, not the helms.
Any thoughts?

Heating metal produces a coloration of the surface, which changes from yellow to purple to deep blue as the heat increases. When taken out of the fire at a particular temperature, the metal retains this color. Considerable skill is required to achieve a consistent and even heat-patination of large areas (e.g., a breastplate) or groups of objects (e.g., a complete armor, 32.130.6). The favored color for armor, edged weapons, and firearm barrels was a deep blue, in a process is referred to as ""bluing."" A range of colors could also be produced chemically, using a variety of different recipes, such as a rich brown color that was popular on firearm barrels in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century. Besides being attractive, patination and painting also inhibit rust on metal surfaces.

In Europe, the technique of decorating arms and armor with paint was certainly known in antiquity, although today no surviving objects appear to date from before the thirteenth century. It is more difficult to establish when textile coverings and heat-patination first appeared. Scabbards from swords and daggers are likely to have been covered in fabrics, colored leathers, or fur as early as Egyptian times, if not earlier. The first examples of heat-patination seem to appear during the fifteenth century, but the practice may well be much older.