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So, I've been trying for a good while to research my planned SAGA warbands for Irish, Vikings and Normans. What I find a little difficult is finding a source to sort out what colours and so on are appropriate.

I've seen the Osprey books, and they look pretty cool. But I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on them. Anyone with experience with that series of books? Anyone know of a decent source of information on the web for that period? Or any other?

And just generally, I'm interested to know how others go about researching their projects, or if ye do at all. I have to admit I didn't plan to get so bogged down in this, but it becomes pretty tempting once you start - trying to get things to look "right" within reason is satisfying to me in a way I didn't expect!

For my scenery, I have much more to go on (my gallery has plenty of shots of reconstructed Dark Ages buildings and so on, and there's plenty of info on how castles and so on are made).

I have some of the Osprey books they are fairly well done. The artwork in the Vikings one if you google Osprey Viking you'll find just about all of the artwork in the book, done by Angus McBride.

For me, I'm generally buying history books every so often just to read, and the Dark Ages are generally the pretty sparse in comparison to say Romans or Crusades. And I generally enjoy reading things written by David Nicolle who has written quite a bit for Osprey.

I have a rather large and ever-growing collection of the Osprey books and can thoroughly recommend them.

I have a several related to vikings and normans and am likely to get more when I go back to working on those particular armies. Because they're pretty small books they're quite limited in scope, but they give a pretty good basic background. I particularly recommend the Warrior series, that's probably the more useful for gaming purposes, with reference to uniforms and organisation etc.

If you're going to buy a handful of reference books for wargaming purposes, you really can't go wrong with them.

I occasionally buy Osprey books. I found the Osprey book on Japanese tanks very useful but the book on Teutonic Order less helpful.

I do most of my research by searching for online article you can find some quite interesting stuff. TMP is also quite a good site to search, often I find someone has asked the same question before.

On dark age clothing I looked into it a while ago but since I never started the army lost interest. This is the only thing I bookmarked, a little information on possible Viking dye.

Take a look for the studio tomahawk forums. Here is a good take on suitable historical colors:
http://studiotomahawk.freeforums.org/dark-age-colour-schemes-t180.html
http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/

Thanks a million lads. I really appreciate it!

I think I'll get some Osprey ebooks then, they've a sale on. And I'll definitely check that link out, thanks Maniac_nmt!

I had actually seen that link before Duracelrabbit, very useful and interesting!. There is also a great resource somewhere from some recreation historians on the vikings. I will see if I can find it and repost it.

To echo other posters, quality varies greatly throughout the Osprey series. I own a fair few titles and find them more helpful than not overall, especially as an introduction into the "look and feel" or a period and/or conflict. In some cases, Osprey is the best or even only source. When it comes to more popular topics, such as the history of the vikings, you can probably find a better source (and check out the Angus McBride color plates online). NB - don't overlook the Osprey volumes focused on specific battles. These provide excellent grist for scenario writing.

I would also encourage looking into some viking reenactment groups.

http://www.vinlandvikings.org/

http://www.vikingsna.com/index.php/gallery

You will find some good sources of colors, clothing, and life. If you are in Germany, I would check Amazon.de. You can find a wealth of handbooks on historical reenactment. I have one which has some recipes, how to make a travel bed, and a few other bits. While a very impressive scene existed in the UK, even in the 80s when I lived there reenactment was huge with costuming and equipment being a thousand mark affair even then.

If you look around there are lots of odd little resources, depending on period. Some of them are specialist wargamer support material, like the Armies and Enemies series by Phil Barker (often OOP, but apparently being reprinted ATM...)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Armies-Enemies-Imperial-Rome/dp/1326224824/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459855841&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=armies+and+enemies+of+ancient+rome

The old Observer's Books had nice titles on castles and heraldry, which you sometimes find in antiques and secondhand shops.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Observers-Book-Castles-Brian-Davison/dp/0723215936

Shire Publications (a subsidiary of Osprey) does some nice pamphlets on relevant topics.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anglo-Saxon-England-400-790-Living-Histories/dp/0747808368/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459856487&sr=1-9&keywords=shire+publications+vikings

I've got their books on ancient Egyptian armies and ships.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Egyptian-Warfare-Weapons-Shire-Egyptology-Shaw/dp/0747801428/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459856758&sr=1-14&keywords=Shire+Egyptian

Blandford used to do some good uniform guides, like this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uniforms-American-Civil-Blandford-colour/dp/0713716029/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459856044&sr=1-3&keywords=uniforms+blandford

OOBs for some conflicts can be looked up on line.

As for specific later Dark Ages/early Mediaeval resources, I'm afraid it's not a period I have taken much notice of, but you might find the Armies and Enemies of the Crusades useful for later period Norman type soldiers.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Armies-Enemies-Crusades-1096-1291-Heath/dp/0904417085?ie=UTF8&keywords=armies%20and%20enemies%20of%20the%20crusades&qid=1459856302&ref_=sr_1_1&s=dmusic&sr=8-1

I've found the various Penguin historical atlases not only interesting but also good for gaining an overall view of the flow of events during periods.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-Atlas-Medieval-History-Hist/dp/0140512497/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459856359&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Penguin+atlas+of+mediaeval

There is a lot of historical stuff out there, if you root around Caliver's site, that could give you some leads:

https://www.caliverbooks.com/catviewer.php?cat=ANCIENT&subcat=8&subcode=H

Another good artist to look up and follow that does a lot of work for Osprey and other publishers is Graham Turner.

I see the Osprey books as a great place to start as they typically do a good job in giving you a general overview of a particular period. I've done the majority of my deeper research at my local library. My system has a great search tool and if my branch doesn't have the book I want on hand they can usually get it within a week. Plus it's free