How to paint Polybian Roman

Coloured clothing was expensive so you could argue that they left it at home! That way you could do all the tunics in white/off-white/beige/bone/light grey and then just add different colours to the trim to give individual variety. There is some literature describing the vaunted Early Imperial Roman Army in white tunics simply because of supply issues and the availability of crimson cloth in some sections of the Empire. The Romans were above all, practical people! For the shields, I'm no expert but I would have thought that early in the period the shields may have been varied but the demands of the Punic Wars may have led to state sponsored arms so you could get away with more uniform shields, at least for each element.

Cheers

Jim

It is said that Hasdrubal at the battle of Metaurus in northern Italy in 207 BC noticed
that the Roman army had been reinforced because he spotted shield symbols that
he had not seen the previous day (and the Romans sounding two trumpet blasts).

Although Duncan Head in his “Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars” says that
no shield blazons appear to have been used by the Republican-Polybian Romans,
other modern scholars think they were. These would have been different from the
later Marian-Caesarian and Imperial symbols. Here are some examples:-
www.victrixlimited.com/collections/republican-romans

We know that each Roman Consul commanded 2 Roman Legions
accompanied by 2 Latin ‘legions’, plus some Italian allies and cavalry.
Since a DBA II/33 Polybian Roman army has 4 x Blades, 2 x Triarii Spears,
2 x Italian Auxiliaries, 2 x Velite skirmishers, and 2 x Cavalry, i.e. 12 elements,
I like to think of each Blade element representing an entire Legion of 4,000 men.

So here is my Camillan-Polybian army:-
2 x Roman Blades (red tunics and red shields, all the figures in that particular element with the same shield symbol).
2 x Latin Blades (white tunics and coloured shields, all the figures in that element with the same symbol and shield colour).
2 x Triarii Spears (one in red Roman tunics, the other in white Latin tunics, shields the same as the ‘Legions’).
2 x Velite Psiloi (one in red Roman tunics, the other in white Latin tunics, shields the same as the ‘Legions’).
2 x Cavalry (one in red Roman tunics, the other in white Latin tunics, shields the same as the ‘Legions’).
2 x Italian Auxiliaries (various tunics and shield colours, and each individual figure with his own personal shield symbol).

I also like to use ‘local troops’ when outside of southern Italy, as the Romans themselves did.
In Spain the 2 x Ax, 1 x Cv, and 1 x Ps are Spanish Iberians (replacing the Italians and the red Roman Cv & Velites).
In Gaul the 2 x Ax, 1 x Cv, and 1 x Ps are Gallic mercenaries (replacing the Italians and the red Roman Cv & Velites).
In Greece the 2 x Ax, 1 x Cv, and 1 x Ps are Greek peltasts (replacing the Italians and the red Roman Cv & Velites).