Here ya go, Little Wee, some Ibuprofen....
Ok, a "true roan" horse will look different at different times of the year. In the summer their bodies will look lighter, but they will retain a dark head and legs. In the winter, their hair grows in dark and they look like a totally different horse sometimes.
Now, if you have a "true roan" horse that ALSO happens to be an appaloosa, they will have all the traits of a true roan, ie: darker head and legs with roaning on the body, PLUS they will have appaloosa characteristics or color, like a blanket with spots. A "roany appaloosa" will be roaned throughout, without that darker head and legs.
Here is a blue roan stallion that I used to own, Fishers Cisco Kid. His blanket and spots are not "dramatic" so his appy coloring is not super-striking, but he is obviously appy, and obviously roan.
Here is a daughter of Cisco's, with one of her daughters (standing downhill on a slope, not too flattering sorry). Mirage has had three fillies and only this one inherited the "true roan" gene. It's a little difficult to see in this picture, but both have the darker heads and black legs.
A "roany" appaloosa would be "roaned" all over it's body. And a "varnish" would end up turning mostly white, as others have mentioned, with just the bony parts of its body generally staying dark (knees, hips, etc). I know when a friend of mine had a varnish stallion of hers for sale, many people told her that they didn't like the varnish pattern, as it seemed to "wipe out" all of the color. I think they are pretty cool-looking myself, but I don't have any of those.
Does this help at all? One thing I DO know about is blue roan appaloosas, as I've had quite a few of them, lol!
(duh, edited to add the second pic, sigh)
