Monday 8 December 2014

Building the Saracen Army part 2

A couple of weeks ago I started painting my Saracen Army proper. I've painted up most of the horses but put these to one side and focussed on the 130 infantry figures already based and primed.

Part 1 of this project can be found here...

Part 1

10 days later I can report 130 infantry figures painted. There are some provisos...firstly I have not painted the shields (toying with the transfer option) and secondly the basing still needs to be finished.

You'll see that my painting style is very basic, slap on the colour and paint over with army dip (medium tone). This allows me to field armies really quickly and do what I like best play with my shiny toys. I haven't decided yet on whether I might tone down the shininess with a matt spray?

Again please bear in mind I am building a 'Hollywood' Saracen Army so no reference to historical inaccuracies please.

So here we go...

This lot were really easy to paint...all black. The bulk have come from Gripping Beasts Plastic Arabs.

Sixteen Spears, Sixteen Archers and an Officer. All my units will be built in eights to allow easy conversion to Saga.





Next up is a neat little unit of Crossbows (all Black Tree Design).  I will be building another 16 crossbows from the next box of Gripping Beast Arabs.

Each of my units has a common colour  - in this case its blue



Archers are clearly something you need in a Saracen army so 16 so far. A mix of gripping beast and black tree. These guys all have blue sashes helping to tie the unit together.




We of course need some levy, javelin throwers etc. - 16 of these




Next up are some North African Skirmishers...



Next up are probably some of the nicest Black Tree figures  - there spear armed warriors. Red being the theme for 24 of them. These will look great once the shields are added and the bases done.




Finally I had around 24 sword armed and other melee weapon figures. These could be dismounted knights, guards etc. Some of them would also look great supporting a Sinbad style game...there is a thought.



And lastly the first boss...


Up next  - well there are another 80 infantry to be built md painted  But I'll start next on the Heavy Cavalry.

Until next time....

Part 3 can be found here...

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/building-saracen-army-part-3.html

12 comments:

  1. Great looking army, archers are my favorites...beautiful colors!

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  2. Neat!

    I especially like the crossbowmen, they look like really nice miniatures to paint.

    Those javelin throwers ( not the GB ones.), are they HäT? and how do you think they mix with other miniatures?

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    1. These are not HaT but metal ones I picked up off ebay...don't know the manufacturer

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  3. Looking very good.
    If you need some flags for them...
    http://tomstoysoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/almoravid-flags.html

    Tom

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Tom - Ill be looking (and maybe buying soon)

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    2. Completely free, gratis and for nothing these ones.
      :)
      Tom

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  4. They look great. I'm in the process of painting up a Fireforge Crusader army using the same method....though I am much, much slower than you. I plan to do the opposing Saracen army afterwards so it's nice to see them come up so nicely.

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    1. Fortunately I have already painted up a number of Fireforge knights etc for my Robin Hood Games but I still need at least 50 more cavalry figures and 100+ infantry. That's the next project ;-)

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  5. 130 in 10 days... that's pretty good going and they look pretty good too :)

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  6. Mind bogglingly impressive. I would definitely hit them with matte varnish though. Unless you are going for the old-timey toy soldier look, then leave the shine.

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  7. Wow! Awesome looking troops!

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  8. You don't hang about, do you? My advice, for what its worth, would be to go with shield transfers and matt varnish.

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