Tuesday, 21 January 2020

From DarrellH: Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Yusuf ibn Tashfin Command Base (20 pts)


Yusef ibn Tashfin victor against Alfonso Vi of Leon and Castile was a very remarkable man. As leader of the Moroccan Almoravid dynasty and was one of the founders of the city of Marrakesh. On heading the call of the Taifa Kingdoms, the once mighty kingdom of Al Andalus in Southern Spain; pleading for military aid and intervention in order to block the encroachment of the resurgent Christian Kingdoms. Tashfin managed to unite the Taifa Kingdoms with his Almoravid invasion force and lead a very successful campaign, putting the Christian forces under immense pressure and devastating the ambitions of Alfoso



He faced Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile twice in open battle winning spectacular victories on both occasions at the Battle of Sagrajas 1086 and the Battle of Consuegra 1097 respectively.



This piece is the command base that will be attached to the Yusef ibn Tashfin's Black Guard. His personal guard and chosen mostly from Slav and Sudanese slaves. (Unfortunately I cannot post any pics of the Black Guard as they were finished before the painting challenge began- you can see pics of them on my Just Add Water wargames blog)




From Paul

The painting is superb and you get bonus points for the banners and shield work. Thats 3 figures and 5 bonus points for 20 points

26 comments:

  1. Ooh, these are fabulous, Darrell. Beautiful brushwork and I love the shield and flag. Wonderful stuff. What is your paint recipe for your North African flesh? It looks great.

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    1. For the Sudanese soldiers I'm using the Foundry Dark African Flesh Triad with a couple of final highlights with Vallejo Model Colour Light Sand added progressively. For the more 'Arabic' troops in the army I use a much lighter recipe such as the one used on the Andalusian Noble Cavalry in an earlier post.

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  2. That's a lovely command base Darrell )

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  3. Great looking piece! Love the shield especially. Good work on the black, too!

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    1. Windsor and Newton's Pains Grey is the key to the blacks. I did try the Andrea Black Paint Set but it was too flat in effect.

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  4. Oh wow, this Reconquista stuff has just been amazing.

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    1. It is for the Islamic forces, the Christians are much less colourful sadly; though I might change that as long as it's within certain historical parameters :)

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  5. These are splendid, lovely work!

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  6. Great looking command stand, lovely clean painting style!
    Best Iain

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  7. One of the best things I’ve seen the challenge,, this command stand just plain rocks so much it could qualify at Cooks crevasse!

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    1. I still haven't had a look at the more 'special' challenge events. It's my fist year and I'm still trying to navigate putting up a post! This one took me three attempts! LOL

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  8. Great work Daryl, hope to see more of the collection over the coming months.

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    1. Cheers Paul, I'm still working oat a rate of knots! :)

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  9. Fantastic. Love the banners.

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    1. The 'Banner' is actually three pennants from LBMS glued together as I needed a black banner to go with the ones featured in the Black Guard unit

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  10. That is a work of art. Breathtaking.

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    1. I'll take that compliment- many thanks :)

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  11. Thanks for the fine compliment Emjenic

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  12. Great work, got a load of the Warlord Games Black Guard along with some Gripping Beast command figures on the 'to do' list.

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    1. I have a unit of Black Guard already painted up for this project but it was started before the AHPC started so I haven't posted any pics. It's half Artizan and half Saxon Miniatures (now sold by Warlord Games).

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