I present 8 early crusader foot troops and a fired-up priest! These miniatures are all from Gripping Beast and will take the field as part of my Milites Christi war-band for SAGA. Eventually I hope to have enough extra troops that I can field them to play Lion Rampant as well.
I have painted them up in the colours of the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, or Knights Hospitaller. I chose this order as I fell in love with the pictures of these guys in the SAGA rule book. I think it is such a striking scheme, if perhaps a tad impractical in the desert heat. They are obviously early crusaders, and would have served from after the fall of Jerusalem in 1099. The order changed colours in 1259 and started wearing red with a white cross, but my guys won't be getting the new issue uniform any time soon!
The shields were hand-painted as you can easily tell! It is quite difficult coming up with different ways to paint a cross on a shield, so a lot of my guys just have the large cross across the whole shield, as I think it looks best.
The miniatures were a treat to paint up, especially the priest. I actually started another box of these warriors in 2015, but due to my hobby butterfly tendencies (and the Painting Challenge), their brother-in-arms have been finished first.
Have a great 2017 everyone!
Cheers,
Steve
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That is some gorgeous brush-work Steve! The hand-painted shields look ace and I agree with you, the priest is the star of the show (awesome work on the face). I'm starting these chaps for a later period and your efforts are acting as a wonderful inspiration.
53 Points for your efforts. (I've added a few extra points for your shields.)
Great work!
Very nice Stephen :)
ReplyDeleteGreat work
ReplyDeleteWow! Those are just great. I really like how you did these.
ReplyDeleteOh man, THIS! I just love this period, and I wish my mouse brain could figure it out from a hobby perspective as I would love to dive in myself. These look really good - inspiring and distracting all at once. Great work!
ReplyDeleteGreat looking foot troops Stephen. I really like the shields.
ReplyDeleteReally nice work Stephen. I think shields turned out really well.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely done Stephen!
ReplyDeleteVery good indeed, what I like best is the gritty, grimy veteran look you've managed to give these chaps.
ReplyDeletedark and foreboding grisly and gritty. They may be Christians but they do look an uncouth lot! Not troops you want to upset!
ReplyDeleteGreat work love the dark uniforms
ReplyDeleteVery impressive,
ReplyDeleteIan
Great work on these Hospitallers, Stephen, well done!
ReplyDeleteI like the rich browns contrasting with the minimalist black and white, very cool.
ReplyDeleteVery nice painting work. They look really hard fighters.
ReplyDeleteVery nice painting on these cool figures. cheers
ReplyDeleteGreat work on these!
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Very well done. It will be no surprise that I like the priest. Now THAT's a Mad Padre!
ReplyDeleteVery lovely models ,Stephen! I am a fan of the painted sheilds they look ferocious with the attendant priest! ;)
ReplyDeleteThat priest is fantastic! Great work on the uniforms, too.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a tremendous job on these and I really like the hand painted shields.
ReplyDelete