Last fall I bought a bag each of the Victrix plastic Islamic cavalry and infantry. Overall, I found the sculpts were fantastic – the infantry went together with almost no effort, and while the cavalry can be a bit more finicky, they looked pretty amazing once assembled. I then left them aside for the time being – likely because some other shiny hobby thing arrived to take my attention away. You know how it goes.
Then a friend told me the week before last that he’s started working on his own Crusader and Saracen forces, so I pulled out a couple of the Victrix figures for a test paint with a view to likewise eventually building the same.
My concept for the Saracens is to paint the rank and file in simpler colours so that the leaders can easily stand out. These figures painted up pretty quickly and a bit of variety will go a long way to making a distinct looking formation. For the shields I opted to use Little Big Men Studios transfers because I like them, but one certainly can go the simpler route of just painting their own designs if preferred.
The cavalryman took me a while longer to complete. I wanted a colourful character, but I didn’t want him looking like a circus rider. So, I did a bit of historical research and settled on a palette that gave me variety but not chaos. As I was making him a bannerman for some future cavalry group, I found it easier to paint the horse and rider separately before assembly. Similarly, I painted his shield, sword, and sword harness separately then glued it on after I had secured the rider to the horse. Again, the shield design and the banner are both LBM Studio transfers.
In this small batch:
3x 28mm figures = 15 points
1x 28 mounted figure = 10 points
Nice work on those Saracens Andrew. I really like the Dark Age Victoria kits but might have to get some of their Arabs now. I think we can say that you and your painting aced this test.
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