Great progress over the weekend

Painting finished on the Pack camels except the last few bags to touch up

Painting and touch ups finished on the Camp followers

Wash, final dry brush and figure bases to do then ready to base

Bases cut and prepared, both sides painted, edges left to to

Started on the first of a new batch, Syrian mounted prepared and undercoated, currently drying in the late afternoon sun

Touched up the last few bags on the pack camels

Finished painting the edges of the bases last night, glued magnetic vinyl on this morning before heading off to work

Washed the pack camels and camp followers

Labelled bases underneath
I'm labeling the stands with the army list entry underneath and a label on top which identifies troop type and is coloured by army
This will make identification easy as we only be using these troops occasionally

Base coat and dry brushed the Syrian mounted's horses

As well as the coloured labels I'm planning to use variations in the colour palette to differentiate each army

My thoughts at the moment are:

• III/66 Fatamid Egyptian​ - various blues
• III/74b Seljuq Turkish - various Browns
• IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine - purple, blues and reds
• IV/2 Cilician Armenian - various greens
• IV/6a Syrian - muted colours similar to my 1917 Arabs
• IV/7 Early Crusader & IV/17 Later Crusader - various reds

All the armies will be based around the muted colours I used for my 1917 Arabs http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,10663.msg204439.html#msg204439

All but the Syrians will have some stronger colours added, typically one piece of clothing on a figure and only a few figures per stand

Units like Ghulams which were more 'regular' will have a more uniform appearance

The colour choices are somewhat arbitrary, thoughts and / or suggestions welcome

Like the idea of using colours to co-ordinate armies, not only does it make them easier to identify on the table, it also helps with painting.

What are the roman numerals, and numbers for before the names of the different factions (e.g. III/66)?

Crusaders need one unit to be black and white, with one red leader?

Quote from: fred. on 12 September 2016, 08:23:17 PM
Like the idea of using colours to co-ordinate armies, not only does it make them easier to identify on the table, it also helps with painting.

What are the roman numerals, and numbers for before the names of the different factions (e.g. III/66)?

Hello Fred

If memory serves me well (not always guaranteed), the Roman numeral stands for the DBM/DBMM army book and the number is the place of the army list within that book. So IV/2 Cilician Armenian would b the second army list within Book IV. This was so that people could cross reference the bare bones DBA army list with the more detailed DBM/DBMM description.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

Memory serves you well Grumpy

ML, I suspect that was a later Crusade or am I missing something

Well, they are listed as Early/Later Crusader on your post?

First Crusade is  Hugh, Godfrey, Raymond, and Bohemond rather than Richard, ML.

Don't forget Tancred. I've always had a fondness for him.

Quote from: mad lemmey on 13 September 2016, 06:25:13 AM
Well, they are listed as Early/Later Crusader on your post?

Apologies for the confusion, the project is aimed at the First Crusade and the main army is the Early Crusader. By adding one Light Horse, one Spear and one Bow elements I can convert the Early Crusader list to the Later list. This gives me another army option at minimal cost. If I had needed to add some Knights they would definitely be black and white, with one red leader

I've made good progress today

The Syrian mounted are now mainly done
Skin, belts and a few details to do, then they are ready to wash. I'm going to try highlighting the weapons and armour after the wash

The Camps and Camp Followers are now based
Probably some sand flock touch ups to do once the basing is dry and then I will need to wait for varnishing weather
Cloudy tomorrow and next Wednesday, rain or showers for the rest of the next 10 days

I've prepared the Syrian foot and also cut out all the bases needed for the Syrians
I hope to undercoat the foot and sand the bases during the less cloudy periods tomorrow

Based
16 Mounted
24 Foot
40 Total

While painting the Syrian mounted I have realised I don't know much about stirrups during the First Crusade. From what I can see in Ian Heath's book stirrups were widely used but there seems to be several different types; some metal, some appear to be leather

So what colour should I paint the stirrups

The weather today was much better than forecast, sunny with a high of 17 Great drying weather so I made a lot more progress than I was expecting

The Syrian mounted are now painted and will be washed tonight

The required sand flock touch ups on the Camps and Camp Followers were done this morning and the edges touched up around lunch time

The Syrian foot were undercoated this morning and will be base coated tonight

The bases for the Syrians have been sanded, both sides painted and the first coat done on the edges They will get the last coat on the edges tonight

I prepared the Byzantine heavy mounted (don't have room on the painting rods for the light) and got them undercoated late afternoon



I even managed to take some pictures of the Camps and Camp Followers, I better get them posted