Andalusian Cavalry for my Saga Moorish Army

Four of my first batch of eight Andalusian cavalrymen -- 28mm Gripping Beast figures

For the longest time, I had a "standard" way that I painted horses. I had black horses, dark brown, medium brown, tan, dun, white, light gray, and dark gray. I usually gave them "socks" white coloring near their hooves and a splotch of white on their foreheads. All the horses I painted for my various armies had the same basic coloring. Then I saw a colorful, cartoonish chart on the internet that showed various colorings simplified - dappled grays, buckskin, black "blue" roans, and more. There were more than 70 varieties depicted.

The cartoonish color guide I found on the internet and use for painting horses - feel free to download!

I decided to experiment and try to use the chart as a guide for my color choices. I was VERY happy with how they came out. So, when it came time to paint the cavalry for my Andalusian army for Saga, I found the chart again and swore to myself I would not take a shortcut and paint my old standard way of doing horses. This batch is the first of three batches of mounted Andalusian troops for my Saga army. I'm very happy with not only how the horses came out, but also the troopers atop them. In fact, the richly colored robes kind of overshadow the poor mounts and you have to pay attention to notice the markings on the horses. Hopefully, the two complement each other rather than detract from the other's effect.

All eight of the cavalrymen lined up and ready for battle

I was a little disappointed that most of the riders have the closed fists that you need to drill out to place spears or other weapons into. I prefer the open hand that Gripping Beast used for the Moorish infantry I'd painted already for this army. However, most of my drilling attempts worked out with only a few misaligned holes resulting in the hand being half open, half drilled. I took the worst of those mistakes and widened it with an X-acto blade to place swords instead of spears in their hands. But that is getting ahead of myself!

Close up of the other four Andalusian cavalrymen for my Saga Moorish army

I actually began with the horses, and painted all eight of them completely before beginning the riders. I even had them based and flocked before the riders had anything more than primer on them. This was a change in my methods, as well. Normally, I epoxy the figure to the horse before priming. However, with the patterns on the robes being so intricate, I thought it might be better to paint the riders separately and then epoxy them to the horses after completed. It did make turning the riders around, sideways, and upside down easier, which allowed me to execute the patterns with a minimum of struggle. Wait a minute...am I getting ahead of myself again??

The dappled gray - I honestly feel the rider overshadows the mount with his fancy shield and dotted headdress

Back to the horses! So, after cleaning up the very minimal flash on the miniatures (I am becoming more and more of a fan of Gripping Beast metal miniatures), I attached the horses to cardboard squares with white glue. Next, I brush-primed them with white acrylic craft paint. Then, I grabbed the chart and wrote onto the cardboard square which type of coloring I would use for each horse. One of my favorite 28mm horses that I have ever painted is a dappled gray in my Welsh army, so of course I would try one of those! Now, before anyone comments at the end of my blog that a particular marking I chose was not around in Andalusia during the Middle Ages, I want them to know I realize that is a possibility. I am trying to make my horses look more realistic than my cookie-cutter method I used before.

I really like using this chart for my horse coloring -- it really makes the mounts "pop" and look more realistic

The horse coloring was done first, and it actually made painting horses more enjoyable doing it this way. Normally, I look at horses as drudgery and focus my enthusiasm on the riders and infantry. However, I like how these look, and it is inspiring to see them begin to look lifelike while painting. That said, there was a lot of horse equipment -- each mount had some sort of saddle blanket, as well as reins, bridle, saddle, straps -- you name it! Quite a few even had tassels. I decided that I would make the horse blankets colorful and indulged my creativity with patterns, stripes, borders, and swirls.

This was the only shield I painted Arabic calligraphy on -- which matches the horse coloring, too (lucky accident!)

As mentioned earlier, once the horses were done, I went ahead and based and flocked them, too. I use 1"x2" rectangles for my horses (infantry are 1" squares). I actually use two of those infantry bases epoxied to a 1"x2" piece of styrene plastic. So, the cavalry bases are a fraction taller than the infantry ones, and if you look you can see the separation of the two bases. Yes, I could probably order some Litko 1"x2" bases, but I haven't painted cavalry in so long that I didn't see the need.  Anyway, I also added in a larger stone on each base (coarse buff talus from Woodland Scenics), as well as the usual scatter of small rocks (medium buff talus). I washed the larger stones with a black wash to give them more depth. I really like how the basing turned it on this batch of cavalry!

One of the riders that was given a spare 28mm sword I had instead of a wire spear

Once I was finished with the horses, I set them aside and began work on the riders. First, I attached their weapons -- North Star wire spears trimmed to appropriate length for six of the riders and 28mm swords for the other two. No weapons were included for the cavalry in the bagged army I had purchased at last year's Advance the Colors dealer room. So, I had to supply my own swords from my dwindling supply (though I recently ordered a restock of 80 wire spears from Brigade Games-- that should last me awhile!).

When I Googled Andalusian shields I saw a leopard skin one, so I HAD to paint one this way -- I like it!

I decided to attach the riders to squares of cardboard like the mounts had been. This is kind of tricky depending on the pose. I essentially leaned them up against something heavy, put a blob of glue on the sole of each foot and placed them upright on the cardboard, leaning against their chosen object. I did have two figures pop off the cardboard during the painting process. Once they were completely done except for their shoes, I popped them off their square. I held onto them with my hands, painting the shoe, and later while drybrushing the shoe and detailing the leather stirrups. Once the riders were completed, I matched them up against the horses, picking out a mount for each. I didn't want them to match perfectly, but I wanted the coloring of each to complement each other.

The double almond shaped shields seemed to be a common Andalusian motif...and tassels, too, I guess

They were attached by scraping off a bit of paint on the horse's saddle and the underside of the rider. This would hopefully give a metal on metal bond with the epoxy. We'll see if I have a problem with riders popping off as time progresses -- hopefully not! Oh, and I guess I lied. The riders weren't completely done when epoxied onto their mounts. I did the black and brown wash on the riders after they sat atop their horse. My system for washing this army is somewhat complex. The lightest flesh tone of the three I am using gets a brown wash. The darker two tones get a black wash. For equipment and clothes, if it is in the white/yellow/tan tonal range, that part of the figure receives a brown wash. If any other color (red, brown, blue, etc.), it gets a black wash. For some reason, brown washes don't seem to show up on the greens and reds and so on.

The pattern on this robe turned out to be my favorite -- that of the horse blanket came out not too shabby either!

I added in a couple new patterns for my robes this time, too. My favorite new one consists of 7 dots - a central dot and 6 around it. I will definitely be using this one, again. I may try to do a light dots on a darker robe color with this pattern next time. The three-tier, two-color floral pattern didn't come out as nicely, though. At least it is not my favorite. All in all, I was very happy with how the robes look on these riders. I'm so glad I went out and bought additional colors when doing my second batch of Andalusian infantry. I think the variety of subtle shades really add to the look of the army.

Trying to balance things, this rider got a simple border for his robe since I knew I would be doing something for his cloak

For the shields, I did a lot of Googling images, looking at Gripping Beast's web page, and of course the one I've mentioned before, Joe/Neldoreth from An Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields. His artistry is something I can aspire to, but never achieve. Before planning out what I will do for the robes or the shields for each batch, I look through every single one of the images of his al-Andalus gallery on his site. I can only hope that others see these pages of Lead Legionaries and it gives them an idea or two to try for their own tables!