Armored Moorish Cavalry

28mm Gripping Beast Moorish armored cavalry to pad out my Saga army

Even though my Moorish Saga army has taken the field several times, I am still finishing up painting the last of the figures I acquired for the army. Here are the six mailed (and scaled?) cavalry figures that were included. They are 28mm Gripping Beast (I believe, as I bought them second hand). With this batch, my mounted contingent of 20 riders is complete. If I use all of them, that would likely mean fielding one group of eight as mounted warriors for Saga, and the other two groups of six as hearthguard.

I was fairly pleased with how the riders' cloaks turned out - nice fancy for the wealthy Moors

For these figures, the most complicated part of the painting process was their cloaks and saddle blankets. I wanted to give patterns as they would be the wealthiest and able to furnish themselves with the fanciest apparel and kit. For the most part, I think the patterns came out well. I think my favorite is the yellow cloak with the flowered-looking pattern with red and green. Honestly, I am running out of ideas for patterns so am glad that I am nearing the end of painting this army...ha, ha!

Three of the latest batch ready to ride into battle against the enemies of the Emirate of Cordoba

I try to do the horses up nicely, as well. I have a horse painting chart that I'd downloaded from the internet which gives the basic colorings for dozens and dozens of horse types. It certainly is a step up from my old way of doing horses -- three colors of browns, a black, a gray, a white - all painted in a fairly standard way. I think having this chart makes my horses more varied and also probably more accurate, though I wouldn't doubt a horse fancier somewhere would lecture me about this or that particular breed not being around in my time period or location! As long as they look good on the tabletop and add their own variety to a colorful army, then I am satisfied with the horses.

The rest of the half dozen riders, colorfully resplendent in their Andalusian finery!

As usual, I used a plethora of dots and speckled patterns on this army. When I put these six figures away in the box with the rest of the army, I did momentarily pause to marvel at the effect of all those colors and patterns. This may be up there in my top tier of colorfully painted armies during my miniature modeling career. Certainly, the long-since-sold 15mm Jacobite highlanders could hold their own against my Moors when it came to a fashion show. Few other of my armies are going to be able to claim so much extra effort put into them, though. I decorated the turban cloths with dots for most of them, and of course, put time into their shields. Speaking of which -- I hope you're sitting down -- I am actually thinking of trying shield decals for my next Saga army. I may change my mind, but they are so commonplace nowadays that I think my hand-painted patterns are actually beginning to hold my paint jobs back. Who knows? I may change my mind when it comes time to buying the decals...!

Galloping into action, the Moorish cavalry is ready to charge their emir's foes

A look at the shield patterns I gave this batch of Moorish riders