Starting a new Saga army: Moors of Andalusian Spain (a return to LAF...)

[mikedemana]

The first of three batches of eight archers from Gripping Beast

Much to my surprise, the bagged army I purchased last fall at the flea market has 24 archers -- not 12. So, I decided to do them in three batches of eight. Here's the first batch of eight. They are 28mm Gripping Beast. Mostly one pose because by painting all the same pose at the same time I can ensure they're all different.


Horror of horrors, I had to super glue these guys' hands to their wrists! Read about my super glue challenged opinions on my blog entry

Speaking of which, I tried to make these a little less fancy than the Andalusian spearmen and cavalrymen from the previous batches. I figure the levy can't afford the best fabrics that their wealthier brethren can. Check out my post on my Lead Legionaries blog for lot more photos:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2020/08/moorish-archers-first-batch.html

And thanks for all the kind comments!

Mike Demana

[Atheling]

Fab work 

I think your overall ability to get the patterns on the fabrics just right is definitely improving. Less can me more

[mikedemana]

My second batch of Andalusian Cavalry - 28mm Gripping Beast

Getting ready for the start of the school year certainly has slowed down my progress a tad on my Saga Moorish army. I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed by painting my previous batch of cavalry. Eight mounted figures is just a really big chunk of figures to do at once (for me, at least). I have normally worked in smaller batches so I can be motivated by seeing regular progress.


One of my favorite figures - both horse and rider - from this latest batch

So, I dropped it down to six figures at a time and things seemed to go much easier. I paint the horses first, then the riders separately from their mounts. In the past, I've epoxied the riders onto the mounts before painting, but with these Andalusians, I guess I want to be able to twist and turn the figure from every angle to do their robe patterns. Thus, the change in methods.


Three more mounted warriors in my Saga Moorish army

I tried out a new robe "floral" pattern this time and am pretty happy with how it turned out. Check out my Lead Legionaries blog for LOTS more photos. I have individual shots of each of the six minis, plus group shots. Link is here:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2020/08/moorish-cavalry-rides-again-2nd-batch.html

To access the army page with all of my posts for the Moors, including the first batch of cavalry and the spearmen and archers, click here:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/search/label/Moors%20Saga%20army

Thanks for checking out my painting, and I appreciate the kind comments.

Mike Demana

[Marine0846]

Mike,
More excellent figures painted.
Outstanding.

[mikedemana]

My Moorish general and his pet cheetah encourage his Moors to advance

Well, it has been quite some time since I posted here on LAF! Once school started, I found that teaching online meant that I had to re-adapt every single lesson to a virtual format. This workload kept me buried till Christmas break. During that time, I forged ahead and got my lessons planned two weeks ahead of time. I'm happy to say I've been able to keep that up so far, in 2021.

So, have I been doing any painting during that time? Surprisingly, yes! I managed to finish off the Moorish Saga army a little over a month back. So, step one will be to post the pics of the rest of the army. Unfortunately, the second surge in COVID meant that our twice-monthly Saga game days had to be put on hold. However, with the vaccines filtering down to more and more of the people here in the US, hopefully that will change soon!



What else have I done in the meantime? I actually started a podcast talking about Saga. I interview one of our Saga folks here in our Ohio group each episode. It's gone over quite well, and I am releasing a new episode about every two weeks. Here's the link on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0DjPOldhAAzWU2lCRu1zLZ

In the meantime, I wanted to say Hi and let folks know that I am still alive. Expect lots more pictures soon...!

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

Time for pictures of the rest of the army!

2nd Batch of Moorish archers





I have 24 total archers to paint up in this army, though I doubt if I would actually ever use all of them in a 6-point game of Saga!

Armored Moorish Cavalry













I really liked how this batch of six figures turned out. As I have mentioned in my Lead Legionaries blog posts about this army (http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/), this army really reaffirmed my belief in my own painting skills. In the year or two prior to this army, I honestly thought that I had "lost it" -- and that my best painting days were receding quickly behind me in the rear view mirror. However, through patience, the right subject, and using my lighted magnifier attached to my painting desk, I have been reborn, so to speak. 

A note for how I will use these figs for Saga: I actually intend to have only two units of 6 mounted hearthguard with javelins for my mounted force. So, I tend to mix these figures with the earlier two batches of unarmored ones for my units. Maybe one day I'll toss in some mounted warriors, too, but that would mean painting more troops. 


Last of the archers








Moorish Warlord Command Stand





So, here he is: Majik ibn Battuta al-Waqaa, the warlord of my Moorish Saga warband. I love to put a standard bearer and "pet" on the bases of my Saga warlords. For the Moors, though, I wanted to do something different. Dogs are not exactly as loved in Middle Eastern culture as they are here, so I took a look through my unpainted 28mm animals. I saw this 25mm Iron Wind Metals big cat and immediately thought, "Cheetah!" After all, cheetahs WERE semi-domesticated in North Africa, Egypt, etc. So, "Scirocco" accompanies Majik into battle!

I was so happy how this warlord base came out that I immediately adopted it for my Saga Ohio logo, as you saw in my last post.

Anyway, next up, I'll post some links to battle reports on my Lead Legionaries blog. For more indepth talk about how I painted these guys and such, please visit my blog!

Mike Demana