El Cid Spanish project for On Bloody Ground...

[wipgamesandminiatures]

For our next supplement we are focusing on El Cid and the Reconquista up until the fall of the Almohads in the 13th century.

This painting project will be completed by the end of October, ready to take photos for the book release for Christmas, so essentially I have about 7 weeks to the day to complete everything! This is of course a tight schedule, but that makes it more fun doesn't it?

I have made a 'test' army so will be painting the most essential units first, but I have bought plenty of figures from Crusader and Perry Miniatures to use whatever I like in the army.

Below are a few pics of about half of what I have bought...

I decided to do the worst part first in my opinion, which is the horses. Using the airbrush I could quite quickly put down the base colours and highlights, whilst having quite a bit of variety  in the colour of the horses throughout the army. As you can see, there is quite a lot...

I'll be updating this post with painted units and characters as I go along, as well as some pics of our battles muddled in.

[SJWi]

If you want some "personality" figures I can recommend Reconquer Designs/Caballero Miniatures'figures.

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Yep, they're lovely, I'll likely pick some up after I've done the bulk of the rank and file guys

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Todays update...

I have painted all of the knights with swords that I bought, as well as some musicians.

The colours are mixed, as I didn't want anything to seem too 'uniform' but I have used colours that I expect would be relatively common on the knights of the period (red, white, yellow, black some green and blue and of course lots of browns!)

I've chosen the horses for each rider and prepped the base for them. All that I need to do now is paint the reigns and maybe some details on the horses and then sand them and these guys will be done.

I was thinking once I have painted all the knights I will mix the ranges together and then paint the shields for each unit, depicting a specific region (Castile, Leon, Aragon, Toledo etc.). I'm pretty sure this isn't 100% historically correct but for identifying the units on the table this will be nice. All shields will be hand painted too so that will be fun! Maybe some of you may know better than me how these would have looked? (I'll be using the colours of the region then will do similar designs to how Norman shields are, so straight lines, half and half, full colour. That's the initial idea anyways)

[wipgamesandminiatures]

First unit of Caballeros Hidalgos completed, minus shields.

As these guys are all of the models I had with swords, I have painted them with different colours so I can fit them in all of my units, sooo although technically they aren't a unit themselves I'm aiming for units of 10-12 cav so I'm counting it.

Pics below. Once I get them into the right size units I will paint up their shields.

[Codsticker]

This is coming along very nicely. I have some of Crusaders El Cid range and found them a joy to paint.

[wipgamesandminiatures]

This is coming along very nicely. I have some of Crusaders El Cid range and found them a joy to paint.

Thanks! I think the figures are great too, actually underrated in my humble opinion!

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Latest update!

I have been working on these almost every day, but I thought it might not be as interesting to see half painted knights and horses.

I have finished most of the knights now for the army I have planned, they just need their shields so I wont take nice photos of them until they get done.

What I have finished though is a Priest attachment for the On Bloody Ground army. Because you can only have one of these in the army, and it can either be mounted, or dismounted, I thought it would be quicker and look nicer if i did both on one base and just tell my opponent at the start of the game if he's on a horse (he most likely will be!)

So here he is!

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Just over 3 weeks to go before everything needs to be done.

Work has been going on behind the scenes, lots of commanders and odd miniatures are painted and only need to be based up now, photos will follow once done.

Just finished my Battlefield Bystanders, photos below.

In On Bloody Ground these are an option for either player to bring for free. They don't do anything during the game but are placed within 6 inches of your table edge. If they survive the battle you gain 50vp and if they die your opponent gets 100vp. A nice little thing to consider before the battle, and it allows you to put on a little diorama and make the battlefield more interesting.

On another note I have drafted a standard 2000 point army to figure out what needs to be placed at the front of the painting queue.

El Cid - done-
3 units of 10 x Caballeros Hidalgos with Medium Armour, Shields and Throwing Weapons -done minus shields-
8 x Skirmishing Jinetes with Shields -horses done-
18 x Guard Spearmen with Throwing Weapons
24 x Peones with Throwing Weapons
2 units of 8 x Ballesteros (Crossbowmen)
2 units of 12 x Archers
10 x Skirmish Javelinmen

I wanted to get a good mix of infantry and strong cavalry, whilst also having some ranged damage output. El Cid is a good commander with 5 Command Points and a good Command Influence.

Still have lots to do so back to work!

[Codsticker]

That's a great base; suitable as table dressing or an objective.

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Definitely, it can be used lots of different ways which is always useful!

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Applying the final touches to everything now.

I changed my army around a bit but here is the first, fully completed, unit of Caballeros Hidalgos.

I took some inspiration colour wise from Toledo just to have some uniformity for my units.

Figs are a mix of Crusader, Perry and Wargames Foundry.

[Atheling]

These little fellows are Fab Dan 

[wipgamesandminiatures]

Thanks a lot, I’ll be posting the rest of the army up here too so keep an eye out!

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely