Thursday, October 12, 2017

Saracen Flag Bearer for SAGA

"Saracen" war banner bearer for my SAGA warband

This is a bit of an extra for my Saracen warband in "SAGA: Crescent and the Cross".  This is a flag bearer, which I believe can be swapped in among the hearthguard to help lower fatigue levels of the warriors in the game.  My Crusader warband has a battleflag bearer, so I thought it would be good to do one up as well for the Saracen warriors.

Beautiful, fluid feeling of movement to these incredible Perry sculpts
As with the other figures, this is a 28mm sculpt from the Perry twins' First Crusade range. I will again rave about just how gorgeous these sculpts are.  They are just lovely and a lot of fun to paint. I even enjoyed hand-painting the shield this time - perhaps a sign that I am getting into a bit of a groove when it comes to painting historical warriors.

Charge!
The flag itself is a banner from Maverick Models.  I believe, strictly speaking, it is actually a Mahdist banner from the uprising in Sudan, 800 years or so after the First Crusade, which is a fairly significant historical whiff on my part, but I needed an arabic-looking, basic banner and this seemed to work, so I'm going with it for now...I can always cut it off and replace it later.

As with the other "Saracen" figurs, I tried to work some bold and brighter colours into the mix
In addition to some bonuses for his fellow Saracen warriors in SAGA, this figure will also be able to join a command group in a game such as "Hail Caesar", which I still harbour dreams/notions/delusions of playing in 28mm some day.  With nine arab heavy cavalry models already painted for the SAGA warband, it would not be a stretch to add a musician and a few more warriors to make a heavy cavalry unit for "Hail Caesar" (or a couple of more "points" for SAGA, for that matter).

So the two rival warbands are ready for SAGA action. Considering I ordered the figures back in January that isn't a totally terrible turnaround time.  Hope to put them into action on the Fawcett gaming table this fall!

In terms of what's next for painting (because I must always be painting something, or I'll lose my mind), I will be turning next to another historical subject, one that has been absent from my painting table for quite a while...stay tuned!

7 comments:

john de terre neuve said...

Very nice Greg, I will look forward to what is up next. I have a couple of surprises coming up myself!

Peter Douglas said...

Lovely work Greg. The shield and bold colours are very effective. Unless you are playing some one that reads Arabic, you're likely fine with the banner! II agree with you on these Perry figures, I use them for my El acid armies using Hail Caesar.

Cheers

Peter

JamieM said...

Very nice, there isn't a wargame that isn't improved by a banner or two :)

I'm impressed with your plan to always be painting something, wish I could be that disciplined!

Bill said...

Beautiful work! Love the designwork on the shield especially.

Phil said...

What a splendid flag, and figure!

Ray Rousell said...

Great looking figure Greg.

Moiterei_1984 said...

Your force is coming along nicely Greg! Each one a real joy to behold and this lad certainly is no exception.