At last, an update on a warband for my favourite tabletop game of the moment – Saga. I decided I’d kick things off with pictures of my Arab warband, as these are the most recently (nearly) finished of my various projects (which are rarely finished).

This warband was given to me as payment for painting a slightly smaller warband of Jomsvikings for the same commissioner whose French I’m currently at work on. As there currently is no official Arab warband (the battleboard from Wargames Illustrated does not count as such) these models were painted mostly out of interest and in preparation for a crusades-themed expansion due later this year. Although the commissioner didn’t leave me a choice in the sort of Arab models he gave me, I was thoroughly pleased with most if not all of them. Let’s take a closer look! I’ll do them in chronological order, starting with the first unit: the Skirmishers.

As these models were the simplest sculpts in the warband, I decided to tackle these first as test models. The paintjob is a mixture of cutting corners with washes and good old layer highlighting, which made it an interesting paintjob for me to execute. The models were primed white and then completely washed with seraphim sepia – in effect, all the bone colour is thus immediately done, with the great bonus of immediately helping identify all the detail on the models.

Especially of interest on the nobles, the elite of the warband, the steel was done fairly quickly as well – a basecoat of runefang steel with subsequent washes of nuln oil and agrax earthshade. Then followed the skin – a basecoat of XV-88 washed with agrax earthshade, then highlighted with again XV-88 and finally zamesi desert. I’m not 100% satisfied with the skin tone; it was my first attempt at emulating middle eastern type skin with the new GW paints and I’ll have to find a slightly different formula should I be painting any more of these.

 A note on the shields: a basic warpstone glow with a drakenhof nightshade wash. Simple comme bonjours. Painting the Arabic word for falcon on each and every one was, understandably, less simple.

By far the most time consuming part of these models was the blue robes in which they’re swathed. It’s here that I went with a traditional layering; a basecoat of stegadon scale green, followed by feathered highlights of sotek green and finally temple guard blue. These paints go together so well that I think the originally planned glaze would have been overkill. I’m still in doubt about the dots on the cloth however. With the nobles I added a distinctive three-dot pattern in pastel orange onto their robes. Should I add this to the tribesmen as well?

 

Finally, the mounted tribesmen. These models were fairly straightforward to paint, as with the foot troops. The horses were painted in the main with a ruddy brown called tuskgor fur – ideal for those Arabian horses – and washed with agrax earthshade. I might go back and highlight them back to tuskgor fur, but I’m fairly satisfied with how they are now.

The warlord of the warband will have to wait for a next update, as I am currently still finishing the banner on this model. However, I’ll already show you the Quran which the imam is holding. I also have eight more horsemen in the works, as a seventh point for the warband and for variety. These could take quite awhile; more Frenchmen first!