Thursday 23 April 2020

Reconquista; Almoravid Ghuzz Horse Archers

It's been a month or so since my last post; the spread of the coronavirus, the lock down and the need for me to self isolate completely for medical reasons have all played their part as have the worry about my parents who usually rely on me for day to day help.

I'm sure we all have our own anxieties about the outbreak and ways of dealing with it. I have to say, I have not been coping  so well of late. That is, until I turned my hand to the brush again that some semblance of calm was achieved.

I have just finished basing these Ghuzz Horse Archers. As the (now cancelled) date for Partizan began to get closer and the sheer number of horses I needed to paint I decided to lower the overall quality and go for the speed painted option for the horse flesh with both what was left of the Islamic and Christian armies for the display game. Thus, the horses here have been painted rapidly, the horse archers less so but they were hurried along to some extent too. It is somewhat ironic that i now have all the time in the world to complete these armies!

The "Ghuzz" Horse Archers in Spain came from the Oghuz, a Western Turkic tribe. By the tenth Century Byzantine sources were calling them Muslim Turkmens as distinct from Shamanistic or Bhuddist sects. They are recorded as being present as well paid mercenaries in Almohad armies but not in Almoravid forces. I have basically extrapolated from the Almohad sources and made the decision to include them at an earlier date in the Almoravid force. They could also be reasonably pressed into any 11th Century Muslim army of the Crusades if I ever feel the urge.



































16 comments:

  1. Well done, splendid cavalry!

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  2. Hello,

    Superb paintjob and base !!
    Just a question : What colors do you use to paint the base ?

    Nikkobourges

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    1. It's all Vallejo model Colour; Dark Sand, Iraqi Sand, Pale Sand. Then I just to give the rocks a final highlight of Ivory. I've tried different combinations of colour with different paint manufacturers but came back to Vallejo as they aren't going to go out of business or change their colours just to make more money.

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    2. Thanks for your reply, I use these colors too. I discovered Vallejo when I began to paint historical miniatures and I have a big quantity of them. I use other manufacturers too but in small quantity.

      Nikkobourges

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    3. I agree Nikkobourges. Although most of my painted are Vellejo Model Colour or Game Colour I used Andrea, GW for metals and a host of others. The idea of sticking to Vallejo for the bases was just to keep the colours consistent over time.

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  3. I can see what you mean about 'dashing' the painting off. They are only brilliant as opposed to the normal 'superb' painting standard.

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    1. Cheers mate. The horses took about a day to paint. The cavalry models probably two. This is very fast for me lol :)

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  4. Beautiful work, and I really like the period. Charlton Heston introduced me to period when I was young, always favored it since.

    Cheers
    Kevin

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