…or rather Berbers!

The main difference between the early “Arabic” armies and those from Caliphate times is the composition of the main body of troops, with North African Berbers becoming the dominant constituents.

Havign painted 160 Arab infantry, then 160 Berber spearmen, it was time to add the other troops I’d need for a fully rounded force.

First up were the mainstay of many Berber armies: the javelin-armed light cavalry:

These are actually Moorish medium cavalry from 3D Breed, printed for me by Geek Villain. I couldn’t find any 3D printed Berber light cavalry, and the 3D Breed Moorish archers had proxied very well for Berber light infantry, so I thought I’d give these guys a go.

They are very nice figures that take the paint very well. The only problem is that they come without bases and, unlike every other 3D printed models I’ve bought (including the Moorish light infantry from the same range) I couldn’t get these b*ggers to stand up unaided.

This meant that I had to use Superglue to attach them to their permanent bases and paint them in two’s like that rather than use the lolly-stick temporary mounts that I would usually use. Not a catastrophe, but certainly a pain in the backside as, obviously, lolly-stick pounted figures are based to make them easy to paint and permanently based troops are not!

This was very disappointing as I have loved the other 3D Breed miniatures that I have bought without reservation. Still, they are done now, and look very good.

Next were some Berber archers:

These were Red Copper 3D prints: the last of those printed for me by Baueda Italy before they were sold to the UK. Nice figures with plenty of animation and very easy to paint.

All the above were painted in the same way as the other Berbers: undercoat in Grey Seer, then splash on a base coat on Contrast White paint. Leave to dry. Then dry brush a bright acrylic White over the Contrast White to give you the folds in the robes. Then paint the faces, eye slits and hands in a dark flesh Contrast paint. After that, the sash and headdress in a Contrast colour of your choice: here I used Stormfiend Blue.

Then it’s just a matter of finishing the figures. The Spear shafts are in Wyldwood, the pennants in a variety of Contrast colours. The shields are Wyldwood (painted at the same time as the spears) then drybrushed in bronze then washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Just some javelinmen to go now and then the Arabs/Berbers are finished…or as finished as any army can be!!