I’ve wanted to do a crusader WAB army for a long time, so I’ve been converting away, gradually, trying to get things somewhat ready for painting. I’ve converted a bunch of Perry Miniatures 1090’s Normans to get them a little bit further into the crusades. Not really a fan of some of the other manufacturer’s miniatures, these are different story. And of course I like to make things very different than your normal Perry Miniature Normans. I dare to be different.
The Perry’s sculpt some beautiful looking miniatures, so I was a little concerned about converting them. Their Hospitallers are nice models, but not quite what I wanted to do for everything. I wanted some sleeveless tunics also. Trying to move these guys a bit further into the 1100s-1200s and get out of the 1090s.
Note the plastic shield is a GW High Elf shield. This is what I came up with after looking at reams of reference materials.
I do not however plan to put caripsons on every horse, just way too much work, but quite a few of them will have them.
Can’t wait to start painting these, but I need more.
The final army will be around the 1000 pt mark, hopefully by then Conquest Games will have their plastic foot soldiers out, for my full blown expansion.
Thanks for the kind words. I do really like these models.
Next batch, this time some actual Perry Holy Order types on my converted horses:
As I’m doing this, the more I’m thinking about paint.
My thoughts at this point is not to paint them exclusively as Holy Order Crusaders. I do like color, so I’m leaning away from doing a bunch of Hospitallers or Templars or Tuetonics or whatever.
Been awhile since I updated but the first 1000 points are done.
These are my Hospitallers. I�?Tve never been crazy about painting black and white, but I knew I wanted to do a Holy Order and this one of my favorite choices. Some of them are my converted Perry Miniatures knights mixed with the Perry�?Ts Holy Order/Hospitaller Knights.
The ones without hoods and sleeve-less surcoats are my conversions, like the knight with the couched lance and standard bearer. The two horses with the caparisons are my conversions with GS and BS.
With the conversions, I was attempting to get Norman early Perry Crusader models out of the First Crusade in the 1090s, into more of the late Second and Third Crusades.
Note some of the kite shields are actually GW High Elves shields from their foot infantry, that made conversion of the shields much easier. And some of the shields were actually converted with green stuff putty. The movement tray I think turned out well. The basing is HO scale railroad ballast, with some gravel, Joefix grass tufts, and GW Staw. I’m happy with the basing, its a bit different from what I normally do.
The banner did not turn out great, but I will fix that at a later date. Its a painted paper banner with some foil in between the layers to keep the bend.
The horses, scared me at first to do them. I’m not someone that has a lot of knowledge about horses, and this is not fantasy, so I used a number of reference photos and attempted to get 3-4 different paint schemes that would work well. Out of everything I think the horses turned out the best, with the exception of the white one in the back.
Many thanks for the kind words guys. This for me is an army years in the making, one I have been very apprehensive about starting.
A small update, my crossbowmen. 7 of the 16 that are done. No real conversions, just paint work. They are a very characterful group. So fire at will boys.
Some of them are my converted Perry Miniatures knights mixed with the Perry�?Ts Holy Order/Hospitaller Knights.
The ones without hoods and sleeve-less surcoats are my conversions. I think this unit of knights turned out pretty good. I was attempting to get them out of the First Crusade in the 1090s, into more of the late Second and Third Crusades.
I also played around a bit with color schemes, make some of them Knights of Jeruselem, some Ibelin color schemes, Franks, English, and Spaniard themes. Note some of the kite shields are actually GW High Elves shields from their foot infantry, that made conversion of the shields much easier.
I’m extremely happy with the way the horses turned out. I really wish that the Perry’s someday convert some of their horses to give them caparisons, because its a lot of work to do. The musician horse is kind of a miscast, but it does have a very dynamic look to it.
I do want to be able to play these guys across alot of periods and from the Iberian Pennisula all the way to the Holy Land. So there you have it for now. That is it for my WAB knights for awhile. I will come back to them later this year.
Your models are very beautiful. Definitely something for us all to aspire to. I’m equally as impressed with your photography. The pictures seems to give all the details, textures and colours justice.
Can you please give us a quick breakdown of your photography setup? Backdrop, light positioning, brightness, camera settings?
