Sunday, December 20, 2009

III/65 Fatimid Egyptian DBA Army



OK, so I'm feeling a bit pleased with myself. I've finished my DBA Fatimid Army, that has been on the go since July. They aren't the best painted figures ever, but they are the first project I've finished since the twins were born in August, so hence the feeling of satisfaction.

The army contains 4 Elements of Cavalry, one of which is the General's element. That's him on the left with a mace. These figures are all from one box of Strelets Arab Cavalry.





The mobile part of the army is completed with an element of Light Horse. These figures are from Italeri, and one of them is a conversion, being made with the torso of a kneeling foot archer.


The main foot component is made up of 3 Elements of 8Bw. These are annoying elements to paint, being double-based elements of spearmen and archers, but behaving no differently in DBA than any other Bows. All the infantry are from HaT. Mainly their Almoravid infantry set, but with some Andalusians as well.


The army is completed with 2 Elements of 3 Bw, an element of Auxilia and one of Psiloi. All the foot apart from the 3 Bw are painted as Sudanese mercenaries, whereas the cavalry and 3 Bw are North African (and thus have lighter skin).




These Fatimids are the second in a series of 11th Century armies I want to paint (after my Normans). Next up may be Andalusians, but I think I'll be doing some work on my English Civil War armies first.



3 comments:

  1. Outstanding! Hand painted shields and all. Amazing! What does the flag say?

    Nick

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  2. Thanks Nick. The banner (I hope!) says 'To god belongs the kingdom', which is a Quranic quote that apparently the Fatimids used. I don't read Arabic, so I ran the quote through an online translator. Hopefully it's correct. The letter style is probably dodgy - the translator of course gave me modern Arabic script, but I think the Fatimids favoured kufic. THe other shields all bear similar Quranic slogans, eg 'God is great', 'blessed be the lord ' etc.
    Alan.

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  3. Far out! You must have a very steady hand...and a magnifying glass! Great work Alan!

    Nick

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