This is the first post of a new army project I’m in the middle of. This army is another Crusader army, but this time it is the Templars. However, there isn’t going to be any Templars for a little while as I’m starting with the generic crusader component of this project and even then at the bottom, levy heavy end. This is a big project, probably my biggest yet. There are about 200 foot troops and 50 mounted, as well as a pretty cool looking gate tower (serving as camp).

The miniatures are all 15mm Legio Heroica miniatures and are being based for ADLG, but many of the bases are single ranks that enable them to be used in other games such as DBA. I’m pretty excited about this project, and have already painted a bunch of the miniatures. I’ve borrowed many of the colours from my Hospitaller project (which still has some work to go and I expect to progress a little alongside this project).

I’ve started with some of the worst troops in the army: levy and mediocre pike. Both types of units use FEU-14 (Armed Peasants). They come from Legio Heroica with farm tools, but Xyston’s 50mm pikes have replaced these for the pike blocks. Many of the fists come without a hole, so they need to be drilled. However this was perfect as the spears are much thinner than the farm tools and so I could use a different sized hole for the different types of levy.

Funnily enough, both of these types of units are being based with multiple ranks per stand (i.e. ADLG basing). Those equipped with farmtools are Levy and so they sit with 5 figures on a 40x30mm base. While the ones with pikes are Pikemen (probably mediocre) and are on a 40x40mm base. There’s some variation in how people base their pike: the rules indicate 3 ranks of figures, which is typically 3*15=45mm. However, I’ve found ADLG works so much better with square basing. To the point, I hope they adjust the 4th edition rules to recommend square bases. The new rules are allegedly in development.

Levy with Farm tools

First some pictures of the Levy with farm tools. There are 3 different tools (Bill hook, Hay fork and Flail) and a number of different models. There are 3 different poses and a number of different heads (some have hoods, bare heads, beards, and caps).

Levy with Pike

Next some pictures of the Levy with pikes. All the weapons are the same, and the poses the same as for the Levy with farm tools. The different angles and height of the pikes gives these a bit of a disordered look. Which is what I wanted for mediocre/levy pike.

I’m pretty happy with how these have turned out. They’re nice little models, and after washes, the muted colours I chose look good. They’re multi-coloured and random looking, but not too bright. Which feels, to me, right for feudal age troops – particularly your poorer troops such as levies and mediocre pike.

Colours

As I often do, I’ll end with the colours used. Many of these are the same as I used for my Hospitaller infantry with a couple of tweaks.

• Skin: Medium fleshtone (VMC 70.860)
• Hair: Brown Leather (SC-31)
• Tunics & leggings:
• Graphite (SC-03)
• Bering blue (SC-06)
• White sands (SC-09)
• Sahara yellow (SC-11)
• Kalahari orange (SC-14)
• Blood red (SC-36)
• Black forest green (SC-41)
• Ardenes green (SC-45)
• Navy blue (SC-54)
• Shoes: Orange leather (SC-28)
• Belts: Brown sand (VMC 70.876)
• Buckles: Steel (VMA 71.065)
• Pouches: Sandalwood (SC-26)
• Weapon shafts: Walnut (SC-29)
• Weapon heads: Gungrey (VMA 71.072)
• Pike tips: Steel (VMA 71.065)
• Knife scabbards: German camouflage black brown (VMA 70.872)
• Washes:
• Skin: Sepia Wash (VGC 73.200) & Red Wash (VGC 73.206) — 1:1
• Shoes: Sepia Wash (VGC 73.200)
• All over: Black Wash (VGC 73.201)
• Basing:
• Ground: Sandy Paste (Vallejo 26.215) & Gulf War Sand (ABTP037)
• Ground cover: Fine Turf Earth (WS T42)
• Ground cover: Fine Turf Burnt Grass (WS T44)
• Shrubs: Underbrush Forest Green (WS FC138)