Finally some Temmplars. I think I’ve done quite well. More than 5 posts into a Templar project and not a single white tunic or red cross on anything. But that’s all going to change over the next few posts as I finish off this project with wall to wall, hard core Templars. A sea of white and red is approaching gentle listeners and it’s got a real Christian theme going on. I know you’re all hanging on for the big show: Christendom’s finest Knights in shining armour on mighty steeds with flowing white capes in all their splendor. But you’re going to have to wait. Because we’re doing this in the correct order.

Let’s be honest here, let’s even say frank, the infantry did most of the fighting and the dieing. Those horses the Knights came in on were frequently used to run away; if the Knights wanted to show the unwashed masses they were serious about the fight they would fight on foot.

Templar Crossbowmen

First we’ll start with the Crossbow infantry. These are Legio Heroica’s CRU18 (Military Orders Crossbowmen), these are almost identical to the crossbowmen (CRU15) from an earlier post. They are identically amroured and in the same poses, but the Military Order pack has a tabard on.

It’s a little hard to see on the image below, but paint it white add a big red cross and it shows up nicely.

There are also a few command figures sprinkled in there to designate any elite or command units (and also add a little visual interest), and these come from (CRU16) Military Orders Infantry Command.

As these are missle troops I’ve also painted a few in the Light Infantry configuration of 2 per base. These figures have been split into 6 bases of 3 infantry and 3 bases of 2. For ADLG this gives you 3 LMI units and 3 LI with 24 figures (conveniently 3 packs of 8).

Templar Heavy Infantry (Spearmen)

Next we have the Heavy Infantry armed with spears. If you want to see more of my thoughts on spears then check out another earlier post in this series. Legio have another pack for these, CRU17 (Military Orders Heavy Infantry),0 that is again nearly identical to the regular pack save for the addition of tabards.

While Legio painted theirs in Hospitaller colours. Paint those suckers white and red makes them undeniably Templars.

Again you have a couple of command figures, from the same set as before, mixed in. I’ll just note that this pack is also practically identical to CRU13, save for the typical addition of tabards.

Colours

Colours for the Templars were pretty straight-forward; the hardest thing to get looking good is the white. I start with a black primer coat followed by a wide azimuthal spray of White Sands (SC09). This isn’t my typical azimuthal spray as I’m looking to get a bit more on there and a bit more of an angle down. I want most of the paint at least tinted with the White Sands (which is essentially ivory) as I find pure black is too harsh for white clothing. A quick, light, azimuth of pure white then goes on last of all. Next I paint everything except the white and red crosses, the colours are the same as the other figures except I used some Deep Red (SC35) for the various under garments and any other bits and pieces.

Once everything else was painted I then went it with some White (VMC70.950) and painted the raised parts of the tabards. Once I’d finished that it was then a quick hand drawn cross with Antares Red (SC37) and 5 cleanup/redo rounds to get the lines straight.

The shields were done in the exact same way, except most of the shield was white and the lines are harder to get straight. I went with different widths for the shield crosses as I still wanted some inconsistency and it was looking a little attack of the clones.