'Characters/Scene from' GregB: Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

Horse soldier! Horse soldier!

For this last theme submission I encountered that rare-but-great Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge feeling - the connection of a theme with an ongoing project! This final theme round offered the chance to paint characters from a song, and one song popped into my head right away. After a quick search to make sure the lyrics checked out, I present two characters from the song "Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!" by Corb Lund.  Go listen to it right now, enjoy the wonderful, inspiring ode to cavalry through history, then come back and finishing reading this post!

Curt introduced me to this song some years back, and I find it inspiring for my painting efforts.  Like many Challengers, I find painting horses can be a bit daunting. But listening to this marvelous song I feel like I could knock off a 28mm cavalry regiment in no time!  And because Curt was the one who introduced me to it, it always makes me think of visiting him and Sarah in Regina, which is always a good time! So I thought it was doubly appropriate inspiration for this Challenge.

So, to each character, and the relevant lyrics from the song as captions:

And I knew Saladin...

...and rode his swift Arabians...

...harassing doomed Crusaders on their heavy draughts...

...and yet I rode the percheron...

...against the circling Saracen...

...and once again against myself was cast...

So as you can see this theme lined up very nicely for my SAGA project, as these are both warlords to lead warbands in the game.  The figures are 28mm metals from the Perry twins' incredible First Crusade range. The Crusader figure will complete my first SAGA warband (a small, four-point Crusader band). The Saracen commander is the first figure to be painted for the Saracen faction.

And since the Warband for the Crusaders is now complete, I thought a team photo would be nice:

My 4-point SAGA Crusader warband, finished during this Challenge! Yay!

Horse soldiers - timeless through and through! Seriously, go listen to that song, then paint some cavalry!