Mark B - Fireforge Foot Sergeants

The next attempt at modelling the same chaps both foot and mounted was to be a unit of 12 sergeants.  I opted here to split the unit into two colour schemes - allowing two units of six to be fielded instead;

The sergeants had to be easily told-apart from the knights, so I went with unbarded horses, and no shield blazons.  One half of the unit has variations of blue and white on their shields, plus blue / white quartered surcoats.  This means they can be fielded as the retinue of a knight - as the six knights (see previous post) feature one chap with the same colour scheme.

As with the knights, each pairing uses matched shields / weapons / heads.  The keen eyed will notice that the legs on this particular pairing don't match. On horseback, he has mail cuisses.  The backstory (excuse...) for this, is that he retains the lower leg protection while fighting mounted, but abandons it for convenience and lightness when fighting on foot.  It also meant I could vary the foot poses, as the Templar infantry set only comes with four mail-cuisses-equipped body styles.

Another of the blue / white pairings.  The sergeants are all armed with spears, which required some cutting-down of the lances for the mounted versions.  To further distinguish them from the knights, they can't all afford beautiful thoroughbred white chargers either - this chap is mounted on a bay.  Although his gret helm seems to have gone the journey, he has at least retained his leg armour when dismounted.

The shield designs vary, some stripes, some quartered - and the style of shield varies too - but the colours remain the same, reinforcing the 'unit' appearance.

Green and white sergeants - all the same thinking was applied to these as to the blue / white - even down to the option of pairing them with a matching knight (see previous post).

Worth mentioning the shields at this point.  Normally, unless the shield has moulded 'wood grain', I paint the backs the same way - a nice dense 'light leather' colour, followed by lines of red-brown and chocolate-brown for a grain effect.  This is how I did the knight's shields.  These chaps get a slightly different approach, with a combination of red-brown base, with chocolate-brown and black lines.  I chose to make the switch for a couple of reasons; firstly, the leather items (shoes, saddlery) I normally paint red-brown, and the way I do shields is meant to replicate leather-covered wood... so it seems sensible to use the same leather colour on all items.  Secondly, though not used here, I have acquired some red-brown 'wood grain' self-adhesive film, which gives a nice pattern without taking as much time.  You'll see it later in the footsoldiers from the same commission.  The red-brown colour matches this plastic film nicely.

More sergeants, this time mounted on grey horses.  I have shied-away from piebald and other colourful horse finishings, as the troops themselves are quite bright.  So almost everyone gets a white (actually known as grey), grey, or brown / bay mount.  This diamond pattern on the shields is one of the variants (along with diagonal stripes, quartering) used to suggest uniformity, without actually being all that uniform.

Reverse view of same.  I have more pictures of the sergeants, but I've run out of things to say about them... :)