I never got around to watching
Kingdom of Heaven, but upon seeing some scenes on YouTube I was immediately fascinated by the costumes and the overall aesthetics (the shots with tons of banners and flags waving in the wind are nothing short of gorgeous). This, in turn, led to me assembling some crusaders.
Three military orders are on show, the most famous ones: Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller, and Teutonic Knights. All warrior monks display luscious beard, as was (unless I made a serious blunder) customary.
Mounted upon his horse a secular knight, a noble maybe, can also be seen.
Though he does not belong to any order, he too sports the cross on his shield.
Now, knights are the fanciest part of crusading armies, but one should never forget the common footmen. This is my take on Genoese crossbowmen, who played a significant role during the crusades.
You might notice all knights look the same with regards to both the clothes and the helmets. I wanted to stick close to a late XII century look: mail hauberk, mail chausse, mail coif, and tabard, with no additional armour. The norman helmet and the kettle hat are the only suitable helmets I could find for the time period: the great helm looks funky I think without any additional shoulder/arm armour, so I ditched it (at least for now).
I have some plans to expand my collection: I purchased some decals (but have no parts to apply them to yet). If everything goes as intended, sooner or later I'll be able to show you Knights of St Lazarus, Jerusalem militiamen, some variation on Templars, and XV century Teutonic knights. Stay tuned!
