Crusades - Reynaud's First Battle

I haven't posted much recently, but I have probably made more progress on miniatures related things than I have in a long time. That is to say I have made a little progress, which is a vast improvement over having done nothing much for many months. I have been energized with the idea of the Crusades project I have undertaken. This evening I played through one turn of Reynaud's first battle, and while I will save a battle report for later (once there is something to report), I can at least post a picture to show what I have been up to.

My Litko base order is still listed as "in production" on their website, so the troops have been pressed into service in their old partially finished green "WRG" basing. A couple of Crusader leader/banner stands have been completed. They are the small round stands behind other larger units. Saracen leaders are bare round bases with no figs.

But the progress I have made is the first attempt at a terrain board and some hills. The method I used is fine: wood glue on blue board insulation sprinkled with sand. When the sand is dry, a coat of desert color latex house paint which is subsequently dry-brushed with a few successively lighter shades of the base color. A little darker color is added in a few spots for variety. I'm not completely sold that I have the right paint colors for this, as everything looks a little too yellow for my tastes, and while the middle east is an arid land, it isn't the Sahara. I think I need to go with a little bit of a darker grayish-brown base layer and then lighter tan highlights that aren't quite as yellow. That being said, repainting will be easy, and before I embark on a more ambitious set of modular terrain boards and pieces, I wanted to test the colors. I think this little exercise taught me what I needed to learn. As an aside, I think the simple rough hill in the extreme back of the picture behind the stream may be closer to the color scheme I want for the base layer. We shall see.

Other pieces of terrain, such as the lame "oasis" at lower left and "swampy area" at back right are stand-ins for the real thing, but you have to start somewhere. Note to self: buy palm trees at Cold Wars next weekend...