Painting the Crusades: Knight Templar and Saracen Warrior Techniques

Quick answer

Paint the two forces in separate sessions: build the Knight Templar around a clean white-1-a190166d490a29fe8213b012-1816307">white-2c58a54a96968356c7438d99-1815651">white surcoat with controlled shading, and build the Saracen Warrior around layered warm tones and freehand detail. Keep your palette small, work in thin layers, and seal each figure before moving to the next. A metallic set and a few core acrylics cover almost everything you need.

Crusades miniatures are a test of contrast. The Knight Templar is mostly white, red, and steel, while the Saracen Warrior is layered fabric, leather, and warm skin. If you paint them in the same session with the same palette, both figures end up muddy and flat. Splitting the work fixes most of that.

This guide walks through one practical order of operations for both figures, from priming to final seal. Each step includes the mistake that most often ruins the result, so you can check your work before moving on.

Set up before you touch a brush

Clean mold lines, then prime in a light neutral grey. Grey reads white and dark tones honestly, so you can judge coverage as you build layers. If you prime black, your white surcoat will take many extra coats and may look chalky. If you prime white, your shadows will look washed out and you will fight the primer all the way through.

Decide the light direction now and keep it consistent on both figures. A single overhead key light is easiest to repeat across a unit. Write the direction on a scrap of paper and keep it in view; this one habit prevents the most common Crusades painting problem, which is shading that changes from arm to arm.

• Prime in thin passes and let each pass dry before the next.
• Mount figures on a handle so you never touch the painted surface.

Paint the Knight Templar in layers

Start with the surcoat. Build white in several thin coats over grey rather than one thick coat. Thick white fills the folds and destroys the sculpted cloth, and no amount of later shading will bring it back. Once the white is even, shade the deepest folds with a cool grey glaze and bring the raised areas back with a clean white.

Move to the mail and plate next. Metal needs contrast to read as metal: a dark base, a mid-tone, and a bright edge highlight on the highest points. Keep the red cross crisp by painting it after the white is fully dry, and use a fine brush with a slightly thinned red so the edges stay sharp.

Finish the face and hands before the shield. Skin on a mostly white figure looks best with a slightly warmer tone than you would use on the Saracen Warrior, because the surrounding white pushes cool.

• Common mistake: heavy white applied in one pass. Build it up instead.
• Checkpoint: step back two feet. If the surcoat reads as a flat shape, add one more shading pass.

Paint the Saracen Warrior in warm layers

Start with the largest fabric area and establish your warm mid-tone. Saracen figures reward layered glazes: thin coats of warm color over a slightly darker base give depth without losing the sculpt. Avoid the temptation to paint every fold with a hard line; soft transitions read better at tabletop distance.

Leather and straps come next, using a darker brown base with a lighter edge. Keep leather and cloth distinct by finish rather than by color alone, so the two materials do not blend into one silhouette.

Skin should be built in thin layers with a warmer shadow than the Templar's. If your skin looks grey or ashy, the base is too cool. Add a warm glaze rather than repainting from scratch.

• Common mistake: painting freehand patterns before the base fabric is fully dry.
• Checkpoint: the figure should still read clearly when you squint at it.

Freehand and detail work

Freehand is the last step on both figures. On the Templar, that means the cross and any heraldry. On the Saracen Warrior, it means geometric trim and textile patterns. Thin your paint to a consistency like milk, load the brush lightly, and build the pattern in two or three passes. A single heavy pass produces thick, blobby lines that cannot be corrected.

If a pattern goes wrong, do not paint over it immediately. Let it dry, then correct with the base color and try again. Working wet into wet is the fastest way to smear detail you already got right.

• Use a smaller brush than you think you need.
• Keep a test figure or spare base to check line weight first.

Basing and finishing both forces

Base the two forces differently so they read as opposing armies on the table. A dry, sandy base suits the Saracen Warrior, while a cooler, stonier base suits the Templar. Texture paste, a base coat, a drybrush, and a few tufts is enough; the base should support the figure, not compete with it.

Seal with a matte varnish, then add a satin or gloss varnish only on metal and eyes if you want them to catch light. Matte everywhere flattens steel; gloss everywhere makes cloth look plastic. Mixing finishes is the simplest way to make both figures look finished.

• Common mistake: sealing before the base is fully dry.
• Checkpoint: hold each figure under the same lamp you will use when playing.

Crusades painting order of operations

1. Step 1: Clean and prime in neutral grey: Remove mold lines, wash the figure, and apply thin grey primer in two light passes. Let it cure fully before painting. Checkpoint: no shiny bare spots and no filled-in detail.
2. Step 2: Block in the largest areas: On the Templar, base the surcoat in thin white over grey. On the Saracen Warrior, base the main fabric in a warm mid-tone. Keep both thin. Common mistake: one thick coat that buries the folds.
3. Step 3: Shade, then re-highlight: Glaze cool shadows into the Templar's white and warm shadows into the Saracen's fabric, then bring the raised areas back with the mid-tone. Checkpoint: both figures still read when you squint.
4. Step 4: Paint metal, leather, and skin: Use a dark base, mid-tone, and bright edge on metal. Keep leather darker than cloth. Build skin in thin warm layers. Common mistake: leaving metal without an edge highlight, which makes it look like grey plastic.
5. Step 5: Add freehand and heraldry last: Paint the Templar's cross and the Saracen's geometric trim with thinned paint in two or three passes. Let each pass dry; correct errors with the base color, not more freehand.
6. Step 6: Base, then seal with mixed finishes: Finish bases with texture, a base coat, and a drybrush. Seal matte overall, then add satin or gloss only on metal and eyes. Checkpoint: view both figures under your normal gaming light before you call them done.

Paints that fit this project

• METAL N ALCHEMY COLLECTION: The collection features 24 metallic colors and includes 3 booklets with painting tutorials. Covers the mail, plate, and weapon work on the Knight Templar with one set, and the included booklets give you a starting point if you are new to metallic layering.
• MOSS GREEN: Premium creamy acrylic paint, 20 ml, valid for brush and airbrush, with high coverage. Useful for grounded, natural tones on the Saracen Warrior's cloth and for basing work, and the same pot works through an airbrush if you want a fast base coat.
• DEEP BLUE: Super matte finish acrylic paint, 17 ml, designed for professional and amateur miniature painters, valid for brush and airbrush. Its matte finish suits the Templar's cooler shadows and dark cloth, and the formulation lets you build glazes or a fully opaque layer depending on how much you thin it.
• INKTENSITY 2: Can be used with a brush or airbrush, with a satin finish, used to create glazes on already painted surfaces to vary or intensify a color. Ideal for pushing warmth into the Saracen Warrior's fabric and for intensifying the Templar's red cross without repainting the area.

Paint the Templar and the Saracen Warrior in separate sessions with separate palettes, and both will look sharper than if you rushed them together. Build thin layers, check your contrast at arm's length, and seal with mixed finishes so steel and cloth read differently. That order of operations is what makes a Crusades force look like two armies instead of one pile of grey.