1:72 Turkish Headquarters (XVII century)

The center of a camp, not a battle line

In an Ottoman army the headquarters used to be a world of its own. A staff kept close around the commander, scribes kept the records, servants looked after the tent and the horses, and nearby stood a guard chosen from the most reliable detachments. While fighting sets capture a moment, this one captures a state: deciding, waiting for a report, a council over a map.

A composition with one focus

A command scene works differently from a rank of foot soldiers. It has to have a clear center and everything else has to lead toward it. Place the commander slightly to one side of the geometric center of the base, turn the shoulders and heads of the other figures toward him and let one of them look in the opposite direction, as if it had just arrived from outside. A current is thereby created: the report comes in, passes through the group and ends with the man who decides.

The insignia of power as a building element

Banners, horse tails and drums were not ornaments but marks of rank and a means of giving orders. At a small scale they work as verticals that hold the composition together; place them asymmetrically and let the tallest stand above the commander's head, so that the eye knows where to look.

Working with the paint

Here it pays to leave the muted palette of the field sets behind. Silk, fur and gilded accessories will stand more saturated tones and gloss, but only on the command figures; leave the guard and the servants restrained, otherwise the focus dissolves. Paint the tent and the carpets in at the end, to suit the resulting coloring of the group. Do not make the gilded surfaces cover everything, only narrow highlights on the edges; full gloss at a small size recalls plastic rather than metal.