The war-drum that drove Christian armies into battle was, fittingly for this range, borrowed from their enemies. Europeans took it from the Arab world during the Crusades: the naker — small paired kettledrums struck with hard sticks — comes straight from the Arabic naqqāra, carried home from the Holy Land in the 13th century. Its job was not melody but nerve. A 14th-century writer described the drum's "growling" as something that "excites the energy and courage of the spirit" and hardened men for the charge, while shawm, trumpet and drum sounded together at the first shock of battle to terrify the enemy and steady one's own line.

King & Country's drummer is caught mid-beat and mid-shout, mallets up, in a studded coat and a broad-brimmed war hat over a mail coif, his hose parti-coloured red and green in a lord's livery. He is a non-combatant with one of the most dangerous jobs on the field — the man who set the marching pace and held a column together when noise and dust made shouted orders useless. March him at the head of a men-at-arms column with the Crusader Sergeant-at-Arms and the Fighting Crusader with Mace, or set him across a diorama from the Army of Islam — the very tradition Europe took the war-drum from. In a siege or infantry-advance scene, he is the figure you can almost hear.

Model: MK248 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set