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Author Topic: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs  (Read 5007 times)

Offline madaxeman

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Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« on: September 20, 2020, 01:01:20 PM »


Just before I rush outside to spray undercoat on this sunny day I thought I'd take a few snaps of these kitbashed Arab riders and infantry I'm about to start working on to try and highlight where the various arms, legs, hands and weapons from the different sets I used have all ended up. These are all Gripping Beast plastic Arab bodies with a range of different heads, and the odd different arm added. The armoured heads are from (I believe..) the Fireforge Russian infantry sprue which I think look quite "Arabian Nights" when added to a dishsash-wearing body, and the bald head is a Mongol horseman one from Fireforge's  Mongols cavalry set.

The sets I'm using are :
GB Plastic Arab infantry
GB Plastic Arab Heavy Cavalry
GB Plastic Arab Ligft Cavalry
Fireforge Plastic Mongol Cavalry
GB Plastic Elite Gothic Cavalry
and the odd sprue of Fireforge Russian Infantry & GB Vikings

These have been glued together and any white and yellow patches are where I've used polyfiller and wood filler in an effort to make the joins between glued components disappear. After it dries I sand it off with a small round hobby file.



These are "added-skirt" armoured Medieval Russian and Viking bodies with a mix of mostly "arabized" heads from the GB Arab infantry and cavalry ranges, and metal shields from Footsore.



These mounted figures are based on torsos from the Gripping Beast Gothic Elite Cavalry set, which has three rather nice fully armoured (or barded) horses and a rather paltry 3 different poses of  riders, all of whom are thrusting with lances or actively charging with swords.



This pose does however just about work for mounted archers if you snip off the left hand and replace it with a snipped-off hand holding a bow. Luckily there are plenty of these hands spare in the GB infantry and cavalry boxes!



There are loads of bowcases in the GB Arab cavalry and Fireforge Mongol sets so I've also been able to do a load of the Lance/Bow cavalry holding lances and with bows stowed, as well as leaving some just as lancers. Simply replacing the heads makes a massive difference, but this set of Gothic torsos really does need quite some kitbashing as otherwise the limited number of poses would be, well, quite limiting.



More of the "Arabian Knights" style bowmen. The GB plastic bowmen are pretty bland so mixing them up with some extra heads and even arms from the mounted boxes (and these Medieval Russian armoured heads too)  really helps make them more interesting as a set.



Here are some "Turkic" - style bowmen using Mongol heads. The one on the left looks to have acquired a Fireforge Mongol arm too, as these are exceedingly (weirdly!) long. I've also spotted at least one of these needs more filler before spraying..



To make the army even more varied I am mixing in metal figures from North Star, Gripping Beast (I think) and Perry (in order of left to right after the plastic figures) to mix it up a bit.



These are the GB Gothic Elite Cavalry horses, which I painted up first as I hate painting horses so I now just try and get them out of the way before starting the infantry! These horses are the same as the GB Roman cataphract pack I believe, with three poses. Instead of metal armour I've used GW Contrast Paints as a base (with extra detail from normal paints) to create colourful horse barding for the elite horsemen.



These are some of the GB Gothic riders with "arab" heads and bowcases added .. very much WiP, much of the detail isn't added yet.



More to come... especially if lockdown returns as that seems to help my painting no end !
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Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2020, 08:19:54 PM »
Starting to make a dent in the cavalry contingent, with the "elite" barded horsemen on top of the pile. 

These are now getting close to being finished, but still need a lot of details and some washes to finalise them. They are a kit-bash of Gripping Beast Arab Light Horse, Heavy Cavalry and the Fireforge Mongol Cavalry sets mounted on GB Elite Gothic Cavalry horses (with a few Gothic bodies), and then with some extra heads from the GB arab infantry and even some of the Perry Sudanese as well thrown in for good luck.

I'm finding that the GW contrast paints do tent to rub or flake off a little as well, so my slow and stop-start painting approach to these is causing some wear along the way that needs to be patched up. 









Offline Little Odo

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2020, 10:10:34 AM »
Nice painting. Very colourful.
Little Odo's Grand Days Out
http://littleodo.blogspot.co.uk/

Online Malamute

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2020, 12:01:21 PM »
Jolly nice conversions. :)
"These creatures do not die like the bee after the first sting, but go on age after age, feeding on the blood of the living"  - Abraham Van Helsing

Offline twrchtrwyth

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2020, 07:43:35 PM »
They look great.
He that trades Liberty for Security will soon find that he has neither.

Benjamin Franklin


Offline pauld

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2020, 11:49:37 AM »
Wonderful stuff and some great inspiration.

 
Quote
Fireforge Mongol arm too, as these are exceedingly (weirdly!) long


I'm glad I'm not the only one to think this.  I glued up 3 or 4 figures got very disappointed and put the box away which remains closed to this day.  I suppose I could take a knife to them but there again the moment went as soon as I saw my little men dragging their knuckles in the dust.

You'd think someone in project management would say " Hang on a bit lads, there's something not quite right here".  (Wargames Atlantic big shouldered WW1 Germans I'm looking at you too).  Simple concept design assessments would  have instantly elevated the figures but too late once the mould tools are ordered.

However, sideways opinions over  ;D great characterful and useful figures.  Well done.

No dear, they are not toys, they are models

Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2020, 08:04:43 PM »
Indeed !

My Eureka! moment was probably buying myself a sprue-snipping tool (aka a pair of geeky pliers) after breakig one too many delicate pieces in previous builds.

Once you have bought your pair of magic pliers, snipping stuff like arms down to size, or taking off hands to replace with 'hands with bows' all becomes something you positively look forward to having to do - the snippers leave a really clean straight edge, and each snip is accomanied by the sound of you proving to yourself that buying a pair of pliers just to remove plastic bits from a sprue (when a scalpel you already own could of course do the job) wasn't in fact a ridiculously extravagant thing to have done  ;D

Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2020, 07:19:06 PM »
Getting close to having the cavalry finished now - the last mile was surprisingly easy once they got based up (on 60x60 bases if you're interested)

Here are some of the finished bases of horse archer Ghulams:











« Last Edit: October 24, 2020, 09:38:00 AM by madaxeman »

Offline MGH

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2020, 08:13:58 PM »
Those look great, so colorful!

Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2020, 05:12:06 PM »
In my ongoing series of experiments with Contrast paints for an Arab army, I've just about finished these two units of Abbasid Black Guard spearment using Black Templar as the main colour for their cloaks. They are yet to be matt varnished (as its been too chilly outside to spray) so they are a smidge shiny, but are pretty much done.

The figures are mostly (metal) Artizan Designs Black Guard from their Moorish range - a fairly small range but fantastically cast with deep, bold details for taking this sort of paint. The Artizan figures come in packs of 4, so there are also a couple of Gripping Beast-based plastic arab infantry padding out the rear ranks on each base.

At 6 figures, each 60mm x 40mm base is a little light on figures for "Spearmen" in ADLG, but these are big solid guys so they more than fill the available footprint with a very solid looking line of men and shields.

These are all just painted with Black Templar on a flat white base coat. No additional shading at all.









More pics on my Blog https://madaxemandotcom.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-black-templar-abbasid-guard.html

Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2020, 10:06:57 PM »
And... some more horsemen :

Full set of pictures at: https://www.madaxeman.com/main/28mm_Arab_Cavalry_2.php
















Online Charlie_

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2020, 12:00:53 AM »
Nice!

Could we see them all together as a unit?

Offline Commander Carnage

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2020, 03:06:47 PM »
Great job on a cool project!
"Just don't roll a one!"

Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2020, 04:20:05 PM »
Nice!

Could we see them all together as a unit?

I'll be doing some 'full army' photos once I get the infantry done - about 60 of them are sat staring at me as we speak !

Offline madaxeman

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Re: Kitbashed plastic 28mm Arabs
« Reply #14 on: November 25, 2020, 10:59:33 AM »
A few more infantry:

First, the Perry "Afghans", painted as "Generic Indianized Arabs".  These are staggeringly good figures.





Then, the Kings of Kitbash - Fireforge Mongols, Perry Afghans and Wargames Atlantic Persians with some Fireforge Russian heads and a few Gripping Beast Arab bits as well.









 

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