28mm Gripping Beast Arab Infantry Finished

     I grew tired of looking at them so I skipped a couple of hours of sleep and powered through and finished the paint jobs on the 29mm Gripping Beast Arab Infantry. The Housemartin had wanted four readily identifiable units. You have seen the musket armed conversions. The other three groups were, swordsmen, Wallachians (in nasal helmets) and Akinji spearmen. I threw in an added level of unit identification by painting most of each groups with an over arching color scheme, this is particularly obvious with the Akinji, per the Housemartin's request.

     As usual they were painted using Americana colors (available from Michael's, Hobby Lobby and other retailers) over a flat white primer coat. Colors were diluted slightly to ease the p[ainting process and then the figures were given a thin coat of Future Floor Wax. Over this was added a flesh wash of ten parts water, ten parts Future and one part Russet Brown, with just a touch of burnt umber. Once that had dried I did a fifty-fifty water /Future with a dash of black wash over the whole figure.

 

first we have the Wallachians, I have only the faintest clue about them but I imagined that study Balkan mountain-dwelling men would have muted colors so I went with a variety of shades of green

 

throughout this process I tried to make each figure an individual 

as they are intended to be used in an RPG and identifying characters

 is made easier if they are clearly differently posed

 

 

they turned out suitably raffish, 

like a band of mountain ruffians looking to tag along and loot Constantinople

 

The Housemartin wanted the Akinji to look almost like a regular unit, 

I might have gone too far with the back-rankers,  

they are all different but very similar

 

the lads in the front rank have a better variety

 

trying to get different poses wasn't easy 

using just the two over-arm torso options

 

ranked-up they certainly look lethal and competent

 

the guys that started it all, the musketeers, 

I particularly like the way the fellow in the center turned out, 

I imagined him peering warily around a corner

 

the toughest part of trying to work variety into this unit is the simple 

fact that there is essentially only one way to point and fire a musket 

  

the other character I like is the standard bearer, 

to me he looks brave and extraordinarily tough

 

except for one head that looks like a fat Mario 

all of the faces are well sculpted and full of character 

this guy looks like he is ready for business

 

being as there are many more ways to use a sword than a spear or musket

 achieving an array of different poses was relatively easy with this unit

     There you have it, this kit presents excellent value for the dollar (pound/Euro/yen......etc) forty figures that can be made up into a wide variety of poses. the casting is excellent, the anatomy is good with all of the poses looking natural. Highly Recommended!