Yet More 28mm kitbashed Arab Cavalry Miniatures from Gripping Beast, Fireforge
With far too many Arab kitbashed cavalry put together, this is the second page of photos of the figures mostly using GW Contrast paints
This one is a Footsore metal General figure (giving the rather open-handed salute) with what may well be a Fireforge mounted bowman and, on the right, a standard bearer with the most "arabic" headgear possible from the GB infantry set, and the Roman standard from the GB Late Roman Infantry set
I seem to have photographed the General before giving him an ink wash to put more highlights and depth on his leather scale armour unfortunately.
Here they are from the back - the other figures did get the wash clearly
Two light horse bowmen, the furthermost one on a Fireforge Mongol horse.
Both sets come with plenty of separate bowcases and quivers which is handy for making them all slightly different
The "progressively darker Army painter wash" effect is very visible on this horse, which is gratifying to see given how simple it is to do
The guy in yellow looks to be a Fireforge body - you can also see by the well defined (and big) hands too. It wouldn't do to have small hands eh?
Here's a couple more Fireforge horses. I did try and fill in the gaps around their necks with filler, but the ink wash has brilliantly picked out the filler yet again in this photo!
I probably should have done more detail on the helmet too - some brass inserts or something
These horses take ink really nicely - casting joins aside
..and again
This is an Elite horseman - swords, spears, all sorts of gubbins attached to the saddle
Not the most martial of uniform colours though - the man at the front is modelling a lovely shade of Aethermatic Blue
Another large Fireforge hand in the foreground
I imagine a more careful painter than me might try and paint the detail on the front of the tunic of the bloke on the right
Its a sort of Turkish strapped up affair that could almost be Napoleonic in places
Here from the back you can see some pooling of the purple Contrast paint on the bowcase and quiver - this, Magos Purple, is one of the really thin ones
Two more Fireforge horses - I ended up using them mostly for the light cavalry as they were quite dynamic and also didn't fit too well with the GB ones 3-wide on a 60mm base
These LH bases are 60x40
Here's the dynamic action shot. Pale grey horse painted over a slightly darker grey base coat - no contrast paints here
Three more horse archers - here as Elite Heavy Cavalry with 2 barded horses
The one in the middle has a Sudanese head which really looks a bit odd. I may even take it out later and replace it
Picking out just a few spots and scales on some of the darker Contrast colours worked a treat to give the otherwise monochrome horses more texture and interest.
It did tempt me for a while to do lots more spots of even lighter colours for even more depth. But in the end I resisted and left them as they were, as you can't keep painting forever
I'm also in two minds about painting the edges of the bases. They are unfinished like this, butalso they do look OK I think to blend in with the top of the base
The replacement of a sword-thrusting arm with a bow-holding one on this near figure gives him quite a punchy approach to archery
But, hey, dynamism is what I was looking for
Now.. this one has a riot of colour. Magos Purple, and Akehelion Green on the two nearest horses
LBMS flags complete the full-on effect
Even a tricky tri-colour horse in the foreground with Blood Angels Red, Creed Cammo and Nazdreg Yellow
From the back the use of contrasting colours for the edging of the horse armour is clearly visible. These tend not to be contrast paints
The shield is one with clean relief on it from the GB pack - this is black with a drybrish of purple and Jade Green
Again there are darker contrasting spots on the pink (well, purple) barded horse to give it more interest
Why not another shot!
And another!
Another attempt at picking out a few scales on the blue horse - this time with very pale blue normal paint
The Blue Fez... don't go there!
The handful of metal-scaled horses actually are the weakest in the army - in retrospect I'd probably have done them all in Contrast paints
These are of course all lancers, charging forwards
A lot of heavy metal and cloth coming your way soon, including the legendary Blue Fez Man
Quite a bit of action with the LBMS flags going on here
The flag sheets from LBMS need to be stuck onto plain white paper - which in some ways seems to defeat the object of actually using LBMS in the first place - but as I had caved in and bought a set at a show a while ago best to use them
One thing I did find about LBMS transfers is that they do need to be used within a reasonable time of buying them - I have a few sets which are some years old where the plastic layer simply can't be removed any more, spoiling the remaining transfers.
Here from the back you can see where I have painted some red scales onto the otherwise-metallic barding for the centre horseman
A pair of horsemen bases from the front. You can just about see the staggered formation here, and how the width of the figures would make it verytricky to fit them on a 60x40mm base
These are all the bodies from the Gothic elite cavalry set, with a few of them painted with a metallic scale armour .
More lancers, these with a mix of armoured and unarmoured horses to differentiate them from the fully-armoured, more elite ones in the earlier pictures.
The guy on the left I suspect has one of the Fireforge Russian heads
The other two are textbook GB Arab heads and bodies.
Both of the unarmoured horses are also from the GB cavalry sets, in which its actually quite hard to work out the difference between the Heavy and Light cavalry boxes
Here are three horses asses
Another three highly animated horsemen Lancers, all again with bodies from the GB Goth set
I did originally find that the lancer on the left of shot was holding his lance and banner so high that it didn't fit in the Really Useful Box I had got to store them in - so I cut his hand off at the wrist and re-glued it on at a slightly different angle so it now fits
Here you can see that the two outriders have identical bodies, and how the use of different heads and arms gives them a very different appearance
All of the horsemen are placed on the bases in a staggered formation so they all fit. I've alternated wedges like this one and bases where the two outriders are positioned forward
The black and red LBMS flag is somewhat Dennis the Menace inspired.
The big green flag is an Ottoman one from Fire & Sword's 18mm Ottoman general pack
It would have been huge on an 18mm figure.
Light Horse lancers - these will often be Elite in many armies, justifying the leather armour on one of the guys
The chap on the left's arms haven't been properly built in with filler it would appear.
These are both Fireforge horses
They come with lots of additional stuff moulded onto the backsides of each horse
Medium Cavalry bowmen, with all men on unarmoured horses
Iyanden Yellow for the main uniform colour of the guy in the middle
Warp Lightning Green on the one front of shot
With the leather armour, which is just a brown ink wash over Ochre Brown in most cases, its not so important to fill the joins between the arms and the bodies of the riders
More Medium Lancers, with another LBMS flag. Talassar Blue on show here.
Aethermatic Blue on the left
A Fireforge horse in the centre
You can still see the partially-filled join in the neck of the central horse. Worth spending a bit more time on filling in maybe that I did!
A load of unarmoured Medium Cavalry ready to charge forward.
Plenty of socks on these horses - I find more of them gives a steppe feel
Two Fireforge and one Gripping Beast horses here
Yet more medium cavalry lancers, again showing the traditional challenge of blending in the edges of LBMS shields
The big curved sword is I think from the Fireforge sprue
Gryph-hound Orange in the centre
Iyanden Yellow on both flanking men
The central rider is a metal figure from Footsore's Seljuk Turkic range
He's painted in a non-contrast colour - Magenta
His, and the horse beyond him are both metal too. The metal horses were much thinner than the plastic ones so the riders are not interchangeable
The trumpet broke off the guy on the left, so now he is playing a Turkish Nose Flute
Three more Medium cavalry charging at full tilt
Another appearance for the Fireforge Russian head on the guy in the middle - these Russian heads are very Arabian Knights and work really well on both infantry and cavalry.
The number of different poses you can generate with separate torsos, arms and heads is immense
And... that's the lot.
