28mm kitbashed Arab Infantry Miniatures from Gripping Beast, Perry, Fireforge
As well as the large numbers of cavalry I've painted for my 28mm Arabs, there are a lot of metal and plastic infantry (and elephants, all of which involve a bit of kitbashing and have been done using GW Contrast paints
GW's Contrast paints hit the (GW players and painters) market fairly hard last year, creating a bit of an internet sensation. They are about half way between an ink wash and a proper paint, the idea being they create decent coverage in one coat but also do the job of shading (which is usually left to Army Painter Soft Tone) at the same time, and do so in the same colour as the main paint colour.
So far the takeup in historicals has been limited as far as I can see, but I have tried to paint up some Landsnechts already.Just like with the horsemen I ended up - of course - buying far too many figures for the army. The Infantry were based on a box of Gripping beast Arabs, together with some random sprues of Vikings, Fireforge Russian and Mongol Infantry, and even some Wargames Atlantic Persians. On top of that I got a load of Perry, Gripping Beast and Footsore metals, and a sprue each of Perry Mahdists and Afghans.
This is a general and standard (and musician) from Artizans Moorish Commander pack
LBMS flag of course - these are not yet matt varnished as the weather has been a bit too damp recently to do that outside
...and from the back
Theese are mostly Perry spearmen - really well proportioned figures, alomost too human-sized to go with some of the GB and Footsore infantry mixed in there
Some of the shields have home made waterslide 'arabic writing strips" across them, where I tried to recreate something similar to some of the LBMS designs where there is a bit of arabic script in a band across the shield
I toyed with the idea of being more ambitious with patterns on the shields that aren't LBMS - but deciuded to leave them plain rather than get something that looked too different to the printed ones.
These are mostly Perry advancing figures
From the back you can really see the colours (again still unvarnished) ping
I also picked up a turntable from eBay and have done a few videos of 360 degree views of the figures
They are fairly big files and will take some time to load - interesting to see how my trusty stills camera now is wildly outdated on its video format!
These are some mixed shooter formations made up of GB Arabs, Fireforge Russians, Fireforge Mongol Infantry, Wargames Atlantic Persians (!!) and the crouching figures are the Perry Afghans again
I didn't want to waste the pavises !
I've already posted some of these photos on my Blogger site, but these are mostly Artizan Black Guard arabs in metal. They are spearmen, but are big figures so 6 on a base fills it out well enough for close formation infantry in ADLG. They are painted with Contrast Black Templar
A few plastic GB figures make up the back ranks
This is a small but often overlooked range from the same sculptor as A&A miniatures
This is a white undercoat and straight contrast paint on top.
Nice dynamic figures - the sword may be from GB's Late Roman plastic set!
Looks good from the back - which is hopefully how I will see them!
There are some Generals too - I think these may be Footsore.
and from the back...
The new Perry Afghans, sword options only...no rifles!
These are stunning figures. A sprue has almost enough swords, so with borrowing a few spare arms from the GB Arabs you don't need to waste any figures
These Perry Afghan infantry are mostly painted Iyanden Yellow
There is also an elephant or two - this one is resin apart from a few separate metal bits.
Those are the bottom 2/3 of the trunk, the tusks and the tail - which initially I tried to glue in upside down by mistake
The tusks needed driling out of some bigger and deeper holes to hold them
Some of the shields are printouts of actual Islamic Indian shields, found on Pinterest
And these are the Dailami, all finished
I went for a uniform Talassar Blue for them to make them stand out as an elite unit on the table. And because it's a little bit like the Fremen warrior on the original copy of Frank Herberts Dune that I own in paperback!
These are all Viking or Medieval Russian bodies, some with added skirts
The self-made skirts haven't taken the contrast paints as well as some of the properly-made figures, so perhaps I left a little too much texture on the surface before undercoating them?
Here's a reminder of how they looked beforehand!
The Footsore Dailami shields have a matching set of LBMS transfers, all of which I managed to succesfully cut out and use
In normal service these infantry will be wrapped around either side of the elephant
From the back. On tip I have found is to run a bit of dark wash ink along all of the leather straps and belts, as this effectively black-lines them and adds a bit of texture. Inking the whole armour is sometimes a bit much.
I just went for one consistent blue and let the contrast paint do the work on making variety and texture
Very simple but very distinctive
The shields are metal, which made painting them after gluing on shields a bit tricky as the weight of the shield would tip the figures over!
Here they are next to the Perry Sudanese tribal warriors
I'm using them as the Indian Mountain Tribal warriors that a number of Arab armies have
It did mean a lot of bald heads as the other head in the set has a very distinctive Sudanese hairstyle!
More pictures to come of more of the horsemen in the near future. These figures also get a mention in Episode 48 of The Madaxeman Podcast, which you can play and listen to right here!
Other posts about these figures
