Arabian Knights: Manjaniq

Project Arabian Knights is still on the table and today it's a manjaniq figure (obviously a trebuchet) what I'm presenting. I was planning to built the trebuchet models from scratch. There were many schematics online on how to build a -working- treb. But when I saw this figure on Round Table of Bretonnia forums, I changed my mind. Albeit considerable bigger than the original (reaching a towering 6" at the highest point), it looked decent enough, had no bret decorations and crew members so it was a good deal for me.

What a nice load of flash!

WRONG! The reason I went on and bought this one was saving time. You know, basic tradeoff between monies and time. Normally, I consider myself to have a knack for finding alternative models for my armies; but this time I botched... big time. The bits I received from the Lazy Forger did not make my life easier. Basically I received a bag of flash and carved my way into the actual bits. To add insult to the injury, some of the bits were cast badly, with many hollow points and cracks...

Oh well, you cannot just order something and don't build and paint it. For the crew guys, I used civilians from Perry Miniatures. Like my chaos dwarf army, I spent considerable amount of time making the bases. For the base, i use cork board over balsa. Using cork on top greatly helped when cutting the spots for the crew members. As always, I laid down magnetic paper inside the crew spots.

Another thing to mention here, this was the first time I used tufts. I must say they are a win. Although they stick to the surface themselves, I didn't want to take my chances and used some superglue in the process. 

I think my next update will be troopers, as I just learned that the package I've been waiting from Black Tree has been cleared from the customs. Yay...?

Arabian Knights: Mounted Musicians

Today I have some mounted figures for you: Mounted musicians from Perry Miniatures from the Muslims Musicians set. While I still wait for the bulk of my army to arrive from Black Tree Design, I thought I can get them done in the meantime.

First things first: I am more of a Warhammer Fantasy player rather than a wargamer. I expected the scale of these miniatures would be smaller (being true 28mm that is); but man, they are small :) Not complaining though, just wanted to give you a heads up should you consider using Perry's miniatures in any of your projects.

This was my very first purchase from Perry Miniatures and I must say that I am very happy with my decision. The minis look cool and are priced decently, they ship quickly and their -international- postage rates are affordable. What more would you possibly want, right? WRONG! Some of you might remember me ranting about casting quality in my review-ish posts. Quick confession: It turned out that I had no idea what I was talking about before, coz these minis rock! The horse guy is cast in one piece, same for the camel guy, except for the drums. In spite of this fact, they are still very detailed. However, the thing that amazed me most was the strength of the miniatures. While I was cleaning some of the flash, I was fairly certain that I would make the delicate parts snap off, like the scabbards and similar parts. Guess what, I didn't. I think it should be the quality of the material they use. It just didn't break... Awesome! Did I say I like Perry Miniatures...?

Since I've never painted desert themed stuff before, I had to do a considerable amount of paint shopping. I'm going with Vallejo as it's the only paint line I can find locally. My current palette contains many shades of browns, yellows and bone-like colors. I had to do some shopping for the bases too. I found an interesting basing material called Reindeer Moss Lichen. It helped me greatly to respresent dead vegetation on the bases, don't you think? Other than that, i used Vallejo Red Oxid Paste for texture and some green tufts here and there. I also have some yellow straws at home and will be using it on bases too.

Enough rant already. Enjoy the photos. I also included some comparison shots to give you ideas.