THE ZENGIDS Seljuk Cavalry Painted Strelets figures miniatures 1/72 25mm medieval arab nomadic crusades wargaming

 At last I manage to finish some project, fully, succesfully and completely!

I wanted to paint something, and hence I gave a look at my various boxes. The set that more needed a painting was the Seljuk Cavalry, as they are almost identical as the Arab Cavalry from Strelets (so much I had to recheck on PSR who was who!) and for wargaming this is very annoying. I preferred to keep the Arab Cavalry as it was for the moment, and hence paint the Seljuks to enhance their "seljukicity"  :P .

While looking at them it struck me they were not completely fitting for me what I would understand as Seljuks. Call me picky, but I would imagine them more nomadic and slim. These, hence, suggested me something later, and much more arabic.

Hence with a bit of research I decided to paint them as Zengids, which was a Beylik, a small state loosely under the Seljuk authority, of Seljuk ethnicity but quite mixed with arabic influence, based in Mosul. They fought against the Crusaders taking Edessa most famously.

They fitted inside what one would call Seljuk, and it's quite impossible nobody releases a set of Zengids proper, hence perfect  :-) .

So, I applied mainly yellow-orange-maroon, with some touches of nomadic blue and dark colours.

Once finished the painting, they struck me as much too clean, and hence I used Games Workshops inkings, that while not wonderful, they give a good sense of realism, and they give a bit of varnish protection too, which allowed me to skip that tedious phase.

As a bonus, I did a small foot archer  :-) .

The highlight of them, is I believe, the chrome paint. I used a marker, and so I painted two swords and the masked seljuk.

Hope you like them and would love to read your impressions  :P .

The Seleucids; 1/72 conversion of Bum Spartans - Hytty Carthaginian mercenaries

This was, really, my first conversion project. I bought a box of Bum "Spartans", as the title just hooked me :P . I was rather flabbergasted by the contents inside, puzzled, with very mixed sensations. I inmediately saw that was hardly Spartans, although a roughly similar shield was provided. Upon searching I learned their true identity as Carthaginian Mercenaries of Hytty. But I wasn't very convinced either, considering some of the strange looks of a few soldiers, which even now I couldn't hope to identify (celtiberians? italic peoples?). I was given by Christmas another box of them, and this definitely only enlarged the puzzle and doubts about what to do with them! the shields and weapons falling apart were also a big part. Anyway, after much debating in those so far away times, I decided they could pass as Seleucids, with some able modifications, considering a good few of the poses were definitely greek, and the rest could be mercenaries used by the Seleucids. I printed shields from the Hat website, did some slight conversions with epoxy putty, and made some other shields. This was done about 20 years ago! hope you find them amusing to see ;-) .

 

Rare Giant? Civilian figures 1/72 scale unknown

I have found these soldiers, very much in style with Atlantic cowboys. One of them is a woman with a submachine gun! I remember having this figure in 1/35. Most of them seem modern robbers, thieves, a very interesting subject! among the mix, are some of GIANTs american soldiers, and what I think is a copy of a german officer saluting/waving/ordering, as I have a 1/32 which is identical to him.

Somebody copied somebody, and then recopied and relabelled.

 

Any info about them would be greatly appreciated!

Dragon US Light Infantry motorbike unit 1/35 modern warfare Iraq Kosovod

US Light Infantry Dragon; we move from the behemoth to the moth :lol: . As tiny as you can get a motor vehicle in 1/35, more or less. A interesting and nice kit, I saw it for about 5 € in a fleamarket, and to the stash it went. The good thing is that it came with another set inside! a very pleasant surprise, as a kit of just two men and a motorbike is a daylight robbery in my opinion. Always saw it for triple the price, and half the content! Got round to do it two years ago, just made proper pictures last week. Very fiddly kit, nothing really fitted in that bike, everything went on your own interpretation. The whole bunch was a wobbly bit of engineering with the polycement drying on! As I had two, I painted them in very different ways; for Kosovo, and for desert war, Iraq, Libya, you name it. I switched the heads on two of the figures.

 

Nubians Caesar Painted 1/72 25mm soldiers miniatures figures Nubia Kush

 

I managed to photograph some other soldiers this week , and now I am only left to take pics of some Medieval Russians, of all the pre-gunpowder soldiers I have painted. As the theme is hardly suited for this hot conditions, I think I will leave those to take pictures much later or in studio .

Anyway, lets get into details;

Browsing which figures I should paint, of my myriad of soldiers, a good few years ago, I chose the Nubians, as I had too many ancients in dark green, that made wargaming battles awkward, and so that they look more proper, as they are some of the soldiers that improves more when painted. The set is a bit on the boring side, and so I made a few modifications. My principal criticism is that the figures themselves, the faces don't look african, they look to me a bit semitic. In this respect, I prefer the Hat Nubians, at least for the faces.

Anyway, the main modifications was making a diplomat, as in some egyptian frescoes, and giving some weapons besides archers, as they had to battle with something when in close combat! far too many archers! and I tried to break a bit the uniformity, main issue with Caesars, reducing or adding feathers, etc.

Without further ado, the Nubians! in battle against Nuba peoples, which although very similar, must not confused with them , depicting some of the battles in their southern frontiers, lost now to history. These are Airfix and Hat figures, which I will properly take pictures at some other time .

 

 

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