Thursday, September 22, 2016

Gripping Beast Medieval Plastic Arabs as 19th Century Zanzibar Slavers



As I got me a copy of Dan Merseys latest rules "The Men Who Would Be Kings" I thought I needed to paint me some new minis for the Darkest Africa....

For Darkest Afrika games in 28mm you have a bunch of lovely metal minis from Foundry and also from North Star, but as you know I like to cut cost by using plastics...

So I decided to go for some Zanzibar Slavers using the Gripping Bests lovely plastic medieval Arab Spearmen and Archers box as a base for them. In a box I get 40 minis so it would be enough to build me 3 units of 12 minis with 4 extras.

The units I will build from the box are:

  • 12 +4 Arab Askaris
  • 12 Baluchis
  • 12 Ruga-Ruga

To get the minis in the box moving from the medievaltimes to 19th century I used a bunch of left over muskets from different Perry plastic Napoleonic and ACW boxes, as well as the Perry Sudanes box. I used some heads from the Wargames Factory Zulu box for the Ruga-Ruga. I also had some left over heads, swords, shields from the Gripping Beast Mounted Arab boxes that come in handy.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the 40 minia I built, painting next...







Arab Askaris




Ruga-Ruga




Baluchis





Additional Arab Askaris






25 comments:

  1. This is a great idea Michael, I shall have to have a go at this.

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  2. They look great and can't wait to see them painted.

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  3. Possibly the best and most relevant post I have ever come across on the internet! You Sir have genius.

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  4. Those turned out well - can't wait to see them with some paint.

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  5. These should paint up a treat - well done!

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  6. Great execution. I planned to do the same thing, but gave up when I couldn't get the first set of Perry arms to fit (the arab shoulders are too broad. Might have to give it another go now I've seen yours.
    Tom

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    1. Thanks !

      I had to do some cutting to get them to fit.

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  7. Excellent the joy of plastic conversion ! I wish😀

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  8. Great idea and great conversions. Looking forward to seeing the final product!
    Peter

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  9. Very clever! Looking forward to seeing them painted up.

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  10. Very nice indeed! With slight variations, could be used to create NWF Tribesmen/Afghans, or North Africans to fight French Colonials. Very useful info, thanks for posting!

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  11. Your plastic conversions inspire imagination. i'll go and look over my plastic 28mm kits. Thanks a lot

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  12. Excellent. Always great to plastic part swapping. cheers

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  13. Excellent. And this somehow is the GB plastics in a nutshell. Rather limited when built straight out of the box on their own - but can be really good when mixed with other boxes of plastics.

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  14. This is an absolutely fantastic idea! They ook awesome as well!

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  15. These do look rather promising already!

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  16. Thank you very much !!!

    Glad to be able to inspire :)

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  17. They look excellent.

    I was planning to use them as dismounts for Perry's Bagarra cavalry, and I am pleased to see they can do the job, especially if modified with other plastic sprues.

    Can't wait to see them in the paint.

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