We’re headed to Bukhara

I’m just going to ignore the fact it’s been over 1 year since my last post. To be fair not a lot of miniature progress occurred in 2024. 

A bit of a set back was my commission painter retired and moved to Asia so the lead mountain has been creeping up. 

I did manage to slap some paint onto some WWI highlanders (from Great War Miniatures) that I was planning on using for VBCW and onto some WWI Americans (mostly Great War Miniatures and some Brigade Games).

I attended the 29th annual Hotlead in March of this year, which was followed by almost 3 weeks vacation so I really found my mojo invigorated.

I built a small Middle Eastern village following some plans/tips from Pulp Alley’s YouTube channel. I’ve started building the great walls of Bukhara.

I have a 24” section built and have another 4x 12” sections in various stages of assembly.

 I also worked on the RCW armoured train and the train tracks.

Here’s what I’m currently working on.

The black figures in the foreground are mostly Artizan Irregular Arabs from their First World War range. There are 5 Brigade Games Arabs scattered in. They have been painted for probably 3+ years but I haven’t done anything else with them. I put texture paint onto the base so they are almost done.

The silver figures are a mix of Copplestone Castings and Brigade Games WWI Turks to finish off that army.

My plan is for them to be a regular/well trained force when gaming Back of Beyond in any Middle Eastern theatre.

There are a bunch of primed horses and cavalry figures, again from Artizan Designs/Brigade Games.

It’s quite unfortunate in that I purchased many of these figures once online years ago that were lost in the mail. I never received compensation from the seller either, so I’ve had to buy them again. 

I also found some camels from Saga that were particularly discounted. 

The three figures in fezzes are Egyptian police from Artizan Designs. They will be guarding the jail house in Bukhara once build.

Lastly, here are the Artizan Designs Sharifan Infantry. 

These might be amongst my favourite figures. It’s disappointing that there are only 4 poses, and one of them is the figure carrying his rifle. I purchased 3 packs (one at Hotlead) and the other two online for 12 figures total.

I figured two HQ types and a 10 man squad would be sufficient. Cough unless Artizan decides to make more cough. 

The figure on the left is the stock figure.

The middle figure has his rifle cut away from his hand, his hand was opened up and a banner pole was glued in place. The rifle from the rightmost figure was glued on his back.

The figure on the right had his right hand cut away and the rifle was cleaned up and donated to the banner bearer. A new right hand with revolver was sourced from the Warlord Games British & Canadian Army infantry. At this scale, a revolver is a revolver. However, it’s likely a Webley which was in service in WWI so all good.

Lastly the left hand was removed and some of the body was shaved down. The binoculars and straps were sourced from the same Warlord kit. The straps were cut to look like they went behind the neck. I’m not 100% happy as the hands are slightly oversized but it’ll be fine. I just have to greenstuff a small gap at the wrist and he’s also done.