Esci Set 238 Muslim Warriors

[Peter]

Some figures I painted in between while I'm working on the Arnhem project. This is part one because 6 of the 15 poses are painted!





More blabla and close up pictures of the figures on the BLOG!

[davbenbak1]

Great job so far. The skin tone looks just right. Can't wait to see the rest.

[Kekso]

Good work Peter. You did splendid painting on their clothes.

[Pieter]

They look beautyfull!
I especially like the grey wash on their robes.
Did you do any highlights on their clothes afterwards?
Guns and knives also look great.

Greetz Pieter

[Peter]

Thanks guys!

@Pieter: After I added the grey wash, I did a good drybrush with white.

[sberry]

They look really good: White clothing is always a particular challenge, but you did a great job here.
And I also like the figures themselves. Can't really judge their historical accuracy, but they have good proportions and clear and crisp detail, despite being quite old - there are many figures from the output of more recent years which are far inferior in this respect.

[Peter]

Thank you!

Esci made some really nice sets, and this is one of them. They are reissued by Italeri.

Here is good picture of the white clothing:



I really like the result of this. Both, the grey and the white, are soft.

[ADM]

Superb work !

[Ben90]

Good job on the white clothes!!!!

[Wiking]

Nice paintjob.

Abaout the quality of the figures I will underline sberry`s post.
Last week I paint the "Boss" with his sword touched to the ground !?
And in his face you can see engraved eyes !
I am surprised that no one of the "new" big manufacturer reach this quality.

[Marvin]

We're all liking the white clothes, Peter! Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing the next batch in this series.

[Beano Boy]

Well done on the fine painting on this old set Peter.
Old, but good in quality and quantity.
I can invisage a needful use for these on some of the stuff I`m working on at present.
Thanks for posting it has inspired rugged ideas. BB

[Bluefalchion]

The ESCI sculpting was often top-notch. The poses, however, were pretty dull. The ones in this set seem to be an exception, as they are lively enough. I like the painting you have done with them. What was your technique for prepping and priming? And what paints did you use?

[Peter]

Thanks guys!

This is how I did paint them:

I wanted to keep these simple so I worked with not to many colors. I started with a white (Revell 5)undercoat and then I gave them a Vallejo Grey Wash. Then I gave them all a white drybrush. After that I painted all the skin parts with Tanned Flesh (GW), and a Flesh Wash (GW). For the red I used Blood Red (GW), for the guns Brown (Revell 85) and Boltgun Metal (GW) with a Mud Wash (GW). For the leather parts I used Snakebite Leather (GW) also with a Mud Wash (GW). Gold and Silver are also from Games Workshop. Black is from Revell (8).

[Hellboy]

Great painting! The figures are right eye. Great color play in red and white! The play of light and shadow on the bright cloth is super you succeeded. A beautiful work of you!

[Peter]

Thanks Frank!

[KenzoSato]

Fantastic

[Susofrick]

Very nice painting of these figures! And maybe I'll start with mine some day thanks to these! But what are they doing in Arnhem???

[Peter]

Thanks both of you!

@Gunnar: they have nothing to do with Arnhem! I thought it was fun painting something different in between while I'm working on that project!. I might have it finished at the end of the week if everything goes well!

[Cryns]

Peter I agree with the others, very nice work. Good you remind us using grey for the shading of white clothing works as good as the usual creme, brown or beige. But probably your colorfull skintone and red belts make this nice balance with the colorless grey and white.

I love this old Esci set too and have several sprues myself. Last year at Crisis Antwerp I sold my Sidi Bel Abbes set for 20 euro's to a man who went home afterwards with a very face.



I bought this set in 2001 for 450 BFR from an old lady in Spa, Belgium with the plan to use some of the Arabs for Napoleons campaign in Egypt.

Can't really judge their historical accuracy

As a set of figures there is no historical context at all. Its a strange but very surprising set. The variety of figures in this set make clear at once (and PSR explained to us in detail about it a long time ago) most figures have no relation to each other, not in a cultural, historical or geographical way. Some, like the Afghans, can not even be called Arabs at all. The only thing they have in common is their religion. But treating them as separate figures I think their historical accuracy is pretty good. And as a bonus they are easy to convert.

there are many figures from the output of more recent years which are far inferior in this respect

So what I am wondering: were these figures made by a scale-down machine?
My childhood favorite figures from Atlantic were for sure. Their 1:35 scale ranges show exact similarity with their 1:72 scale ranges. Same with Matchbox WW2 sets: Their small scale range was an exact reproduction of their large ones. From other factories I don't know. Airfix 1:72 were all different from 1:35. Elastolin with their different scales is another good example. These scale down machines were very expensive and only owned by the big producers with a worldwide market of children&modellers together. It is obvious sculpting anything in 1:35 or even bigger has many advantages compared to do it in the small scale right away like most manufacturers do it today.

Does anybody know if Zvezda or other manufacturers use the scale down machine still today?