Dr Frankenstein, I presume?

 

So, having decided that the Rose colonial figures  seemed the best bet, my first move was to start chopping figures up...

Proof of concept figures. The one in the middle is simply the Garrison Mameluke stuck to a base. It makes a good officer and already has a carbine. The carbine looks crude, but that's because it's in a carbine scabbard! Figure on the far left is a standard Rose figure. I could use these unmodified as Ottoman infantry purely using paint. The kneeling figure makes a good uniformed fantasy 'regular'. 

Comparison of various figure... overall, although Rose figures are slightly smaller and slimmer than Garrison, they are still basically compatible.Incidentally, I've left the plumes on all the figures - easier to cut plumes off figures that don't need them than add plumes to ones that do! One thing I hate are head swaps. I can never get them right.

Comparison with Jacklex - they go well together. I'm still working on the new figures - need more choices and then I will have the best ones put on a mould. Pity Jacklex are no more.

Incidentally, these new figures are causing a problem. I had pretty much sorted out what I wanted for an infantry mould... all these 'new' figures mean that I won't be able to fit everything I want on one mould, not sure I want to have two moulds made!

Note re scale: Minifigs 'invented' 25mm scale and defined it as a 6' tall figure measured to the top of the head - a 23mm tall figure would be 5'6", all these figures are roughly 22-23mm to the top of the head, so close to 'true' 25mm. 

Add a few camels to the mix.

 All that sorting out a while back wasn't just about finding metal to reuse, it also meant finding and putting together assorted figures from all over the place for further use. One thing that surprised me was the number of camels I had all over, including some that had already been 'recycled' by the Dettol.

So here I am with two more camel units.

I'm starting with another unit of the Funcken style camels, though this time on armoured camels.

There are 2 Garrison armoured camels - one in the early '20mm' range, one in the later '25mm' range. They are so similar in size that I'm just mixing them in the same unit! The front one is the 25mm version!

The howdahs started life as 15mm squares on a piece of card...

I think these pictures give a good idea of the construction method... the 1mm or so cut is because this is the piece that goes on the inside when gluing the two faces together - they don't want to be the same size. If you try it, it soon becomes obvious why!

Note that the howdah has no floor. It sits directly on the camel's back - if there was a floor it would sit too high. Likewise, so would the crew. So the howdah is glued directly on the camel and any crew will be glued in place directly on the camel.

So here are the 6 camels ready to be undercoated then sprayed sand/camel coloured. I'll probably glue a shield on 2 on the sides first.

The next lot is a full size unit of Arab camels. Both riders and camels have been reclaimed from other uses, the riders being one of my conversions - basically a general purpose horse archer. These still need a bit of paint removing, I thought it would certainly be easier to get the riders cleaner if they were attached to the camels - easier to hold!