Billy Hill has sent us some more figure conversions. first up are Saracens Figure Conversions that he did. Here is his explanation.
Billy’s Explanation
I wanted to increase the numbers of my Saracen armies. My army consist of figures from 3 basic sources, Britains Deetail [and copies], Elastolin and Supreme [with a few Dulcop]. The first 2 are no longer being produced. Supreme makes both foot and mounted figures, but the mounted figures come with camels only. Britains made Saracen horse cavalry, but these can be difficult to find and are often somewhat pricey.
A number of the Deetail figures were copied by HG Toys and Awesome Kids, which are also well represented here and also no longer in production. Fortunately, Supreme makes a set of Russian knights, heavily armored figures with spired helmets, many with round shields. I decided that simply adding a turban to the helmets would make them Saracen-like enough to do the job. For this purpose, I bought variously colored sneaker laces and tied & glued them around the helmets. Some of the Russian figures had kite shaped shields and this required a more difficult conversion. I carved off the kite shaped shields and added round ones which I sourced from 2 different places. One place was Joann Fabrics. I bought a number of fancy buttons and removed the shanks. This was a little bit on the pricey side, so I went over to Michaels Craft Store and bought some wooden discs. I found various mandala patterns online and printed them out on sticker paper. On some shields, I drilled holes through the center of each disc and pushed furniture tacks through hole and arms to anchor the shields to the figures and provide a boss for the shield at the same time.
I have quite a supply of extra Supreme horses because I converted a number of mounted figures from various other sets into infantry, so I turned some of the camel riders into horse cavalry. I put all the mounted archers onto horses. Having ridden a camel myself, I have difficulty believing that an archer can fire accurately from the back of a camel unless it is stationary and providing a large target for the enemy’s archers.
Nice job.
Those modified shields and turbans are really quite artistic.
But you’ve outdone yourself with that massed Saracen cavalry formation, which I especially like.
It’s amazing how a relatively inexpensive product, like Supreme, can be modified by the creative converters on this site to really make a visually compelling display.
Great imagination & use of other items to enhance your figures. If you would like I can send you some of my extra Britain’s figures for your Saracen army if you pass along your contact information to Stad.
Thanks very much Michael! With all the additions and conversions, my Saracen army already threatens to expand beyond the space available on my table. I now need to start working on bringing my Crusader army up to snuff by finishing the paint and conversion work on my Templar and Hospitaler contingents.
If you like, you can view pics of my collection in my photobucket albums.
http://s1295.photobucket.com/user/BillyHillRN/library/?sort=9&page=1
Seems we all think alike in this conversion world. I did much of the same thing you did. I used Dulcop, Britains copies, Supreme Saracens and Supreme Russian Knights. I didn’t go as far as you did with the shields. They really make it! I did replace the camels with horses. The camels are used for scenarios where they are crossing expanses of desert to get to a certain destination. You put the extra work into yours and they look great!
Nice Job Billy !
Thanks for all the positive comments guys!
Supreme Saracens: I believe these are the same figures I got from Hobby Bunker. The description looks correct and the 4 mounted figures on camels is right. From what I can tell in the photos, two of my figures, a mounted archer and one of the foot figures with sword look the same. The figures are 65-70mm were distributed by Stevens International, with the manufacturer Sunjade Industrial Toys Co Ltd. Manufacturing date 7/15/2013. Can someone tell me if these are the same figures as the Supreme set or possibly a slightly larger modeled set. The figures are painted and made of soft pliable plastic.
This same set seems to be sold under Sunjade and BMC on Amazon. The “BMC” are listed as 1/32, but I don’t believe they were ever a subject manufactured by BMC and scale is more like 1/26 or 1/27. probably mislabeling.
Billy, I like what you’ve done with the figures. I got my set specifically for the camels because of the action pose; much better and for a lower price than I have seen elsewhere; although they are larger than other camels: Marx copies and AIP British Camel Corps.
I am now looking at them to possibly be adapted for FFL scenarios and maybe a few of the figures as well. At this point, I don’t know whether the bows, shields or spears were employed in North Africa at around 1900. Otherwise, they will require more converting than I’m likely to do, but a fun set, anyway.
Sunjade is maker.Other brand are just pakers distribution brands.
They did a lot sets and stop in 2012.
Only sudanese medieval society sects had warriors in quantities with those weapons.
By late 1800 most were using fire power.But of course simitars and knife were still very handy.
Jon ,the figures(Arabs medieval by Sunjade) run about 65 mm high or a bit taller. I will call them more 1.30 scale. They will not match good with rest traditional Arabs brands you mention.
Thanks for your comments, on this Erwin, on brands and on weapons. Sunjade was manufacturer, Supreme and Stevens were distributors. (and BMC was false name bestowed by Stevens.) Now I see Supreme on the packing slip from Hobby Bunker, so several names lead to the same figures.
Looks like I have some Saracen giants to fight against 54mm knights who will be plenty scared.
Too much camel information: Dromedary (one hump) is the camel of Arabia, Middle east and North Africa. It is 7 foot tall at the hump, making these Sunjade camels a good size for 60mm Arabs, and a little oversized for 54mm Arabs.
Bactrian (two hump) is the camel of Mongolia and Central Asia.( The Marx camel thus needs a pack or other load to hide the extra hump, and is not full grown.)
Final Camel fact, they move their legs by side; front and back legs move together. The Marx and Suntag poses are physically impossible since they are shown moving opposite legs (right front with rear left) more like horses.
The reult is the AIP camel wins: They are Dromedaries with the proper leg motion modeled. The AIP camel is a good size for 54mm, but for 60mm+ is a bit undersized, maybe young?
The answer seems to be more horses, less camels. Mounted Arabs on horseback as in Billy’s photos. Camels for beasts of burden, caravan type use and ignore the leg motions since they are toys!
BMC did not make them. Stevens International listed many items with coding of BMC that were never made by BMC.
Interesting note, thanks admin.
Maybe this explains why Hing Fat pirates are listed on several hobby websites as BMC, because of the Stevens International coding.
Hey Bill, those are excellent! Great idea about the laces.
I don’t think that the Britain Deetail Saracens are OOP. I believe that they come in a mixed pack with a few Knights. I may be wrong about that, though.
Who made the Britain’s copies? They came in bag sets in silver and black and are actually pretty good copies. I know that I paid a dollar a bag for them at some closeout store or another. I just wanted the weapons, to replace lost Deetail weapons.
Bill
The Saracens and few knights poses cloned in smaller size from Britain poses were first distributed by TM=Toy Major ,but not done by then, since a lot others packing sale them all around. I notice first were well done later are all wasted molded.
TM did a 12 set poses original by them and still sold with dragons in more nicer design in 90’s too. They are marked as TM bellow base, some with plug in spears.
I also bought in NYC store Zitomer around 2003 a playset under brand Aplause !?.I think.
It come with a lot of 24 saracen and knights in red and green colors plus 4 dragons ,catapults
and
Sorry I click before finish.
It come inside plastic rectangular case.
The funny part is the set outside said made in china wile a rare note of a leyend and I instruction x a game come in german.
Some wording outside box too.
I bought a couple of bags of the Britain’s Deetail copies of the Saracens and Crusader Knights around 2000 or 2001 for a good price at a local Drug Store Chain. I think they are really good copies and I prefer my figures in solid colors as opposed to painted, but that’s just me. I also have the original Britain’s Deetail figures. Now I will have to compare my originals with the copies.
That was a great conversion job Billy. I enjoy reading about and looking at conversion work to expand your armies, even though I do not have the skill to do them. I especially like the shields! Well done and thanks for the post and pictures.
Billy, those laces for turbans really look good and the shield conversions are great as well. These outside the box type ideas give me some inspiration to use fabric in disguising men and animal figures to hide unwanted details. Laces or rolls of fabric could make nice blanket rolls for civil war and other periods and props for many periods.
Thanks again for sharing you conversion photos and ideas, Billy!