Recently I acquired a couple of sets of EKO figures from Glenn. He picked them up from a seller at the last bring and buy held at the Woolston Club in Christchurch, and figured that given my love of weird types of plastic figures I would be very interested in them.
Plastic Soldier did a feature on EKO figures (click
here for more information), goes into the history of the figures in more detail, and over at Small Scale World, there are a number of posts on EKO (click
here for more information)
 |
| The original factory paint job. |
The figures are presumably intended to represent troops of the Arab Legion, but i figured that I could paint them up for use in my ongoing Harad games. I did decide to go with a paint scheme that would capture the feel of the original figures. With this in mind i was able to make three infantry stands for CD, and two command stands.
 |
| The flag stand could also be used as a command infantry stand. |
The intent is to paint up some stands of Airfix/Hat Arabs to add to the force with the same patterning on their keffiyeh (or shemagh if you prefer)
, this should give the force an overall theme to tie it together.
 |
| Two command stands |
Painting the headdress was a challenge, and I don't think I fully cracked it. The last figure I did (the rifleman on the stand with the grenade thrower) I just painted the head dress red and just put lots of white dots on. I predict I may use the same technique again in the near future!
Thanks for the shout Uncle B, one of my favourite sets, how can you not love a modern equipped army who take flags AND hawks into battle!
ReplyDeleteYour painting has definitely done them justice.
Would dry-brushing red-on-white with a knackered brush be worth a try for the headdress? The ones I've seen are more dogs-tooth than checked, and have lines round the border,,,so with folds allowed for, a smearing might look quite good?
Hugh
No worries Hugh! Your blog is one of my first stops when I need information on things of this nature!
DeleteThanks for your kind words on the paint job - I am quite pleased with how well they came out, and on the amount of detail hiding under the factory paint job of blobbed enamel paint.
The set certainly has character, and I will admit the figure with the hawk did contribute towards this set being painted before some others!
I will have to try the technique you have suggested as the logic behind it sounds quite good, and it sounds like it might be easier too!
They look pretty fine to me Brian.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ion! I'm looking forward to painting up the rest of the EKO sets I got from Glenn.
DeleteJust thought you might be interested to know "A Call To Arms" produces a set labelled British Infantry WW2. But they're not, in fact they're the moulds that were copied by EKO and sold as English Infantry Set 1.
ReplyDeleteAnd then... they themselves had the figures they pirated, pirated yet again by an outfit in China! They simply hammered out thousands of the things (quality was awful!), shoved them loose and unpainted in plastic bags, and sold them in every corner shop and newsagent they could find for pennies. Many happy hours were sent gleefully slaughtering those pirated pirates!
You can now see what the original moulds are producing at A Call To Arms website. Quality is actually pretty impressive considering the moulds are over fifty years old.
Good blog BTW! :O)
Thanks Dave!
ReplyDeleteA interesting tale of copy and counter copy it would seem! I remember buying bags of pirated Hong Kong knock offs of Airfix figures in my childhood, and having loads of fun with them too! Glad you enjoy the blog!