Berber Spearmen by Gripping Beast

Berber spearmen in neutral white, tan, beige, and brown. 

I took the plunge into an arab army for the upcoming crusades supplement for SAGA with some berber tribesmen by Gripping Beast. I'm not settled on a color scheme and my knowledge of the muslim armies of the 11th and 12th centuries is very shallow, but I was itching to get paint onto some figures. I really like the look of these tribesmen by Gripping Beast, and I think they're generic enough to be pressed into service anywhere from Moorish Spain to the Levant, at least until I flesh out my arab armies with more theater specific figures.

The bases could use some tufts, but I didn't have any desert vegetation on hand.

Besides SAGA, I also intend to use these figures for mass battles. Although individually based on washers, I created a few sabot bases for them as well. I intended to mount four of them to a 40mmx40mm base, but they were jammed in so tightly I switched to 60mmx40mm bases. 

Magnetic tape being affixed to metal 60x40 base

To help keep the figures attached to the sabot base, I laid down some magnetic tape on top of the rectangular base.

In the future I'll make the holes a bit larger so they're not quite so snug

On top of the magnetic tape, I glued some 2mm foam sheet that had circular openings cut out to accommodate the spearmen's bases. 

Once glued and painted, I did have to go back and chisel out some errant grains of sand

Both the spearmen and sabot's received similar texture and paint to help the bases blend together.

Berber tribesmen, ready for skirmish or set piece battles

The Gripping Beast figures are decent. I quite like the robes and head scarves, but the detail on their faces was quite tricky to make out. Overall I'm pleased with how they turned out, but I'm eager to compare them to the new plastic range they've just released.