Baraka Miniatures
Baraka are a new company based in Madrid, Spain. They have recently began to produce a range of 28mm miniatures for the Rif War, Spanish Morocco in the 1920s. Some of you may remember I have an interest in this somewhat obscure conflict and have written about it in the SOTCW Journal and Miniature Wargames, I also have a pdf "Wargamers Guide" to the conflict which is still available through the Toofatlardies website: https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/the-riff-war
At
this point I should say I have had contact with the company`s owner Borja Pérez de Lema and
have shared research, etc with him; other than this I have no financial link to
the company.
After several months of discussions on Facebook, where Senor Perez showed the CAD designs for his figures they finally opened a website and released their first figures. As I`ve been following the discussions and already have some 28mm figures for the period – a few more couldn`t hurt could they? So I bought a selection of packs to add to what I already had, there was also an offer if you bought four packs you got a free bonus figure, so that is what I did.
Here is a
brief review:
I
bought four packs all of Spanish Foreign Legionnaires:
Each
figure wears the classic legion shirt open to the waist, British “Mills” type
webbing and “granadero” breeches buttoned from knee to ankle. The standing
figuresmeasure 28mm foot-to-eye and are of realistic proportions and are not of
the more heroic style of 28mm. These figures show all the advantages of the new
technology and use of CAD design, then traditional spin casting. The figures
have amazing faces and a level of movement in the poses which is just
excellent. There was no flash on any of the figures, some had separate arms
which needed assembly and gluing prior to painting.
Legionnaires
in Chapiri (side-cap) skirmishing in shirt
Six
poses: Kneeling reach for ammunition from his pouch; kneeling in the process of
giving a command, rifle held across his body; Kneeling firing; standing at the
ready, standing reloading and standing firing (this figure has one leg braced
on a pile of stones)
Legionnaires
in Chambergo (sun hat) skirmishing in shirt
As
above except they wear the floppy sun hat (think US Vietnam era boonie hat)
instead of the side cap
Legionnaires
in Chambergo advancing in shirt
Six
poses all figures have fixed bayonets, five of the poses are different running
ones and the last has the soldado posed as if clambering over rocks, his left
hand braced on rocks with his rifle in his right. All the poses are dynamic and
different.
Legionnaires
with LMG
Four
figures making two LMG teams with Hotchkiss 1914 models, all wear Chapiri
side-caps. Team 1 is prone, both wear uniform jackets, the loader has the large
metal storage case for the strip magazines. Team 2 is kneeling, both men wear
the legions open shirt, the bipod of the gun rests on a broken wall, the No2
holds a strip of ammunition at the ready.
I
also got a free figure representing the first commander of La Legion - Milan
Astray “the old scarred one”, with his empty sleeve and scarred face, a nice
personality figure.
I
was very happy with the figures and the service from this company.
L to R: 1898
Miniaturas; Baraka, Askari, unknown Scottish brand
L to R: Blaze
Away Miniatures, Baraka, North Star, Copplestone, Rif Raf
it's not a copplestone, it's a woodbine designs
ReplyDeleteThank you came as part of a job lot - hes a Turk I think??
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