'East' from MichaelP: Pasha Moustasha Ali

My entry is a single figure. Family circumstances are challenging at present, but painting gives me great stress relief, even in small amounts.

 This 28mm figure is by Canada's Bob Murch, proprietor of Pulp Figures. I love Bob's stuff and can't paint enough of it. For several years now, Bob has sculpted a moustachioed figure for "Movember", the charity for several health issues unique to men. Donors to the charity get one of his Movember sculpts. Last year his sculpt was a handsome gentleman that I painted up as "Flashheart of the Mounted". This year's figure is called "Pasha Moustasha Ali", and he has a definite eastern look (depending on what side of the Dardanelles you happen to be on).

This figure has a slightly chunky, cartoony quality which is typical of Bob's figures, but to mind that look is ideal for pulp-oriented, larger than life gaming.   

Pasha is not staying in my collection.  He is a gift for Jonathan Freitag, the proprietor of the Palouse Wargaming Journal, who was the winner of the online Diplomacy game I ran last year.   I promised the winner a painted miniature, and since Jon played Turkey, this seemed like the perfect choice.  I may run another game later this year, if you're interested.

The nice thing about these kind of figures is that you can read any back story you want into them.  As I was painting him I imagined a tough and capable fellow who clawed his way to the top in Turkish politics, as one of Ataturk's trusted lieutenants.   The pistol and sword may be worn for effect these days, but in his time he's used them well, and often.   Today he has returned to the old battlefields of Gallipoli for a ceremony, and has wandered away to stare at a landscape he knows all too well.

He remembers how the waters were full of ships, and how their giant shells almost blew them off the hills they were ordered to hold at all costs.

He thinks of his first command, just a platoon of scared peasants, but he was proud of them, as if they were  the finest Janissaries of the Porte.  He remembers how they crossed bayonets with the bronzed Australians, and refused to yield.  It was long ago, and now the young are so eager to build their new Turkey, like his aide over there, looking anxiously at his watch, for he is already late for his speech.

The general sighs, and turns his back on the ghosts of Gallipoli, returning to the present.