After searching high and low for an appropriate female figure to use for Malalai, I settled on one of Foundry’s relatively new ANCIENT CIVILIAN figures. Specifically, the “Roman Lady” pictured below with the brown shawl over her red-violet dress. Only problem was that between having to purchase a pack of 6 Foundry figures and the shipping costs, that meant spending about $30 for one single 28mm figure, which did seem ridiculous. But she looked so potentially perfect for the part. Here, see for yourself:
All I would need to do was sever her right forearm at the sleeve, turn it around and hope the palm of her hand would be wide enough to hold a little flagpole.
I agonized for weeks, maybe more than a month, then finally just sucked it up, decided it would be worth it to me and bought the pack. I went out of my way to explain on the order form that the only figure I cared about was the Lady in the red-violet dress with the brown shawl and to please be certain to include at least one of her. So when the figures arrived… guess what? The only one I cared about — the “Lady” to be converted into flag-waving Malalai — was MIA!!! Foundry had indeed sent me 6 Roman Nobles & Ladies — but she wasn’t included!
I called up Foundry and spoke to the legendary BERNARD, who indeed lived up to his legend and helped me out enormously. Without making a big deal about it, he shipped me the specific figure I so desperately needed. All’s well that end’s well, so THANK YOU, BERNARD!!!
Here’s a link to the Foundry page with her on display:
Wargames Foundry Ancient Civilians ROMAN NOBLES AND LADIES
I hope to soon post some pics of the conversion process, turning her into a 19th Century Afghan folk-heroine…