King Charles XII and Emmett busts from ZabaArt

This review sees the first from our guest reviewers. Marko has chosen to look at not one, but two busts from ZabaArt in the form of King Charles XII and Emmett.

I'll keep the waffle to a minimum and hand you over.

These two busts were sold as one item for 75EUR with free worldwide postage as a part of a promo campaign. The pair were called King & Clown.

Since then they have been available separately for 40EUR each, without VAT due to being in the Czech Republic.

The busts come in nice, compact cardboard boxes with a printed sleeve featuring box art by the author himself, Lukáš Žaba. The resin is well protected inside the box by shredded brown paper.

The easily recognisable style of ZabaArt is present in both busts which ooze character. Almost as if inspired by Italian comic artist Roberto Raviola's characters from the Alan Ford comic book, they look like they came from one of No 1's historic tales.

Emmett

Emmett is a one-piece bust that is approximately 85mm high. It depicts a rather grim looking, slightly aging, court jester. Deep set eyes, cheeks that are sunk in and a bit of a potato nose are perfect for displaying your face painting skill.

The quality of the design and the cast is apparent as the only work a modeller will have to do is to remove the extra material on the bottom of the bust.

The casting is extremely detailed, smooth and sharp. The details, of which there are a plethora, are clear and precise. Different textures are really well sculpted and will provide painters with ample room to display their skills.

Charles XII

Charles stands 90mm tall and consists of 5 pieces, 4 of which form his crown so some assembly is needed.

However; the casts are precise and without excess flush so the prepwork will be minimal on the smaller parts. 

Unlike the Clown (Emmett); on the King's body the modeller will have some more work to remove the extra material left from casting. Both on the bottom of the bust and the back side. But it is nothing even a novice painter would find daunting.

The crown parts fit snuggly into their respective places and the fact that they are all different sizes makes it easy to assemble even without instructions that are not provided in the set.

As far as work needed to fill gaps between the crown parts and the head, I find it is not needed as the joints create small cavities that will provide even more textures to paint.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I highly recommend these two busts and am looking forward to painting and displaying them on a single plinth (in my case by Hydra Models).

Both busts are available (along with many other miniatures) from https://www.zabaart.com.

You can of course keep updated with ZabaArt information by following them on social media via Facebook.

I hope you enjoyed our first guest review and will be back next week for another review.

Take care, stay safe, and don't spill your Nuln Oil.

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