Sudanese sidetrack (6)

Another six men of the 3rd Foot and Mouth arrive to face the Mahdist forces

Lovely Perry Miniatures Sudan Highlanders. The Tartan's a bit of a faff, but also a bit of a cheat, so I'm happy with it. Painted to match the previous batch.

I did try and take a picture with the finished unit of 12, but I can't find my wide gradiated background and the blue cloth one that comes with the lightbox plays havoc with my white balance.

Anyway, stout British infanrty need someone to fight, so here's three more Dervish/Fuzzy Wuzzy/Hadendowa

So now I need to clean up six more metal British and glue together another 8 Fuzzys.

Sudanese sidetrack (5)

A few more Sudanese tribesmen

Should be some more British to follow in the next few days.
And there's three more Fuzzys on the paint table too.

I did an audit and I reckon I need a half dozen more riflemen and a similar number each of Sudanese and Fuzzy tribesmen to have a starting force for TMWWBK.
3 units of 16 Fuzzy Wuzzy tribal troops, one unit of 16 Sudanese tribesmen and a unit of 12 Rifles (which count as irregular as I understand it).
Normally that would be just 16 points (3 each for the tribals and 4 for the irregulars) according to Dan Mersey's blog but I'm expecting it'll be possible to upgrade the Fuzzy Wuzzy units with "aggressive" or similar to get them into combat quicker and make them more effective in HtH.

The next batch of British gives me a single finished unit of them for the Sudan, so I need to crack on with them really to ensure I've got both sides ready for TMWWBK coming out in August.

Sudanese sidetrack (4)

More Mahdists.
This time mostly command figures made from the Perry Ansar plastic set.

 Ansar leader, standard and rifleman

 Beja leader and standard bearer

Beja leader, drummer and spearman

I think I've got enough models for a game now. Just need to check the scenery collection and then see if General B or Steve fancy some colonial action.

TSATF, being card driven, will doubtless be a huge hit with Steve.

Sudanese sidetrack (4)

Some troops in the service of Her Imperial Majesty to try and suppress the Fuzzy Wuzzy hordes.
Fresh from the North West Frontier where they have been manning the Khyber Pass are these elements of the 3rd Foot and Mouth.

There's another one somewhere that I painted several years ago. And there are six more awaiting priming...

Sudanese sidetrack (3)

More tribesmen.
8 Beja

(still struggling to get non-murky images of these)

and 8 Ansar

This picture's come out better I think.

This time half were washed in Gryphonne Sepia and half in Coat D'Arms. Think I prefer the CDA overall, but happy with the variation the different washes are giving me.
So that gives me 40 in total I reckon. Enough for a TSaTF game and in good shape for the publication of TMWWBK later in the year.
I've started getting some command together now.
I'm going to use the NWF British models I've already painted (they'll be freshly arrived from India in my version of events) and so now I just need to finish off some Perry Highlanders (3rd Foot and Mouth, naturally) to join Private Crank.

Sudanese sidetrack (2)

Eight more Beja.
Took longer to glue 'em together than paint 'em.
Spray with Halfords Matt Brown Camo, then block out the clothes with Deneb Stone and the various metals, spearshafts and hair in appropriate clours.

Struggling to get decent pictures at the moment - they really aren't this "murky" in R/L

This time I used Devlan Mud as the wash. I think it does the skin better, but the clothes less well than the Coat D'Arms wash. Trying to avoid using multiple washes on these though, to speed things up.
Might try Gryphonne Sepia on the next batch. I'm intending to mix them all together in units, so the varied washes will result in a varied unit.

If I bash out another 16 and use the NWF British as opponents I can have a go at the Sword and the Flame basic scenario.
Just like Phil has done over on his excellent Warcabinet

A Sudanese sidetrack

So there I was, happily painting Artizan British NWF models and thinking about getting some Pathans, when things appear to have taken a swerve...

A few years ago now Boyes (a regional department store - like a sort of downmarket Woolworths - or Wilkinsons for my younger reader) decided to get into selling Toy Soldiers. It started with quite a bang with shelves groaning with Airfix, PSC, Flames of War, Perry, Warlord and, of course, GW. And slowly it has retreated from that place as it's discovered what sells or, more pertinently, what doesn't. And what doesn't sell, at least in the volumes to keep Boyes interested, is anything other than GW and paint/hobby supplies.
The soft plastics were the first to go, followed by Warlord, FoW and all the Airfix that isn't planes. Now it seems that the Perry range and PSC is being dispensed with - or all the stuff that isn't Napoleonics at any rate. So the other week when I was in there I noticed this.

Specifically I noticed this:

A box of the Perry Ansar at half-price!
I said to myself that I've got no intention of playing Sudan, I'm doing NWF and that's that.
So I left them on the shelf and went away.
Actually that's not true I bought the only box of Afrika Korps they had for a tenner and then I went away. But that's a post for another time.

However when I got home I had the odd and crazy thought that maybe by combining bits of the Sudanese with some of the Gripping Beast plastic Arabs I could fashion some Slavers for games of Darkest Africa, and maybe some of them would pass as DA tribesemen too.

So a day or two later I popped back and bought a box.
And when I got them home they were all lovely and nice looking and sticking them anywhere near the GB Arabs seemed like a terrible thing to do. So I figured that maybe I could make a couple of units for TMWWBK (pronounced Tim Wubbuk, the Canadian lumberjack) and that wouldn't be too bad. And I had six Perry highlanders I'd bought to use for DA and not finished so maybe they'd paint up for a unit to use against them. And perhaps if you didn't look to close I could use the NWF models and....and before I knew it this had happened.

Oh.

Anyway I've done quick and dirty paint-jobs on sixteen of them that is, pretty much the same as I did the African Tribesmen, but the whole thing washed with Coat D'Arms Brown Wash rather than woodstain dip.

The photography hasn't been kind - they don't look half as messy as this.

So now apparently I'm going to do Sudan Colonial gaming and I own a copy of The Sword and the Flame and I'm still painting NWF models and I don't know what's going on really...

Northstar Native Porters

I picked these up the other day from the very Nice Mr Nick at Northstar
They're from the Northstar Africa! range. Sculpted, I'd guess, by Steve Saleh and a good match for my Foundry Darkest African tribesmen
Simple dipped paintjobs using the techniques covered in my earlier posts.

Not sure why the last one appears to be leaning - he's not really like that. Camera angle I suspect

Pretty happy with how they've turned out.

Carry on Colonial (2)

May I present Private Arthur "Wafty" Crank of Her Majesty's 3rd Foot and Mouth

And finally in the official memorial shot as kept on the mantelpiece by his dear old Mum in Blighty

Quite pleased with him in the end. I wonder where the rest of the blister has got to..?

Carry on Colonial

There's a Colonial painting league thingummy running over on the Lead Adventure forum.So I grabbed this chap off the shelf where he'd been standing half-finished for a while.

Intended for my Darkest Africa project with half an eye on maybe some Afghan adventures one day, he's a Perry Miniatures Sudan Highlander. He's inspired by the 3rd Foot and Mouth of the legendary Carry on Up the Khyber film, so the uniform (and especially kilt) are a little less than historically accurate. But then as my African country will be fictitious and contain a certain amount of Lost World flavour I'm not fussed.

Here he is ready for the dip

And now ready for a varnish.

Next he needs a good hard matting and some basing.

Nice pictures tomorrow if I can get the camera working.

The Loss of the Bruschetta Column

Colonel Silvio Bruschetta hummed lightly to himself as his column snaked through the tall elephant grass, a light comic operetta song that reminded him of home and mama. Despite the heat and the relentless attention of the files he was enjoying the march through the lush landscape.
Suddenly and without warning the column ground to a halt.
"Wassa da matter" he demanded of Ravioli the banner bearer "Why we a stop"
He soon had his answer. Sergeant Limoncello, leader of the Bersaglieri, came running up.
"There's a tree a Colonel. A tree filled a with a skulls. The Askari, they say its a bad juju to go further"
"We go on Sergeant" roared the Colonel" Skull tree or no Skull a tree we go on!"

 The Italian Column approaches the Skull Tree

 Hidden in the elephant grass are signs of habitation

 Nervously the colonial troops press on

 Despite their fears the Askari lead the way

 A sudden commotion at the rear of the column as spear throwing natives burst from cover

 The raw recruits of the Stracciatella Regiment are suddenly assailed by musket fire

 As natives burst forth from all around Colonel Bruschetta begins to realise he has blundered into a trap

Fumbling with nervous fingers the young troops fresh from home struggle to load as the warriors bear down on them

 But too slow! The fierce tribesmen are upon them and casualties begin to mount

 Bafuko the tribal leader springs from the grasses to urge on his men (and fire his shiny new gun)

 As desperate bearers push the mules onward the jaws of the trap begin to close

 Frantic now Bruschetta urges his men to form a defensive cordon. But all too late as the Bersaglieri are caught in the open

 Briefly the Colonel himself is caught by the savages (which makes his eyes water), but cold Italian steel sees them off

Rallying his men around the flag Bruschetta begins to sing a sad mournful song of home.

 Undaunted by the racket Bafuko urges his men on

The final minutes now for the struggling column as whooping tribesmen descend on them

I was lucky enough to play a splendid game of Death in the Dark Continent with James last night. He provided all the lovely models, scenery and the rules. All I did was roll some dice and shout "Mama-mia!" as I led the ill fated column to its doom.

The scenario is an ambush one from the rule book but we agreed the odds were rather stacked in favour of the Azande.

The rules themselves seemed to work well, I liked the way morale slowly crumbled affecting all elements of the troops until they broke and fled the field. The difference between the warriors of the Azande and the more drilled European troops also seemed to work well (albeit based on my very limited knowledge of the period.

The only downside of the whole splendid evening was the fluttering awakening of interest in a new gaming period. I've been toying with the idea of some form of Colonial behaviour for a while and James, like some sort of lead crack pusher began to talk of having some "spare" Africans...