Return to Darkest Africa (Updated 24 Mar 20 - Masai)

[Overlord]

Although I painted around 150 miniatures and had a handful of games a few years back I've still had an awful lot of Darkest Africa miniatures lying unpainted for too long.  I hope to amend that situation a bit this year.  With the prospect of a club campaign later in the year, hopefully it will give me a bit more incentive not to get too distracted by my myriad other projects.



As I enjoy making terrain and buildings most that is where I decided to start the New Year.  First off is a Tembe:



A 4mm MDF base with 5mm foamcore walls.  BBQ skewers for the entances at each end.  The walls were rendered with filler applied with an old penknife and watered down filler was brushed onto the ground.



With the limited illustrations, model photos and descriptions I found this is my interpretation so far.  Since then I've had doubts as to whether the doors leading off the central courtyard are correct.  Would there be any doors at all along the long sides?  Are the entrances at each end completely open into the courtyard, blocked off only when the tembe is used as a refuge?  I also appreciate the "doors" might not be as substantial as I have currently modelled them.

Comments/suggestions would be gratefully accepted by those members of the forum with greater knowledge than mine.

Paul

[Plynkes]

There's a bird's-eye-view illustration of a tembe, I think in one of Stanley's books, showing the courtyard arrangement. In this one there is a single door in the centre of the long inner wall opening on to the courtyard, rather than three. And surprisingly, the outer doors open directly on to the courtyard, the "hallways" at each end have no inner walls, just supporting beams holding the roof up. Also the courtyard is more spacious, compared with the size of the rooms, which look like they would be tiny, thin and pokey. The area of the courtyard looks like the same or more area than that of all the rooms put together, with room to keep herd animals in it and still have plenty of space for people to loaf about in the shade.

But of course, you don't have to stick with any of that. It is a picture of a tembe, not all tembes. I'm pretty sure that Unyanyembe didn't have very strict planning regulations.


I'll see if I can find that pic somewhere. Great job, by the way. I am mortally envious. I want one, but can't build stuff for shit.

[Plynkes]

One more thing:

It's hard to tell, but there seem to be loopholes or small windows on the inner walls, facing into the tembe courtyard. Oddly enough, on this picture there don't seem to be any outward facing ones. One would surmise that perhaps the plan is to let the enemy get into the courtyard where he is caught in your crossfire. Or maybe the artist just forgot to draw the outer windows.

[Overlord]

Cheers Dylan, I was pretty sure you would have a better idea than I did (should have asked before I started building  )

I was aware that my courtyard was a bit small compared to the walls/rooms, but wanted to model to fit into an A4 paper box for storage and making the walls thinner didnt look quite right.  Like most wargame models it is a bit of a compromise.  

Regarding the windows/loopholes, I found a reference to Stanleys men boring loopholes in the walls of a tembe, suggesting they might be windowless in normal use.  Loopholes on the internal walls make sense in the event of a break-in.  The few tembe references I found are all slightly different, so I'm not unduly worried about the local building regs!  I did however want a reasonably accurate representation.

I can block off most the courtyard doors leaving one on each side, add internal loopholes and open up each narrow end of the courtyard too.  Fairly easy to do before I go further.  Many thanks for the help.

[Plynkes]

This isn't the picture I was thinking of, but it does illustrate another example of the short ends of the tembe not having any inner courtyard walls:



This one seems to have lots of courtyard doors, so you don't really need to get rid of all of yours if you don't want to.


Another pic I stumbled upon,



This one looks like it has some structures inside the courtyard, maybe small huts for animals or something? Also seems to have solid walls all the way around the courtyard, including the gate ends, though it is hard to be sure. And check out how wonky the arrangement of the walls is. Shows there is no one single template for a tembe, and that you have plenty of scope for making it how you want to fit your gaming needs.


This tembe at Kazeh (Tabora) even has a nice outer veranda (this is probably in the nice peaceful times before Mirambo started attacking them).

[Captain Blood]

Oooh. Very nice Paul. Looking forward to following this...
Glad to see your Sikhs getting some use. I knew all those LPL entries would come in useful 

[Overlord]

@ Plynkes: Those images were very helpful and different to the ones I had.  Little doubt as to the huge variation in tembe construction.  Based on the additional information I have done a "Kirstie" on the tembe; knocking through the end walls and adding courtyard loopholes to "let more light in" and filled in most of the courtyard doors:

Oooh. Very nice Paul. Looking forward to following this...
Glad to see your Sikhs getting some use. I knew all those LPL entries would come in useful 

Unfortunately that photo including the Sikhs (LPL3 R3) is from a game two years ago, which was probably the last time they were on the table. 

[Dr Mathias]

Tembe looks good, it is extremely similar to the one I made.

[Malamute]

Great stuff.

Glad to see you back with a new building, can't wait to see more.

[Clearco]

I like it! It reminds me I have to finish my own tembe 

[Arthur]

Very good-looking indeed 

[Traveler Man]

Excellent work! 

I would allow the blocked-up doorways to show somewhat in the finished model. They would be an entirely natural feature for such a structure, since it would be modified over time as circumstances changed.

[Alxbates]

This looks excellent!  I'd like to build something similar myself - can you share your other source pictures here on the forum for us to look at?

[H.M.Stanley]

It is remiss of me - i really need to get to my Explorer Project

[Overlord]

This looks excellent!  I'd like to build something similar myself - can you share your other source pictures here on the forum for us to look at?

I will try and scan the images from books/magazines when in the office towards the end of the week.







Borrowed from Ignatieff and The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers:




Not all exactly primary sources, but may be of some help:
http://gajominis.com/blog/blog%202011/blog2011no9.html
http://ajstable.blogspot.com/2011/02/tembe-1.html