Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: nicknorthstar on September 21, 2018, 12:05:46 PM
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The new range from Copplestone Castings for the Darkest Africa range, the Shilluk.
Available in about 2 weeks time.
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Niiiiice :-* :-*
Any historical information about these guys? :)
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Great looking figures - looks like Mark is covering every tribe in Africa and good to see him doing historicals.
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Oh. My. God. The maestro is seriously back in business. They look wonderful.
I foresee a happy Plynkes... lol
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The Shilluk are on Wiki, but I found this site: https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/08/shilluk-collo-people-ancient-nilotic.html (https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/08/shilluk-collo-people-ancient-nilotic.html)
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Very fierce looking,sure to be popular :)
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I foresee a happy Plynkes... lol
Always stoked to see additions to my favourite range from my favourite sculptor. :)
Did a bit of a double-take at his choice of subject matter, though. Was not expecting that. While they look lovely, alas, I don't see myself building a Shilluk force any time soon. I have too much unfinished stuff on the go as it is to go buggering about with new projects (though I might just be tempted to get a few as conversion-fodder for already ongoing projects). But if you have a Mahdist or Egyptian force they'd make an interesting change of opponent for them, as they clashed with both on occasion. You could face them off against the "Turkiyya" Khartoum slave raiders, too.
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Love the look of the figures.
Come on Plynkes, buy some,
we all know you want to. ;) lol
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Oh man. I’m going to have to get some of these!
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As plynkes said they clashed against Egyptians and Mahdists..a must source is the Foundry book on East Africa..an imteresting war game option is their marginal role in the Nile Fashoda expedition by the Comandant Marchand’ Senegalese Tirailleurs where they could have attacked even the French if they have been in difficulty. In fact, once the Mahdist landing attempt on the ruined fort of Fashoda was countered by heavy Lebel repeating rifle volleys by Tirailleurs..the Shilluks began to harras the badly mauled Ansars...I think I ll consider to buy some as I already have French, Egyptians and Mahdists
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Apparently some of the Sudanese soldiers in British service at the time of the Fashoda incident were Shilluk, and they informed their compatriots of the greater political situation and which way the wind was blowing. Convinced it would come to fighting, the locals began something of an embargo on the French fort (which they had been trading with) for fear of upsetting the British, leading to something of a logistics crisis for Les Français. A hypothetical clash with the French is definitely something that could be done, perhaps even as part of a what-if-Fashoda-turned-sour? affair between the French and the Brits.
There were many tribal uprisings among the local peoples under British rule, but unfortunately it seems the Shilluk were not among them. They seem to have been reluctant to start anything, despite not being treated particularly well-treated, because unlike their pastoral neighbours their agricultural lifestyle left them more vulnerable to retaliation. I suppose one could use them as proxies for their more rebellious cousins such as the Dinka and the Anuak (unless of course Mark can be persuaded to make those too, and some early 20th Century Sudanese to fight them. maybe? Hands up for Sudanese Camel Corps? Okay, I'm daydreaming now).
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The Dinka are next
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Cool. Finally one of my predictions comes true! :)
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Might they also have some use as either opponents or numeri on Rome's desert frontier?
Re. Foundry's East Africa book, has anybody here heard news of a reprint? When I last checked, used copies of the original print edition were very expensive.
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As far as I remember, the Foundry East Africa book doesn't actually cover this area. Its northern borders are a bit to the south of these guys, down in Equatoria (the southern part of what is now South Sudan - Fashoda is in the north of South Sudan). So I wouldn't buy it hoping for info on the Shilluk, Dinka, etc.
The Foundry book Small Wars and Skirmishes does however have a short chapter on this region, with some illustrations of various tribesmen and the (Anglo-Egyptian) Sudanese military.
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Available to order now:
http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=5&sub=64&page=1 (http://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=5&sub=64&page=1)
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Well, as the CA moderator, I suppose it's beholden on me to get the war party deal and paint them up as best I can, for the benefit of our members.
Oh well, I'd only piss that twenty-five quid away on booze anyway. Done. :)
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Well even if not the fearful tribe of the world ...from the pict there are some tribesmen in that sort of toga who maybe can pass for the something similar to Hehe ...that fought vs Germans in Ostafrika...until today I never saw some suitable African minis with that look...maybe our moderator cam enlight us..
Thanks
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I agree entirely. Lots conversion of potential there for the "toga-wearers" of the East African set. Kikuyu and Samburu spring to mind in addition to the Hehe and others. Unlike these guys, it seems that East Africans preferred to hang their toga over the right shoulder for some reason, but I'm not sure that's a point worth quibbling about.
In the past I've used Copplestone Somalis for such conversions, but you have the issue of their cast-on shields and their big hair to work around. These guys certainly look like they'll be less work to convert (though some of them rival and indeed surpass the Somalis in the hair department).
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Well, as the CA moderator, I suppose it's beholden on me to get the war party deal and paint them up as best I can, for the benefit of our members.
Oh well, I'd only piss that twenty-five quid away on booze anyway. Done. :)
lol
Excellent ;)
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Can't wait for these. There are some bits about them in the Durham Uni Sudan archive, under British intelligence reports- here : https://www.dur.ac.uk/library/asc/sudan/sirs/
From memory they were involved as scouts for the British in the 1896-99 period. Just need some nice late period Mahdists now..
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I had a look but didn't find the Shilluk or Dinka in the army lists for "Death in the Dark Continent." Did I just miss them? If not, is there a suitable army list to use for them? Thanks for any info!
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There is a list for Luo. The Shilluk are part of that ethnic group. Shilluk wouldn't have the Kavirondo allies, though. So basically they are a one-unit-type army in that game. All you get is "Warriors", though you can upgrade some of them to "Elite Warriors."
You might want to use the ones in loin-cloths as your elites, and paint them as being leopard skin, as that was a status symbol. Or the ones with the most bangles. The elites painted their faces with patches of white war paint too, it seems.
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As for the Dinka (and Nuer), they are covered in list 35: The Warrior Herdsmen.
Edit: Just had a look and Chris Peers treets the Shilluk as poor old Generic Villagers (list 1) rather than using the Luo list, which is a bit of a downgrade, perhaps. Don't think they had bows, though. So skirmishers with spears rather than "Warriors." Up to you, really.
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Not my period but love these Copplestone sculpts !! Looking forward to seeing them painted up by Plynkes !!!
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Bless me, I can NOT WAIT to see Copplestone's Dinka. In 1975, those guys wore WAY more jewelry per capita than anyone else on earth. I wonder if they did so in the colonial era?
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I've seen photos of them wearing those outfits made entirely from stings of beads, they do look spectacular, and would be great fun to paint.
If the Foundry book is correct, though, they seem to have worn a lot less back in the day. Bangles and beads around the ankles, wrists, neck and head, but absolutely nothing else. Quite the eyeful. We'll have to wait and see where Mr. Copplestone goes with them.
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I have long been a fan of the DA ranges. It is great to see a new and interesting addition after some time. During the nineteenth century the Shilluk did a lot of fighting with Egyptian-Khartoum slavers coming up the Nile and then of course with the Mahdists. Many potential skirmish scenarios here.
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I have long been a fan of the DA ranges. It is great to see a new and interesting addition after some time. During the nineteenth century the Shilluk did a lot of fighting with Egyptian-Khartoum slavers coming up the Nile and then of course with the Mahdists. Many potential skirmish scenarios here.
are you meaning against (sorry for my sometime bad understanding of English) Slavers and Mahdists not that they supported them?..as regards Egyptians i read in Gessi and Piazza's memories that even the Egyptian Government Local bosses were not uncorruptable and flirted with slavers...and certainly behave in a quite rude manner toward local African tribesmen..but do you have any evidence that Shilluks even fought VS those remote Egyptian garrisons?..not any doubts as concern their probable clashes with Mahdists..as Plinkes in a very amusing way rembered us in a recent post ..the Mahdist had a penchant for arguing with neigbours and not making friends easily :-)
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at a risk to be of topic ..as we spoke about Slavers in Sudan as possible ennemies for the North Star Shilluk minis i found on the web those 2 interesting picts..they refer to South Sudan..the first depicts the typical "Bazingers" militia employed or better enslaved .. both by slavers and by their ennemies (Egyptians) the second is quite interesting as it show the trophies captured and carried by Romolo Gessi (an Italian General and Mercenaire in service of Cairo) as trophies in Italy after having defefeated and executed the famous slaver Soleiman...who probably , as i rembered to have read, also fought VS the Shlluks...i saw a few of them in April (the window of Gessi sold or offered the collection to Italian museums) in a semi desert museum in Rome ..in a dusty cabinet...and the ridicoulous caption ( in this case a modern one instead of the few remaining nice few ones in other cabinets that were written in ink in 1930 circa) said "Reperti dall'Etiopia" :?
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Against
The Egyptians invaded Sudan in the early 1820s to get slaves and gold (they got more of the former) and that was when Khartoum was established. Egyptian slave raids further up the Nile into what is now South Sudan led to clashes with the local Shilluk and Dinka in the 1830s and 40s.
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The English idiom can be vague and confusing sometimes, Italwars. "To fight with..." can mean both fighting alongside someone or against them, depending on the context.
I fought with my brother over a girl.
I fought with my brother against our neighbours.
The wording is the same, but they mean the opposite things. :)
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...but do you have any evidence that Shilluks even fought VS those remote Egyptian garrisons?
There is this...
From A History of South Sudan: From Slavery to Independence by Oystein H. Rolandsen and M. W. Daly:
"The slave trade thrived, with the government's tax-hungry connivance and the open participation of officials. In 1875 the Shilluk had risen in open revolt, attacked Kaka, killed the provincial governor and threatened the post at Fashoda. The rebellion was put down, and the reth, Kaiku, accepted a continued government presence..."
It then mentions Shilluk fighting as auxiliaries with an Egyptian force against the Mahdists, them being defeated and Kaiku being killed. But then it seems news of the Mahdist revolt caused many of the southern tribes to have a try at kicking the Egyptians out themselves...
"A rebellion broke out among the Shatt, Shilluk Luo, Bongo and Dembo... Garrisons and government patrols in the east were now massacred. During the first half of 1883 Lupton confronted what, if it had been coordinated, might have been a general rising of the Dinka. The garrison at Rumbek was massacred and the post destroyed. In October, his second-in-command, the highly experienced Rifa 'i Agha, and some 400 of his men were killed in a battle with the Shilluk Luo."
The "Lupton" mentioned is Frank Lupton Bey, a British official working for the Egyptians. He surrendered to the Mahdists when they overran the south. He was enslaved by them for a spell, but later released and allowed to live in Khartoum, where he later died of disease.
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The English idiom can be vague and confusing sometimes, Italwars. "To fight with..." can mean both fighting alongside someone or against them, depending on the context.
I fought with my brother over a girl.
I fought with my brother against our neighbours.
The wording is the same, but they mean the opposite things. :)
You fought with your brother against a girl? I bet you still lost bigly...
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Your deliberate misunderstanding is not helping. I know you speak perfect English (unless you've had a drink or two). lol
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Your deliberate misunderstanding is not helping. I know you speak perfect English (unless you've had a drink or two). lol
I know fully well what you wrote but i remain sceptical to your version of what really happened.
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I love these miniatures. Nice to see some less well known tribes Getty attention
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PAINTING A SHILLUK WARBAND
Skin – like other Nilotic tribes the Shilluk people are very dark-skinned.
Robes – shades of rusty red from pale salmon to dark terracotta.
Loincloths – leopard skin, or animal hide.
Anklets – sheep or goatskin
Jewellery – ambatch reed coils around legs and arms (presumably off-white), heavy ivory bracelets and strings of whitish beads. Some warriors wore brass or iron earrings.
Hairstyles – a wide variety of styles, sometimes straightened and bleached yellow, or partially coloured with red ochre. Feather decorations seem to have been mostly black ostrich feathers.
Facial Scarring – sometimes the distinctive line of raised scars from ear to ear over the brow was painted red, white or alternately both.
Shields – unpainted hide, so various shades of brown.
Spears – long spears (up to 8 feet long) often with a tuft of black ostrich feathers near the butt. Many of their spearheads were long and wide, made of iron, but others were long and narrow, carved from bone (light brown) or made from antelope horns (black or dark brown).
Clubs – polished wood, sometimes with darker brown or black heads.
Bugle-Horn – made from a black antelope horn and a reddish brown gourd.
Painting guide by Mark Copplestone sculptor of the Shilluk
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That was posted by Kev Dallimore on the Death in the Dark Continent Players Page. I'll try to share the content here, but if you use Facebook this is a good place to get the info first:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/259046974534553/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/259046974534553/)