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Author Topic: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Mirambo (Heaps of Corpses) painted.  (Read 66325 times)

Offline OSHIROmodels

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  • Custom terrain a speciality.
    • Oshiro modelterrain
Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Elephant grass test piece
« Reply #30 on: December 22, 2019, 02:41:42 PM »
Great work  8)
cheers

James

https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/

Twitter account -     @OSHIROmodels
Instagram account - oshiromodels

http://redplanetminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/
http://jimbibblyblog.blogspot.com/

Offline has.been

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Elephant grass test piece
« Reply #31 on: December 22, 2019, 03:43:35 PM »
+1 to see how you made your elephant grass,
& termite mounds when you make them.

Offline Hu Rhu

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Elephant grass test piece
« Reply #32 on: December 29, 2019, 09:48:23 PM »
That elephant grass looks the business.  I too would like to know how you did it.

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Elephant grass test piece
« Reply #33 on: December 31, 2019, 02:24:16 PM »
So I have my first army the Ngoni a people Lugard described as having “Character for Invincible Courage”

The Ngoni were refugees from southern Africa displaced by the wars of Shaka, king of the Zulus, who then moved north conquering a number of different peoples and founding a number of kingdoms through out central and eastern Africa. A number of Ngoni Kingdoms where founded around Lake Nyasa until they where eventually subdued by the British in the 1890s.

When the Ngoni moved north they brought Zulu fighting techniques with them which gave them a big advantage over local tribes and those early encounters seemed to give the Ngoni a psychological advantage over many of there enemies that was perhaps not warranted in the closing decades of the 19th century. Certainly the lake Nyasa Ngoni put up a very poor performance against the British in the 1890s compared to the Zulus and Matabele.

Visually Ngoni warriors were, unsurprisingly, similar to the Zulu the large classic Zulu shield, stabbing spear (called an Iklwa) and tufts of a cow’s tail (amashoba) below the knee . There are differences to  having moved far from southern Africa and encountered (read beaten up) other peoples on the way the Ngoni had some styles of their own. Red cloth was popular as wraps, belts or decoration and headdresses made of Zebra skin or black cock feathers were common. The head ring (know as an isicoco and actually part of a married man's hair style) worn by  Zulu warriors seems to have fallen out of favour as the 19th century wore on.

Ngoni military organization continued to be based on Zulu practices their armies where still called Impi and officers where still called InDuna . It seems the Ngoni regiments where now based on local villages and the military Kraals of the Zulus didn’t exist among the Ngoni. The Age set system was still used to recruit boys into the Ngoni armies but its not clear whether the regiments consisted of married men or unmarried men, like the Zulus, or just all warriors from a locale. In at least one battle against the Arabs the young men (amajaha) and the veterans (amadoda) fought as two distinct groups.

In battle the Ngoni seem to have continued with the time honoured Zulu horns of the bull formation however surprise night attacks on villages seem to have been a common tactic along lake Nyasa. Throwing spears seem to have become more common among the Ngoni than the Zulus of Shaka’s time but guns never seem to have featured heavily in Ngoni warfare. At the end of Mpezeni’s revolt, in 1898, the British found around 3000 guns in the kings village unused by the Ngoni against their British enemies.



I’ve been working on these guys for a while and now they are finished I thought it was time to share them. I think anyone who games 19th century Africa knows Copplestone miniatures do the best (and only) range of Ngoni miniatures out there. Sadly my gaming budget at the time didn’t stretch to a whole army of metal Ngoni. So looking around for alternatives I found a couple of boxes of Perry miniatures Plastic Zulus going cheap on eBay and decided to convert them to look more like Ngoni.

The Perry boxes are great value and two boxes gave me everything I needed to build an army under my chosen rules including morale markers, scout and baggage. So with great enthusiasm I jumped in with my green stuff and tried to sculpt suitable Ngoni features on the Perry’s Zulus. what I ended up with was a bunch of guys who wouldn’t look out of place in a 1970s Blaxploitation movie…. My cock feather head dress often ended up looking like giant Afros and my Zebra ring head dress looked more like ancient seas peoples reed headdress…ho hum. One thing trying to sculpt minor conversions with green stuff does bring home is just how bloody talented the miniature designers in our hobby are.

Anyway it was to late to stop now so I jumped on in with the painting  which quickly became an exercise in how many different shades of brown I could come up with from my paint collection to paint. Everything was then jazzed up with some black and white and the occasional splash of red. Not the most colourful army I’ve ever painted but I think they look pretty good now they are finished.

So onto the pictures

First up command the King’s sons and a couple of old veteran InDuna to keep them out of trouble. One of the old boys has found himself a rather modern breach loader from some where..(Youngsters from Copplestone old boys fromPerry metal Zulu command)



Next the Scout (Perry plastic) and witch doctor (Casting Room miniatures from their Zulu villagers pack)



Morale markers/ causalities (Perry plastics)



The two units of young warriors (amajaha) (Perry Plastics)









Three units of veterans (amadoda)  (Perry plastics with green stuff conversions)













Last up the baggage train. Ngoni armies would be accompanied by young girls and boys guard by a few warriors to carry supplies. (Nguni Cattle by Empress miniatures, warrior plastic Perry, other Casting room and Dixon miniatures)











Last up a couple of action shots





« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 04:14:06 PM by Diablo Jon »

Offline Digits

  • Scatterbrained Genius
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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with added Ngoni
« Reply #34 on: December 31, 2019, 02:35:01 PM »
They look awesome!  Really work well on your superb terrain too.   

Still waiting for an elephant grass tutorial however..... ;)

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with added Ngoni
« Reply #35 on: December 31, 2019, 02:39:08 PM »
I have pictures just need to put them into some sort of usable guide  :?

Offline has.been

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with added Ngoni
« Reply #36 on: December 31, 2019, 03:43:26 PM »
Nice stuff.  Keep it up.

Offline Mike1879

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with added Ngoni
« Reply #37 on: January 01, 2020, 09:36:18 AM »
Excellent well done 👍

Offline von Lucky

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with added Ngoni
« Reply #38 on: January 01, 2020, 09:41:21 AM »
Looking good - great terrain and miniatures.
- Karsten

"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Blog: Donner und Blitzen

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with added Ngoni
« Reply #39 on: January 02, 2020, 08:52:13 AM »
So as people have been asking this is a quick “how to” guide for my Elephant grass scenery. First time I've ever done something like this so I hope its hopeful.

I used the following materials

 Pink foam
. Dried ornamental grass  (yes actual grass from my garden no not the stuff from my lawn)
. Plastic aquarium grass
. Hot glue gun
. Green and brown spray paint
. Craft paints
. Some model flock and course turf
. MDF laser cut scatter scenery bases off eBay

Stage 1

Cut and shape the pink foam, hot glue gun it to the MDF base and paint it with green craft paint.



Stage 2

Take the ornamental dried grass stems (in this case if you’re really interested I used Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’ from my garden) I cut them down in the autumn and left them to dry out. Cut the stems to fit and hot glue gun them all the way around your pink foam.





Stage 3
Once you have glued grass all the way around cut the grass with a pair of scissors so it is around the same height as the pink foam. Then clean up any hot glue that’s gone where you don’t want it and seal it all with watered down PVA.

Stage 4

Take some of the plastic aquarium grass and hot glue gun it on to the top of the pink foam. Cut up a couple of the plastic grasses with a sharp knife to make smaller pieces that are hot glued on to the sides and bottom of the clump.







Stage 5

once everything is dry break out the brown and green spray cans. Spray the bottom of the clump brown including some of the lower leaves. then spray the upper grass area green.





Stage 6

Now break out your green and brown craft paints and add heavy dry brushes to both the green and brown areas of the clump trying to blend the brown and green areas into each other.



Stage 7

Add some modelling course turf and flock around the base of the clump and touch up the base to match your gaming surface and seal the whole thing with a mat varnish spray and voila a clump of elephant grass.




Offline Barry S

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    • http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l12/LeadBear/
Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with elephant grass tutorial
« Reply #40 on: January 02, 2020, 09:24:06 AM »
Great looking table  :-*

Thanks for the tutorial!
Barry

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l12/LeadBear/

Offline Flodden1513

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with elephant grass tutorial
« Reply #41 on: January 02, 2020, 09:42:36 AM »
Hi all,

Just joined the forum after a long time as a lurker.

Can I say , Diablo Jon, this is fantastically evocative work all round. I can almost see and feel the African sun over the grassland!

Your brush skills are likewise first rate. As someone who has always found African skin tough to portray could I ask you to explain the palette and technique you used for Ngoni skin ? I have some Zulus that need doing. Happy with my lighter skinned Zulus but also want some darker types in there and your finish looks right to me.

Keep up the fantastic work!

Scott

Offline Diablo Jon

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with elephant grass tutorial
« Reply #42 on: January 02, 2020, 09:58:35 AM »
Hi all,

Just joined the forum after a long time as a lurker.

Can I say , Diablo Jon, this is fantastically evocative work all round. I can almost see and feel the African sun over the grassland!

Your brush skills are likewise first rate. As someone who has always found African skin tough to portray could I ask you to explain the palette and technique you used for Ngoni skin ? I have some Zulus that need doing. Happy with my lighter skinned Zulus but also want some darker types in there and your finish looks right to me.

Keep up the fantastic work!


Scott

thank you

For my flesh

Bass colour - Revell Aqua colour leather brown

1st highlight - 50-50 citadel Bugman's glow and base coat

2nd highlight - 75 -25 Bugmans's glow and base coat

finish off with an ink wash of Vallejo Washes – Sepia Shade
 

Offline AKULA

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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with elephant grass tutorial
« Reply #43 on: January 02, 2020, 10:16:32 AM »
A great “how to” for the Elephant grass - thanks for posting

 :)

Offline Flodden1513

  • Assistant
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Re: Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - Now with elephant grass tutorial
« Reply #44 on: January 02, 2020, 11:19:16 AM »
Many thanks for the palette tip. I used bugmans in my lighter recipe. It is an excellent paint.

Best,

Scott

 

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