Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - now with my first Swahili buildings

[Clach Umha]

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[Umra Khan]

there are no words to describe your beautifuil scenery and paint work...just  S T U N N I N G !!!!!

[Diablo Jon]

there are no words to describe your beautifuil scenery and paint work...just  S T U N N I N G !!!!!

Lovely thread Diablo 

Great work on the table, textures, foliage, pigmenting, nice

A lot of time, passion & lot of coin poured into that.

Really enjoyed the wee river boaty scene too, very cool indeed

Thanks guys

[Diablo Jon]

A short and not particularly exciting update today I continue to spend my hobby time between packing up the wargames room and trying to finish up stuff on my painting shelf of shame. See my LAF thread on my wargames room renovations here.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=131769.0

 These Ngoni were converted up from Warlord Games Zulus to bulk out the units in my Ngoni army so that I could use them with “The Men Who Would be Kings” rules. When I started my Darkest Africa project I was going to use “In the Heart of Africa” rules and made my Ngoni warrior units 12 figures each in TMWWBKs tribal infantry are 16 figures strong so I needed a few extra.

After I converted these miniatures I managed to get the skin blocked in and then never got any further so these took a bit longer than some of my other painting shelf of shame miniatures to finish up. I’ll admit these are not my best work but I’m not sure that will matter to much when they are mixed in with rest of my Ngoni horde.

[Plynkes]

I think they look fine, Jon. There's something about those Warlord plastics. Not the biggest fan of them (or plastics in general, if I'm honest). Some sat on my own 'shelf of shame' from the time they came out til last year. Not sure how long that was, but it was a long time.

[Diablo Jon]

I think they look fine, Jon. There's something about those Warlord plastics. Not the biggest fan of them (or plastics in general, if I'm honest). Some sat on my own 'shelf of shame' from the time they came out til last year. Not sure how long that was, but it was a long time.

Yeah the warlord plastic Zulus are a bit odd I got a few sprues on eBay at a bargain price. I don't think the arms attaching at the elbow joints was a great design choice, the Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie ripped bodies don't help either and some of the heads are just plain weird. I swapped out a number of heads with ones from the Perry Zulus. The Perry  Zulus are nicer they have a more realistic
gaunt look to them. Almost all the African native miniatures I own look a bit to well fed compared to photos of real 19th century Africans imo

If I'm honest if I was starting a Ngoni army now I'd just bite the bullet and buy Copplestone's Ngoni. At the time I started this project though funds wouldn't stretch but a couple of boxes of Perry Zulus was affordable.

[Peter]

Very nice figures - good inspiration - keep it up

[Diablo Jon]

Very nice figures - good inspiration - keep it up

Thanks

[Plynkes]

You are right about those Warlord lads all being ripped musclemen who clearly spend all their time at the gym. Most figures look way too bulked up compared to period photos, but I think these are the worst for it that I've seen.


It's a shame you never got into the Copplestone Ngoni, Jon. Mostly because they are some of the nicest African figures going. Really rate them, especially the Watuta, which I think are my favourite set of figures made by anyone ever.

[Diablo Jon]

You are right about those Warlord lads all being ripped musclemen who clearly spend all their time at the gym. Most figures look way too bulked up compared to period photos, but I think these are the worst for it that I've seen.


It's a shame you never got into the Copplestone Ngoni, Jon. Mostly because they are some of the nicest African figures going. Really rate them, especially the Watuta, which I think are my favourite set of figures made by anyone ever.

Very true never met a Copplestone miniature I didn't like.

[Diablo Jon]

A while back I posted four test models I had painted to represent Portuguese Cacadores in Africa circa late 1860s to the mid 1890s. I’ve now added eight more to make a twelve figure unit. Surprisingly despite Portugal’s long history in Africa, and being a major player in the scramble for Africa in the late 19th century, information, in English at least, is really hard to come by on the Portuguese military forces in Africa. In the end I’ve had to rely heavily on Peter Abbots OOP Foundry book on Colonial African Armies. The internet doesn’t have much info either. If you type in “Cacadores” you get lots of information on the Peninsular War if you type in “Cacadores in Africa” you get lots of pictures of moustachioed, early 1970s Portuguese’s soldiers, with machine guns neither is much help to me.

A few things come up in Abbots’s book that I’ve tried to incorporate into this unit. First the Cacadores battalions in Africa recruited both local Africans, men of mixed race, Portuguese Goans and European Portuguese, and unlike most Europeans in Africa, mixed them all up in the same units. The Cacadores were issued with traditional Brown uniforms, but where also issued with a second white uniform, black leather equipment and kepis or white havelocks. Uniformity in the colonies was very variable though due to supply issues and so men could be wearing both colours of uniform as well as civilian and native clothing. It seems the further away you moved from the coast you went the more irregular the Cacadores looked.

Of course no one makes Portuguese soldiers for Africa (apart from Eureka’s massive three miniature range of 1890s soldiers) So I’ve had to improvise by finding suitable looking miniatures in other ranges like Foundry’s old west Mexicans and Darkest Africa, Copplestone Zanzibari Regulars, Perry Egyptians and Perry War of the Triple Alliance range. For conversions Perry ACW plastic heads and their black soldiers in Kepi head sprues are really helpful.

[Calumma]

These look great and the background information is very useful. I’ve thought about setting a scenario in my latest campaign around a ruined Portuguese fort. 

[Diablo Jon]

These look great and the background information is very useful. I’ve thought about setting a scenario in my latest campaign around a ruined Portuguese fort.

Thanks I'm certainly going to expand these guys in to a field force for TMWWBKs and as usual I'll probably create a Portuguese in East Africa field force list using the information in Abbots Foundry book.

[Kingscarbine]

Interesting subject and I'm glad you're interested in Portuguese of the period. Here are some sketches I made of the "Caçadores da Zambezia" volunteers in 1869. They were an European battalion sent from Lisbon.

[Kingscarbine]

A while back I posted four test models I had painted to represent Portuguese Cacadores in Africa circa late 1860s to the mid 1890s.

Pass for 1860's but not later.