Olicanalad's Sudan Project: Beja force finished - in 6 weeks (06:12:24)

[olicana]

Red reigns - copied from the Perry site. Red does seem to have been a common colour for Beja leatherwork. Thinking, some form of (locally available) henna, or similar dye.

I was lucky with the hills. I originally made them for my Crusades collection to fight over. A couple of years ago (when planning my TtS 'desert' grid terrain with square hills, which actually look much better than they sound - see below) I thought about giving the more natural looking ones away (to create some storage space - there is about a cubic meter of the things) - now, I'm sooooo glad I didn't 



These will be better for the Sudan, I think - here shown with crusaders battling it out

[armchairgeneral]

Wow, looks like you are set for terrain then? Maybe just some major river sections for that excellent river boat you opened up your Sudan proceedings with.

[olicana]

The Nile is on the agenda, as are acacia trees / mimosa bushes - the latter possibly in flower (bright yellow). Apart from that, having terrain for the crusades, I'm just about done for terrain. My pre-existing 'arid/desert/east Mediterranean' terrain was one of the reasons I swung towards the Sudan over the 1st Sikh War. I'm running out of storage space pretty quickly now.

[vodkafan]

"Not much to them" !
I think those three close-up bases are beautifully painted.  Your piles of figures in boxes waiting to paint is making me feel queasy though. Best of luck.

[olicana]

A couple more units of Beja spear & sword units, a unit of camel warriors, Krupp gun and a command stand.



More close ups and the blurb here: [url]https://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2024/11/more-new-units-for-sudan.html[url]

[has.been]

Nice!

[DarthRobbhi]

Very nice work there!

What greys did you use for the Krupp gun?

[olicana]

It was a grey mix of Humbrol black 33, white 34 and blue 25 with varying amounts of white in the successive highlight tones. I generally use a bit of blue in grey mixes to give a warmer/fuller tone, though mostly when doing the highlights to black.

The barrel was black then metallic black 201, then highlighted by adding aluminium 56 to the 201; wheel rims similar.

[Plynkes]

Those little gangs on the round bases are really effective. With them bunched up like that you get a real feel of massed tribesmen, all ready to gut you. 

[CapnJim]

Holy crap!  Now, that's a collection!  Well done...

[armchairgeneral]

More awesome additions 

[olicana]

Two more units added, and the Beja riflemen are finished. Also, with two unexpected units of reinforcements added to the lead pile, I have a 'first game' plan.

https://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2024/11/more-beja-new-recruits-and-first-game.html

[armchairgeneral]

They look excellent. Like the russet/orange shade you are using on a lot of these figures.

As you mention a number of the figures are plastic in these units, would it not be better to base them on 50mm diameter washers for more stability?

[olicana]

Each sword/spear base has three metal figures and two or three plastics. The metal figures surround the plastic so that the plastic spears will not get broken - I fear they are not that strong. For weight, they have enough heft not to get blown about - three metals per base is enough to provide some downforce.

I would have liked to go all metal but, when the initial order went over £2,300 I decided I had to make some cost cuts somewhere - the Mahdist sword and spear were I made them. I eventually got the RRP down to about £2,000. And, I still need to purchase an Egyptian army, the Guards Brigade and the Camel Corps.

I'm also very happy with the mucky orange ones. This last batch has more than I've done in the other units. The last two units will have some blue, green and yellow waistcoats to 'flash-out' as dots of colour to add to the red ones I've done already (about 18 figures all told in the 300). I've been very careful to use the same flesh tones and basing colours throughout so that the whole lot will invisibly mix to give maximum variation.

[olicana]

Beja contingent completed. Not bad for six weeks painting.

Full OOB and more pics here: http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2024/12/beja-completed.html



including a Gatling gun



I hope you like them!