The Colonial Painting Expedition - 100 Miniatures

[Captain Blood]

An upright Copplestone officer. Good show!

It's still really odd to me that people look at stuff I've painted and seem to think it's not a standard they can reach.

I agree. You're rubbish.

It's just practice, practice, practice on getting the effects you like.

I agree with that too 

[maxxon]

Seems I made it...

No. 78: Tribal Warrioress



She's part of the batch of 24 I just finished. More on that at http://www.smallcuts.net/blog/?id=1703

[Yankeepedlar01]

My contribution: Brigadier 'Tubby' Bykleigh and his personal escort, from the Rhanzlistan Field Force

Brigade Games figures from their WWI ranges.

[Plynkes]

Smashing! Good to have you along, Mr. B.

Seems like we're picking up speed again. 

[guitarheroandy]

No. 80: Another NW Frontier British Officer - Colonel Albert Carruthers, Malakand Field Force



Another superb Foundry Darkest Africa model transferred to 'The Grim'...

[Valerik]

No. 81:  Nathan, Mkuu Mwindaji Tembo

Gotta agree: The standard on this Expedition is top-drawer.

Mason speaks the truth, & I concur with his sentiments.

Thus I am reluctant to offer:



Mkuu Mwindaji Tembo

Nathan, the Old Tshokwe Shikari, offers his humble services.

I trust he may earn his salt along the journey.




Coupla firsts with Nathan, Copplestone's limited edition Chokwe elephant hunter.

He's the first time I've shared my work with the world at large, the first entry of anything anywhere as an adult.

He's the first miniature I've painted this century millenium.  It's been a LOooong time!
The brushes still work, the eyes are still troublesome, the hands still shake & the paint's not dried up!

In years & projects past I've never painted a figure of colour, they've all been white.

He's the first miniature I've ever photographed digitally or otherwise.
Shots were taken outside with a Nikon L120 on a hastily arranged sand table.
Last models I shot pictures of were 1/72 airplanes, indoors, on a table, with a flash, using Polaroid Swinger, in 1968.

My how far things have come!!

I make no excuses for Nathan, or my rusty workmanship.  I had fun with him, enjoyed myself thoroughly.
I've lots more guys n'gals primed & ready, I trust the impetus will last.

Thanks everyone for inspiring me & giving me the incentive to begin all over again.


Valerik

If you're not having fun you're doing it wrong


EDIT:  My miserable Swahili grammar, & add the numeric header
re-EDIT fix th'damn missing pictures

[Cubs]

Jambo Nathan, I welcome you to the fire. You are a fine example.

I

Last models I shot pictures of were 1/72 airplanes, indoors, on a table, with a flash, using Polaroid Swinger, in 1968.

I understand swingers were very popular back then.

[Valerik]

I understand swingers were very popular back then.

So my father's 'magazines' led me to believe, that Hef feller sure did seem to have some fun n'frolic !!



Alas at 14 I was... unprepared...

Nope my Swinger served me well, til I graduated to Dad's old folding 120 Agfa, & then to the 35mm Agfa.



Valerik

I can enjoy the event, or shoot pictures of it, not both, two vastly different things, each fun

[Jeff965]

No 82 Arab Slaver Standard Bearer

Right then, I've been meaning to get a couple of standard bearers done for my Darkest Africa forces and the expedition is an excellent opportunity to get these done. This one came from Foundry and originally had a spear in his right hand so it was a simple case of replacing the top of that with the actual standard.
The Standard itself is pure conjecture on my part a simple black triangle with a red border but does it for me anyway, hope you like him.

[Dr DeAth]

Great brushwork, especially the face.

[Plynkes]

The Standard itself is pure conjecture on my part a simple black triangle with a red border but does it for me anyway, hope you like him.

I do! He looks grand. He makes a good standard bearer. If memory serves the original figure is simply holding a spear.


If you're interested I do have a little bit of info about such flags, purely for your interest (not suggesting you change anything). Boring button-counting lecture follows (please skip if desired):

"Arab" slavers and caravans heading into the interior from the coast generally bore the Sultan of Zanzibar's flag, hoping it would convey the idea that they were under his protection and that if you messed with them you were declaring war on the Sultanate (European explorers did it too, often carried alongside their own national flag - it could be counter-productive as the natives might assume them to be slavers). The Sultan's flag was a plain, blood-red rectangular one. A bit boring, but easy to paint at least.


"Turkish" Slavers operating out of the Sudan in what is now South Sudan and Northern Uganda did the same thing, but used the Ottoman flag.


Individual Arab warlords often made their own flags based on the Sultan's flag but with little personal differences added, usually in the form of strips of white or blue cloth added to the red, sometimes vertically, and sometimes horizontally.

[former user]

OK, so apart from no 82 being a fine conversion and a pretty good PJ;

am I lead to learn here that  zanzibari, sudanese and ottoman slave raiders were carrying banners with them so that tribesmen culturally totally unacquainted to the concept of "flag"  would know their allegiance upon sight? In an environment rather not openly sighted? seriously?

I mean I can totally understand if a settlement is somehow flying a banner or a party takes some flag with them that is put up in the camp or so...etc, but...?

now this sounds fascinating.....



or else I learned again something new today, which is great!

[Plynkes]

am I lead to learn here that  zanzibari, sudanese and ottoman slave raiders were carrying banners with them so that tribesmen culturally totally unacquainted to the concept of "flag"  would know their allegiance upon sight? In an environment rather not openly sighted? seriously?

It would be a mistake to assume that the population of Tanganyika and thereabouts were ignorant savages without the capability to learn, or that everyone in the region lived in absolute isolation from everyone else and had no idea who their neighbours were. The kingdom of Baganda for example (a long way from the coast in modern Uganda), had its own European-style flag by the 1870s, and it and others were used in time of war as battle standards. Obviously the farther from Zanzibar or Khartoum you got, the less chance there is that your symbols will have meaning, but that's not the same as saying they will have meaning to nobody you meet along the way.

[tom_aargau]

Didn't really paint anything in months but lots of inspiration here...so here it is

Nr 83 - Askari from the Foundry Askari Character pack (has been hiding in the lead pile for more than ten years, and was mainly painted with paints not much younger in a couple of hours since last night)

Tom

[former user]

ah, differentiation I understand

so the flags were useful against the other imperialist/colonialist/muslim slave trader (pick the appropriate) powers and less against the tribesmen I was referring to. And also in the colonized regions rather than when

heading into the interior from the coast generally bore the Sultan of Zanzibar's flag, hoping it would convey the idea that they were under his protection and that if you messed with them you were declaring war on the Sultanate (European explorers did it too, often carried alongside their own national flag

or how am I to understand this?

btw,
I do not regard communities who are not acquainted with the symbolism of a flag as

ignorant savages without the capability to learn,

, rather as a culture where the social organization does not require a token to show the power of an organization or mighty leader (in the absence of the power), something that was not necessarily ubiquitous in Africa (of which period are we actually talking here?)

This is why I actually used the above clip that very humorously symbolizes the concept....

I am pretty sure that the native power alliances displayed other means of reminding their foes of the danger, but nothing like a flag or standard.

Anyway, am I correct to understand that during certain times and larger scaled conflict periods the display of flags in the field was not unusual in order to show off the participation of imperialist (or similarly organized) powers? This is the lesson I am trying to learn here.

sorry for the digression, I also dig no 83, how comes he is so earthy?