Sudan - The marketplace.

Time for another little side project with completion of a set or two of civilians from the lead pile. These are the Arabs of the Market sets by Connoisseur Miniatures from Bicorne - original Peter Gilder creations.

Of course these are old school style sculpts, they a different style and standard than you would get today.  I think though with a simple paint job and the right setting they do come up well - they have some life about them - classic Gilder.

The smaller market stall is part of the set and is a metal construct with a piece of old handkerchief added over it , fixed into place with PVA given a diluted PVA wash to harden it and given it a paint job.

the other 4 were a set purchased from Adrianswalls These were given a repaint to give them a bit more life

With the rest of the already completed ones added - I think these can work from biblical to modern times!

Sudan - Highland Skirmishers, Commanders and Mahdist guns

After the last play test it highlighted a few items I wanted to add, some specific highlander skirmishers and some Mahdist captured Krupp guns - and a Gatling gun - or perhaps more correctly that shoud be called "Where the hell did they get that from!"

Black Watch company in skirmish order - Connoisseur Miniatures

Time to flush out the bad guys...

Also a few spare Naval Brigade figures from Connoissuer made into a skirmish order. I like these as they have the Sennet hats

Connoissuer Minatures

A command set - complete with commander in full dress regalia! - no idea who made that - it was just in the lead pile.

and the gunnery arm for the Mahdists. Enough so i can run a few games simultaneously and each have some.

Sudan - Vignette pieces

More vignette pieces completed this week. The war correspondents from Perry, and a set of  locals making their way to town in possession of various snippets of "intelligence" , will it be accurate or lies, who knows! well the umpire will ... i.e.  me!

War Reporters, Bennet Burleigh, Melton Prior sketching and Frederic Villiers mounted

The dog is a limited addition piece from Jon at Ainsty who breeds Otterhounds, so I have added it as the faithful companion to Bennett Burlieigh the Daily Telegraph correspondent.

The reporters are another nuisance for the imperial commanders as they go off risking themselves, and needing to be protected, or more likely rescued. Nicely diverting the imperial players from their core mission. After all bad news always appears in the papers.

Also a set of locals heading to town with their wares. These are an old Connoisseur Miniatures set, the detail was very soft, but actually from table distance they do the job, and could just about be added to a nativity set!

Sudan - The Camel Corps - part 2

So part two of the Camel Corps consists of  a unit of close order infantry , and a set of skirmish order troops. It's taken an age to complete the whole Corps, so I am pleased to see the end of this lot.

36 troopers in double rank , front rank kneeling - with Martini-Henry's levelled ready to fire!

These are old Connoisseur figures , and i found them a pain to paint (which is unusual) as they were really showing their age , and some soft detail . I may eventually add some different manufacturer one at some point.

My rules also allow units to break up a company or two into skirmish formations , to help with recon and flushing out the bad guys.  I have 12 figures from Redoubt, these are individually based , and set into various free form sabot bases. This mean I can choose to field a number of "skirmish units" on the sabot base with between 2- and 5 figures so it make them go further. I just then fill in with tall grass / rocks etc for visual effect. 

  

 These were a lot nicer to paint than the close order ones.

Sudan - 10th Hussars

Here we have the arrival of the last major cavalry unit for the imperial forces - the 10th Hussars. These are my old favourite 28mm Connoisseur Miniatures on a mix of various manufactures horses. The 10th had more grey horses when first deployed so I have added in more than usual. They provide a nice contrast to the 19th as these have khaki tunic and blue pants with yellow belts. One figure had a spot of casting trouble with the right arm and I have remade that with the soldering iron  and added a pistol into his hand as if firing the starting pistol.

So that gives me the 9th Bengal Lancers,19th Hussars and 10th Hussars, so i thought you might like a group shop.

That leaves a small 12 figure unit of Egytian Lancers and a company of 6 figures of Mounted Infantry left to finish all the mounted elements.

I have also just topped-up the Mounted Mahdists lead pile as they head toward their final total of 100 camel...... now has anyone seen the Mahdi...

Sudan - Medics ,Signallers and Skimrmishers

The collection is well enough progressed that it needs time spending on items of table dressing , and also pieces that can be used to drive scenarios. Often I hear that the Sudan games will be very one sided with the imperial just blazing away until the Mahdists run away or are dead. Well if that happens to my mind it is down to poor scenario design. To even the playing field the Imperial players will a have range of things to think about from , time constraints, ammunition, water, casualties to get to safety, communications to set up or protect - protection of civilians , and medals and honours to be won (that will keep commanders from co-operating too much!) 

New additions to the field hospital - the tents (by Grand Manner) were kindly supplied by Millsy as part of winning side bet as part of last years paint challenge - all done now , cheers mate.

Stretcher bearers and medics by Perry. The doctor in blue is by Empress from the Zulu range

The two civilians -one in MCC Eggs and Bacon colours ready to defend himself with cricket bat against the Fuzzy Wuzzies are by Wargames Foundry

 

The whole field hospital is now complete

Next I have a couple of sections of signallers with Heliograph kits

These chaps with a  small protection unit , should provide a tempting target for the Mahdists and a challenge for the Imperials to protect....

 

I have also now moved onto to the new Brigade for the operation around Suakin. This saw the Guards Brigade enter the the campaign. So to start I have the skirmish elements on sabot bases. I am using these to give me some options as there can be a number of skirmish units in the game - so I can use 3 4 - 5 - 6 figures per base (and fill in with bush/rocks as needed) depending on the size of the overall game. I also think they have an appeal on the less regular shaped based.

 

12 Skirmishers for the Guards Brigade. (Perry Miniatures)

Plus a root in the lead pile recently revealed some classic "Old School" Connoisseur Naval Brigade. I intend my Naval Brigade units to be made up from a range of manufactures and dress - just to give some diverse interest. These appeal to the early  teen in me - which is when I first saw these in the flesh! 

I am occasionally working on a naval gun team, with the guys pulling the Gatling gun and limber - got a good bit of conversion work to do on it to get it how I want.

Plenty more Sudan stuff on the stocks as well at the moment

Sudan - Camel Corps - part 1

Here we have the classic unit for the Sudan, the Camel Corps. This unit was made up of an amalgam of various units and attached to the desert column. Here we have the Guards Camel Regt, Heavy Camel Regt and the Mounted Infantry Camel Regt. I still have the Light Camel Regiment (which was left at Korti guarding supplies) to do. I will do those with scarlet tunics -because I think they will look good!

This is a major unit for the collection with both mounted, dismounted close order and skirmish formations to complete. It was also a major economic investments (have you seen the price of 28mm camels and troopers!)  Fortunately I got a cracking deal on all the castings from James at Bicorne miniatures with 20% off and free postage.

 

3 x 12 figure mounted regiments 

Each camel has been given a slight tweak with the heads and necks bent slightly with variations of left/right/up/down to suggest more movement across the unit. Likewise a number of troopers heads are turned left or right for the same reason. I think 36 figures all the same would look very static do it was worth spending an hour or so sorting them out.

The camels have been painted in a range of colours but generally a darker colour than my Mahdist force ones. The British were forced to buy up as many as they could find to make the corps and a number of these were of poor quality and blood stock which from reading have been described as darker in colour.

Well if you have mounted camels - you also need dismounted camels and troops - see here we have a further 12 dismounted camels, and 3 foot camel holders.

These are all classic Connoisseur Miniatures - still by far my favourite camels.They are bulkier and have more presence the Perry ones and far easier to clean up.  

The dismounted close order troops will be along shortly.

Sudan.. The horde is growing

 The drums have beating and the army has assembled - its now a full 6 foot wide!

All together its is now 880 foot, 36 mounted camel riders, 12 Baggara cavalry, 1 gun. There are another 120 foot on order to take me to 1000.. Then a top up of mounted to take them toward 100, and a couple more guns. So nearly there..It may be time for the main man to make his appearance too

The latest batch are shown below.

Connoissuer Miniatures - Mahdist Camel riders

Sudan - Painting the KRRC.

I have had a few queries asking me how I did the blue/grey uniforms. I did take some pictures while doing the KRRC, so here you go.

 Here is a radical thought- try a"white" undercoat.

Some old school enamel blue/grey. Thinned to about 50%. Pipettes sourced from e-bay a 100 for a £5 makes this easy to do. The fact it dries slower than acrylic is an advantage. 

  This is washed on with a large brush. Enamel being oil based flows differently to water and finds the shadows easily - well that is my view anyway - and how Army Painter works.

Put a bit of thinners on piece of tissue or kitchen paper and use this to lightly brush the top detail, elbows etc , this allows the white undercoat to show through more, gives a distressed and worn look.

Now its over to the acrylics all thinned with Flow Enhancer. A dark blue for the Puttees.

I used Hull Red for the rifles., and Black/Brown for the boots

Desert yellow / sand colour for the helmets

Black for webbing for KRRC. I then used Army Painter soft tone to shade the helmets only , as it provides good protection for handling, add flesh colours.

Final bits, the scabbard, linen back, and metals - job done.

A little bit of basing! and there you go.

I am just about over the busy period in Feb, so it will be back to the brushes shortly.