Busy , busy , busy..

A painter and gamers work never seems to be done. The man cave is a hive of productive activity, I reckon I have about another 6 weeks of decent time before other things will encroach on my cave time for a few months. Having cleared out a huge chunk of work for the Sudan I am looking to maximise the effort to try and get the figures I want for it all completed. To that end I have been placing orders with suppliers and they have been turning up across this week.

Warbases MDF pre cut all received. 

A top up with 6 new boxes of tufts from Tajima

A pile of Really Useful boxes in 4,7 and 9 litre sizes to store it all, moving it across from the wooden trays, making it all stackable and easily transportable.

While in the queue at Post Office this morning I spied this toy train sitting on a far off shelf...all of £4... The "Wargames Magpie" in me could not help myself..this will do nicely with a bit of modification for the Sudan too.

After my last lot of airbrush work I have decided to replace my old , cheap compressor with a nice new , more capable one.i used it this week for the first time.. And it's excellent , steady flow, no moisture, and very quiet.

It's going to be a busy weekend cracking on sorting things out on the preparation table.

And making a dent on the painting table.

I will see you on the other side..wish me luck.

Sudan - The drums have been beating - reinforcements for the Mahdi

As I am now about 80% through the Imperial forces I thought it would be opportune to revisit the opposing forces. I currently have about 600 foot figures and my target has always been to have 1000. A sort through the remains of the Perry plastic boxes (14 or them) produced 141 usable figures - adding a few spare metals took it up to 144 which seemed a good number to go with. They were spilt 62 Beja and 82 Ansar.

These would be tackled "en masse" - I will do a further post on how this is done after. But now here are the end results.

The Ansar

Flagpoles made from piano wire and flags by Virtual Armchair General

 

The Beja

Sudan - Field Hospital

I received some very nice resin bell tents from fellow blogger Millsy (Canister & Grape blog) as a result of our race to 2500 points in the Painting Challenge. These are by Grand Manner, who will also be getting an order for some ridge tents and Nile steamer very shortly.

The ambulance camels complete with two stretcher cases are by Redoubt, and I have added a Medical Officer using the Empress Zulu war set - the casualty had to have the tunic cuff detail removed with a file. I will source a few more casualties and medics to add to this as things go on. It will give the Imperial forces something to have to defend.

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.

Wargame Bloggers Quarterly Issue 3 available now

Well folks WBQ3 is now out. This time pulled together by PK with another great selection of articles from among the blogging community.

Just click this link for your very own copy: Wargame Bloggers Quarterly