Sudan project "Baggage Handlers" part III

         Finally finished. They took forever. I always found something more interesting to paint. Plus I hate painting horses. Miniatures are HAT and Waterloo.

Yearly goal 700 painted for the Sudan project. 315 done. 23 more down. Another 385 required to reach the goal. 

Sudan project "Highlanders" part I

The Highlanders are next up. 70% of the minis will be HAT 8202

Using the Perry Brothers' guide

Some osprey references;

Sudan project "Baggage Handlers" part II

The men are from Waterloo. The animals are Caesar.

The Anglo-Egyptian troopers and their rifle stocks clipper out. This left the sling for a camel lead.

I need an Egyptian dressed officer. Don't have one and never went on an internet rampage to find one. Two dudes were sacrificed to the clippers.

The legs of a british officer and the upper body of an Egyptain Officer.

What I ended up with.

Sudan project "Blue Jackets" part IV & record breaking

First group is finished. From 24 May to 25 June, I have painted 119 dudes. That is a new record for a month.

The lads manning the gun are on hold. All my guns are based on 60s, which I am out of. (I will be ordering a 100 plus 60s to meet me stateside in Sept.)

Yearly goal 700 painted for the Sudan project. 292 done. 25 more down. Another 408 required to reach the goal. 

           176 days gone and I am past the two miniatures a day to reach the goal. This is the most I have ever painted in one year. 408 seems like a long way to go. But I have 6 months and a week (189 days). 

Sudan project "stories"

1882 June 7th

         +6000 dudes sent to get the Mahdi. Heroes of the Gessi campaign and other battles. Including Shaigia Melek, known badass MoFo. Poor old Melek get assigned the irregular cavalry with Taha Abu Sidr. Never says how Melek goes down. But Sidr..........

Well his punk ass is kill in his tent flap next to the CO. Both in their PJs. Sad but they are punk asses! Why?

         Sidr had is fuck doll with him. A whore, slave, whatever. She served his sexual needs. Yet she was a no shit taking bad ass warrior. A goddam, Valkyrie. While those two died in their tent flaps sleepy eyed with cock in hand. (they were sharing the same tent?) Jumping over their dying body, comes Sidr's girl, pistols blazing. She shoots down two warriors, wounding others. Only after some "half starving, naked arab" rams a spear through her heart does she die on top of a national hero and her master.

That girl most likely a slave. A sexually abused slave! Was not about to die like her owner. She rained the pain and made those meant to capture/kill her pay the price. Worse than worse, her name was never recorded.

Sudan project "Baggage handlers" part I

These dudes have been kicking around for a while. I need to clear off the painting table. Anything that has been sitting is now getting attention. All the dudes are HAT the mules are Waterloo.

Some poor bastard has to hump all that gear and brandy. Porters and mules/donkeys are on 60 x 20mm bases. While their guards are on 60 x 30mm.

Sudan project "Blue Jackets" part III

These guy have been hitting the rum. From the beginning they turned from easy to a pain in the ass. Re-work, dropped one group into the wet palette, some how rub the paint off arms, painted everyone's thumb silver, painted one guys face white.

Plaster is down and washed. Finally the lads are dipped and drying.

Sudan project "Blue Jackets" part II

Perry Bros

Number 15 is for the ratings and 24 officers. This is what we are looking at.

#1 Naval rating

 All my dudes have the round sailor hat. Not a one has the topical sun hat.

         They are coming along slowly. A lot more detail with opposing colors. Once again, I put too many dudes on each block. They have been transferred to their bases, 60 x 30mm. Hopefully the move to bases will halt the rework.

         4 line stands and two skirmishing.

         Old boy has done his gunners with white pants. They look good. No clue to how accurate the mix white and blue uniforms are. My gunners are still mounted to the blocks. With no more 60 x 60 bases, they will stay unmounted.

           I do need to go fishing for some officers. The officer that came with the Newline Design miniatures are in a long coat and Chief's cover. I will be taking officers from HAT's Zulu Command #8299.

Sudan project "Ansar warriors" part VII

This is the last of them. Lots more to paint, but no more 60 x 60 bases. Really want to keep them on 60s. They look more the part.

Yearly goal 700 painted for the Sudan project. 267 done. 38 more down. Another 433 required to reach the goal.

Sudan project "Hat Dervish warrior update"

        I was drinking beer, wasting time on the internet. When google tripped on a dude named Al. Al has the molds or produces HAT miniatures. I cold called Al. Never thought he would answer back. Yet.......It seems he may, kind of, sort of kick out 10 sets for me.

8271 Dervish Warriors is OOP. 

         If old boy does hook me up with 10 boxes, I am looking at another 320 screaming Ansar. I will have to get 4 boxes of Waterloo dervish and at least 2 boxes of Italeri Muslim warriors. Next year will be 400 plus dervish dudes on 60 x 60mm bases at roughly 7 dudes a base is 60 some old bases. 9 units a group is 6 more groups.

Sudan project "Sudanesse" part II

         I am still going with the Brown jackets on the first group of Sudanesse. I have seen other pictures of them in Blue Jackets. Most likely I will do both. Blue and brown jackets.

Osprey

Yearly goal 700 painted for the Sudan project. 229 done. 10 more down. Another 471 required to reach the goal. 

Sudan project "Blue Jackets"

 Sand Sailors!

Perry Bros' sailors

           The blue black of a sailor's uniform was a tough match. I had first pulled foundries' 74b. It was too blue jean looking. The blue jumper top is almost black in color. I had to grab the whole bin of paints. Pulling out 4 more shades of blue. Painted a bit of each on some dudes. The ones I thought were perfect, ended up too blue. Pulling an old engineering trick, I walked all for 2 hours. When I got back the choice was dead in front of me. 

          The dudes above are in the order of the colors below. I ended up going with 66A. It was the truest of the Blue/Black for a sailor's jumper. 76A will be the flap on the back.

          There are about six different dudes in Newline Designs Naval battalion. I was rushing to mount them on the painting blocks. Huge concept error. You use the blocks for speed painting. The idea is to mount all like dudes next to each other and facing the same. Then as you work down the block your eye doesn't need to adjust for each figure. Also painting the same dude over and over, each consecutive dude becomes quicker to paint.

         You can see in the above photo that they are all over the place, facing in every which way. The extra 5 minutes taken to mount them up would have been save in the first block of dudes.