This week I spent some time concentrating on the British. I originally planned to stick to the earlier grey uniform, but trying to inject a bit of variety chose to paint the British in a transitional period, or just ‘on campaign’, probably more appropriate. The paint jobs were pretty easy. The grey was a Citadel foundation base (Dhneb stone?) with a touch of blue. I really like those foundation paints, they have a great coverage and have a bright disposition.

To the figures. 3 British regiments

2 artillery pieces and the Heliograph section

And the odds and ends of markers (scouted, wounded & dead). Now just to organise a game!

With no impending competition painting deadlines, my focus returns to the backlog.  As a quick project to give myself a feeling of progress I picked up some Patrols in the Sudan figures that have been languishing in the nether regions of the painting cupboard.

 ”Patrols in the Sudan 1885.  You choose which mission to undertake. One player is the Dervish (he can pop up anywhere). The other player is the British or Egyptian company commander. Better scout carefully, they could be anywhere!”

Patrols in the Sun is a Peter Pig set of rules. Their rules have a high degree of subjective flavour, like it or not. I bought the figures about 2 years ago as an EBay folly – you know, put in a bid just as a place holder and end up winning the thing!  Anyway at less than half price it wasn’t too much of a problem. The auction contained 2 PP black boxes (army packs)

Pack 1.British. “Heliograph

Unit 1. (average). 1 x Officer (20), 1 x Sergeant (14), 7 x Rifles (84). = 118 pts

Unit 2 (average). 1 x Officer (20), 1 x Sergeant (14), 7 x Rifles (84). = 118 pts

Unit 3 (average). 1 x Officer (20), 1 x Sergeant (14), 5 x Rifles (60). = 94 pts

Independent Bases (poor) 4 x Scouts (28). = 28 pts

Total 358 pts

Pack 8. Dervish (3). “Fuzzy Wuzzy”

Unit 1 (veteran). 1 x Leader (20), 6 x Spears/Swords (48). = 68 pts

Unit 2 (veteran). 1 x Leader (20), 6 x Spears/Swords (48). = 68 pts

Unit 3 (average). 1 x Leader (16), 8 x Spears/Swords (48). =64 pts

Unit 4 (average). 1 x Leader (16), 4 x Rifles (16), 3 x Spears/Swords (18). = 50 pts

Unit 5 (average). 1 x Leader (16), 4 x Rifles (16), 3 x Spears/Swords (18). =50 pts

Total 300 pts.

I picked up ‘Go Strong into the Desert’ at Salute last year, so with a bit of background reading to get the juices flowing I was set.

Starting with the dervishes, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. The British gave a chance for bit of uniform painting, for a change. Once I’d emptied out all the bags the large lead pile gave the familiar feeling of ‘biting off to much’. Anyway, with a head ready for progress I formulated a plan. Not an unexpected one really starting from a white undercoat, then spray with a dark flesh  finally a dip in the ‘Dark Oak’ varnish  that I bought from the local pound shop. I have used the Army builder dip before (great fan of the Dark Tone) but at £18 a tin and having seen 2 tins ‘skin over’ and no matter how much revival with turps will never recover their former glory. At pound a go each tin can be relatively disposable. To be honest it lasted far longer than the last AP tin I had…  and takes to turp much better.

With these dips there is always losing faith stage. Once they are dipped and the detail is gone … however, given 24 hours drying time. The next stage it ready. So a quick exercise in loincloths and a bit of metal  for the swords ect all was complete. I’m still doing lazy man NMM for the metal, purely for the reason that I’m lazy and don’t want to change my water when using metallic. I hate that silver film on the water, invariable ends up in the other colours. Finally a zap of the ultra matt ‘Rail Match Matt Varnish’, the only (and mean only truly matt varnish)

So, natives complete 2 stages remained. Flag and basing.  Flags is never normally a problem. There are lots of online resource for flags now, just print them out.

I would normally surreptitiously do that at work on the colour laser printer but current cuts mean that we are only allowed B/W now – boo hiss. Never mind, printed them out on the ink jet at home (again low on ink – what a gip). The flags had quite a washed out look, but as a happy accident seemed fitting for the Sudan. So, good news.

Basing was my normal mix of kitty litter and sharp sand. I lightened up the paint. So Khaki/Sand mix followed by successive Light flesh additions (All’ Miniature Paints’). I used the Woodland Scenics ‘straw’ flock (I think), and all was complete. I resisted the temptation to ‘green it up’, and keep a limited palette. Drying to capture that dusty, sun baked look. I resisted the MIG pigments … must get it done!

So, 150 figures in the week , not so bad , better than average weekly total. To be fair, easier that the Ikko Ikko just before Christmas. I’ll do the British next week and look to run through a few games to see out the rules pan out.

Thanks for reading!