Sunday 11 February 2018

Congo: Reinforcements (and wildlife)

Introduction

Today I've not got anything special to talk about, so I'll just show some recently-finished models instead.  These are all for Congo (or could be used for any other game set in Darkest Africa, I suppose).


Forest Tribes


I finished another five warriors for my Forest Tribe about a month ago.  For the purists, they probably belong to at least 2 different tribes; the combination of hide and wicker shields would probably not occur within a single group.  I'm not too bothered by this, though in a game I'll probably try to put them in different squads (perhaps they're allies from a neighbouring tribe?)

These models are from North Star; they're well sculpted and cast.  Natives like this are really easy to paint as there is very little in the way of clothing or equipment to detail!


Ruga Ruga


The Ruga Ruga are mercenaries with a reputation for being flamboyant, though somewhat shabby in appearance (and possibly drug-takers as well).  These six Foundry models will be used by my Arab Slavers, though they could be hired by white men or natives as well.


Ascaris


Above are some more armed followers for my White Men column.  They're Foundry models, but very compatible with the North Star or Copplestone "Darkest Africa" figures.  I think these are some of the more useful poses for skirmish games; I'm not a big fan of the "every man in every squad is shooting" look.


Animals


This is the North Star African Elephant.  It's a 3-part model: there are 2 body halves and a separate head.  The body parts fitted together very well, but the head was an exceptionally poor fit.  Still, plenty of filler seems to have worked well in hiding the join (and it's somewhat hidden behind the ears anyway).

Personally, I think this is one of the nicest-looking 28mm African Elephant models out there.  It's also priced quite reasonably.



As part of the same package from North Star, I obtained 3 hyenas.  Now I've seen a number of 28mm hyena models and most of them are somewhat...disappointing.  In particular, a lot of sculptors seem to have difficulties with the hyena's classic "sloped" profile, with long forelegs and much shorter rear legs.  These models, on the other hand, are excellent!  They really do look like the animals they represent (though I've possibly gone a bit dark with my painting).

Note that I've based my hyenas on smallish 40mm x 20mm bases, rather than the more common 50mm x 25mm cavalry bases.  They're quite large models (for hyenas), but they're not as big as horses!



Finally, here's a leopard - also from North Star.  It's a nicely-posed model, though perhaps there's something not quite right about the tail.  Anyway, I'm just glad that I don't have to paint more than one of these beasts!


Conclusion

More forces for Congo - can't be bad, right?  Also, this is a very useful expansion to my collection of African wildlife (currently one lion and a crocodile, I think).

Mind you, I still need some hippos.  I like the Foundry models (waterline and otherwise), but they're very expensive.  Hmm, we'll see...

18 comments:

  1. Wonderful job, splendid figures!

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  2. Marvellous additions to your Congo collection, Colgar6. The Leopard's spots are especially awesome imho, and look terrific. Great stuff :-)

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    1. I'm slightly disappointed with the leopard myself :-) , but ten again I've seen much worse...

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  3. Fabulous work love the hyenas and leopard!

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    1. Thanks, Simon! I don't think that either the leopard or the hyenas are my finest work, but they're not too shabby :-) .

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  4. Great paint jobs. I especially love the Ruga Ruga. Nice to get those patterns into their clothes (something I'm very poor at).

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    1. Ah, I felt I really had to use some more exotic clothing for the show-off Ruga Ruga! Mind you, these patterns are actually very simple ones, really - there's a certain amount of visual trickery involved in making you think that they're complex :-) .

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    2. Well that may be so but that doesn't diminish that there is still some decent effort there and as a fellow painter I appreciate what you've done.

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  5. All good additions to your African collections, especially the Ruga Ruga and those hyenas, the latter are much better than I though they looked unpainted.
    On a factual not though, your cheetah shouldn't have 'whites' to it's eyes they're dark orange iirc (similar to a lion's).

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    1. Thanks, Joe - I really like these hyenas.

      You're right and you're wrong with your facts :-) . Yes, cheetahs should have dark eyes - but my model is a leopard. My research suggests that a pale green eye is probably appropriate for such a beast.

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    2. Oops, sorry about that, I had this problem doing the beast for my gladiators and always got cheetahs and leopards the wrong way around!

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  6. You’re right C6 more Congo can’t be bad! I love the hyenas and that elephant is excellent

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    1. I've looked at a number of manufacturer's offerings for hyenas and African elephants; most just don't look quite right to me. However, the North Star models are superb!

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  7. Excellent painting on all of those Colgar. How long did it take for the leopard spots?

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    1. Thanks, Terry!

      Hmm, I could claim that it took 2 days to paint the leopard's spots - but that's misleading at best :-) . On the first day I only managed 20 or 30 seconds painting before being interrupted by something. I probably spent 15 or 20 minutes on this model during the second day, though I wasn't really timing myself.

      So the true answer is perhaps half an hour or less.

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  8. Nice selection of figures for Darkest Africa. I myself am working on some Foundry Crossbowmen at the moment. I really like their stuff. They slipped an ACW figure in my order which was very nice. Although I would really rather not be tempted into 28mm ACW.

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    1. Thanks, Sean. Hmm, in my view ACW (or any black powder war) is better suited to masses of men and therefore works better in a smaller scale (6mm or 10mm, perhaps?). Still, nice of them to try and tempt you :-) ...

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