Beja Camel riders completed

I haven't been able to paint at all lately as I have been in Abu Dhabi but I managed to finish my last four camel mounted Beja for the battles of 2nd El Teb and Tamai today. At my chosen ratio of 1:33 I need 18 mounted fugures to represent the forces involved and here they are. I won't need any more of these just the odd figure to use as a standard bearer for my infantry units. In fact the Beja cavalry was spread around the army in smaller units but if I reflect that organisation then we would only have units of two figures so, for wargaming purposes, I am going to use them as a "big wing" (or maybe two).

Here is a picture of a Beja saddle for a camel. The saddle posts are distinctive and, as ever, are accurately modelled on the Perry Miniatures figures.

Fourth Unit of Beja

Beja in Ambush

I'm now entering winter painting mode which means that I can't paint shading in the evening as it's all under artificial light. Currently, mornings are still OK but as I'm heading off for work at 7.00am there isn't a lot of time. So tonight I just did some work on the bases of the last five figures I need to complete my second Rub of sixty Beja for the game next Monday. They are well on the way and should be ready on time, I hope. That said I am off to see my friends in Bath on Thursday for a couple of days so will lose Thursday night, Friday and all day Saturday. Sunday is Colours in Newbury so I won't have that much time then either. It looks like my plans to finish some more camel mounted cavalry and start my field gun look doomed! Oh well, hopefully Keith, my opponent, will enjoy The Sword and the Flame and we can play regularly which will incentivise me to get more figures (including the dreaded Gordon Highlanders) done.

This unit is one I started ages ago and uses the evocative "Beja in Ambush" figures from the Perries. I gave one of the spearmen a flag from The Virtual Armchair General even though it rather gives away their position!

Anyway, this post gives me the chance to post a few of the nice period photographs of Beja sent to me by Louie Blades who must have wondered what happened to them as he sent them in April!

Note the large blade on the spear

A particularly flared kaskara scabbard.

This lot look pretty tough. It makes you realise how well the Perries sculpted their faces.

A few more Beja

I've not been feeling very well this week and have hardly got any painting done. Added to that the weather has been horrible and it's been dark. Also I have suddently developed a great urge to paint some gladiators so have been trawling through the lead pile to see if I had got any (I had).

Nevertheless, I have managed to finish six more Beja, so not a total write off. Perry Miniatures are closing down for three weeks next month but I still have plenty of figures to paint. I want to finish the Gardner Gun and get started on the Highlanders.

Beja in Ambush

I finished four of the Perries nice Beja in ambush figures today. I am going to do a unit of twenty just because I like the look of them. Sometimes the Perries make figures which are almost more diorama than wargames figures and I find that these are often their best, like the recent "French cuirassiers at rest".

The Alexander Korda version of The Four Feathers (1939) had a great scene where the Fuzzy Wuzzies (played by real Beja) materialise out of the rocks at night and silently move up to the attack.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Feathers-June-Duprez/dp/B000LXHJLO/ref=sr_1_1/202-5958963-9779040?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1194824167&sr=1-1

More Beja Camels

I haven't just been painting Royal Navy troops but have been getting on with some of the eighteen Beja camel mounted cavalry I will need. A mix of sword, rifle and spear armed troops.

The Beja cavalry were virtually all camel mounted.

I love painting these Perry camels for some reason; much more than horses, which I hate painting.

The Beja (especially the Bisharyyin, Ammar'ar and Haddendowa tribes) were great camel breeders (as they are now) and their off white Bishari camels, bred in Kassala and the Red Sea Hills are quite distinctive. When the reconquest of the Sudan took place in 1898 the British made sure that they had Bishari camels rather than the motley cocktail Redvers Buller pulled together to populate the Desert Column.

They are comparitively small and strong and today these camels are highly prized for racing.

Here are some camels in Suakin. Note the distinctive mud brick buildings.

Nile Arabs and Flags

I haven't posted anything for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been painting anything!

Here are my first Nile Arabs; a box of standing troops plus half a command set. I don't really need them for the first couple of battles I am looking at as they were Beja only forces but will need some for the future. In this early period the patches on the clothing were small and by no means universal.

It may just be me but they seemed a bit more solid than the Beja, with fatter legs. I'm not going mad on painting these to a high standard as I just have too many to do.

The flag is from the new ones made by The Virtual Armchair General and designed by Eric Cox and these were well worth getting.

http://www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/

They are a mixture of historical flags (most from the later Sudan conflict, actually) and a number of speculative but historically informed ones. They come in sets of four smaller flags and then a larger flag for the Emir. (I ordered the complete collection and there are well over 150 scale flags - enough for even the biggest army (plus a sheet for the Egyptian Army which will also be useful). They come printed on thin but strong paper and are quite splendid. The dimensions are historically accurate and make me realise that the flags I have done for my two completed units of Beja are too large so I will have to replace them with the smaller ones.

The Sword and the Flame Rules do not make any allowance for standards but these were pretty defining features of Mahdist armies. I want each Emir to have a standard so I am contemplating doing something I never do and making a multiple figure command base of an Emir, a Standard bearer and maybe even another figure on foot. With the camel mounted Beja this will need to be a pretty hefty base!

Beja Shields

Finished three more figures today. Two more riflemen for my fourth unit of Beja, who will be an ambush type unit in crouching poses, and another camel mounted tribesman.

Decided to do the shield on this one differently. I had been copying the painted ones on the Peryy website which had a sort of star effect on them. Real Beja shields were more uniform in colour however. I think I overdid the contrast on this one so will tone it down for the next ones.

I have now based another nine infantry which will finish my third unit of Beja. I have now painted 53 infantry, 3 camels and the command group. Not bad progress.

Another Beja on a camel

I finished this yesterday, the first of my June figures. I probably won't get many finished for a while as I have about 30 figures underway and they will take time to reach completion. Next week I have to go to Copenhagen and Helsinki as well.

The Naval Brigade figures now have all the base colours done so I need to do the shading for which I need natural light.

I am painting the last three Beja with rifles and some casualty figures (you need wounded figures for TSATF-well you could knock the figures over but that doesn't look too good!).

I have also started work on the Nile Spearmen and the last four camel mounted Beja. I am really enjoying painting the camels but seem to do them as a whole figure one at a time rather than as units for some reason. I am sorely tempted to get a British Camel Corps set just to have a go but that would be my next army and would be cheating!

Mounted Beja Emir

The Sword and the Flame rules require a mounted Emir figure to lead a tribe of three bands of 20 figures. The Beja hardly ever used horses so I have used a camel mounted figure for my first Emir.

Looking at this modern picture of a Beja boy the colours for the animal skin and the camel's harness are quite dark. Given that the sword hasn't changed I suspect nothing else has either!

I also managed to finish another three riflemen so that makes the rifle contingent for the third band complete. I just need some command figures and spearmen to finish it but I will try to paint some more figures before I order any others!

I based some Nile spearmen today so might do some of them next as a change from Beja.

Tomorrow I am going to have another go at the Naval Brigade figures.

Sudanese Skin

Giles Allison has just painted some Beja

http://wdlovesme.19.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1107&start=25

and was wondering about skin tone and lip colour. Here is a current inhabitant of Suakin as a guide: more like the riverine Nile tribesmen. Definitely Humbrol 186!

Had lunch with some government officials from Egypt today. Their skin tone varied from Mediterranean to the sort of colour seen above. May have to go to Cairo again soon. I enjoy sending e-mails from Lord Kitchener's desk (now the British Ambassador's desk) and having breakfast in the room in which Kitchener used to plan his campaigns in what is now the Ambassador's residence (his staff do a fabulous breakfast!)



The Beja are still fighting in the Sudan. This recent picture could have been taken a hundred years ago except for the AK 47s. Note the sword, almost identical to those used in the 1880s and 1890s.

A contempory Beja warrior



The Beja still use their famous white camels.



Beja women are gorgeous!

Beja Riflemen

Here are six Beja riflemen I painted this week on stage one of my new desert base. Four of these complete the second tribe of 20 Beja now that I am using five rifles per unit. This means I have done two units of 40 and eight of the third unit. This is roughly a sixth of the Mahdists I need. Could be worse. I will finish the next unit of Beja and then do one of Nile Arabs for a change.

Beja Swordsmen

These are the first Beja I have finished for six months. Pretty rapid paint job as I have hundreds to do! I can't understand why these swordsmen don't have scabbards!

Next I'll do some more riflemen. A couple of people on The Miniatures Page have said that rather than doing seperate units of riflemen as TSATF rules suggest, they just add 4 or 5 to each normal band of warriors. This sounds like a good idea and makes it easier to deal with the 1 in 4 riflemen to warrior ratio. So I will add 5 riflemen to every warrior unit. I reckon if I paint 4 more riflemen I will have 2 full units of Beja.

Command Group

I haven't posted on here for ages but I am starting to feel that once I have the last Greeks finished for Cynoscephalae then I won't want to paint another Ancient for months. The Perries have just announced that they are about to start the Egyptian army for the Sudan so I think I will go back and finish some of the figures I have started.

I have also picked up some cavalry in the interim so will do some of those too.

In the meantime here is my army command group. The Perry figures are so nice even my dodgy painting can't spoil them.

I have ordered the new Mahdist sourcebooks from the Virtual Armchair General which should prove very useful and they have a great offer on flags as well.

http://www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/

First camel troops

These are the first camel mounted troops. I am going for one yellowy camel and two pale "white" ones. They are very large models standing nearly two and a half inches high. They should look good in a group. I have three more ready to be filed and based, which I bought at Colours in September.

More riflemen

These are the next 12 riflemen under way. I have six already completed but this means I will have to buy another pack to finish them to make a 20 man unit.

The next batch

I have started on the next group of Beja Swordsmen. They are painted with Humbol 186 and this pot is rather lighter than the previous ones I have used. It will give some nice skin tone variety when I mix them in with the existing ones.

Riflemen

These are the six riflemen I have painted so far. The Sword and the Flame allows you one unit of riflemen per three sword and spear units. Annoyingly the figures come in packs of six so I am going to have to get excess to finish the unit. I already have six more underway.

Swordsmen and Spearmen

Here are the 30 figures I have finished so far; I need to paint another 10 to finish the second unit. A good many of these were painted over the summer holidays in Cowes.

The animation of these figures is some of the nicest I have seen on any figures anywhere and so I forgive them the occasional roughness in texture in places.

Concentrating on Beja

I have decided to experiment with just painting one type of figure for a bit. I have put everything else back in their boxes and am planning to paint just Perry Beja tribesmen for three weeks. I did this over the summer holiday and got on quite well so I am hoping to be able to do this again. This is my first unit for The Sword and the Flame rules-20 figures; quite manageable.

The Mahdi's Camel



This is just a test as I am having trouble uploading photos onto this site so may have to start again.

Here is the Mahdi in progress. Having been very pleased with the camel I have just read that he had a white camel. Curses! I am not repainting him though. I'm sure he rode more than one!