Showing posts with label Darkest Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darkest Africa. Show all posts

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Expedition to Timbogo


Last week I played a little skirmish scenario with the kids set in of Timbogo; the fictional African nation that has been the setting of many more modern wargames and adventures on the “Dark Continent”.

The scenario involved the Lederhosen/Schnapps Expedition arriving in one of the last regions of Africa to be explored/claimed by Europeans. The region (now the Republic of Timbogo) had, to this point, been thought to be mostly devoid of desirable resources to plunder. Combined with the fact that the area is so far from the coast and, until recently, any trains made any exploitation of any resources that might actually be there economically unfeasible. Also the rumours of the ferocity and combative nature of the occupying tribes had thus far also served to keep Europeans at bay. But as the map was quickly gobbled up and colonies established the race for even the most desolate regions had picked up in pace…

As we played with Savage Worlds I posted the game report over on my Savage Worlds blog:


I have one more game report to catch up on, then hopefully back to some painting!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Ruga Ruga


Not Martians…

I had started these guys weeks ago… then got distracted… and while organizing some other stuff the other day I stumbled across them and decided I should just darn well finish them up! So now they're finished and I can carry on with other stuff!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These figures are from The Foundry. They call them “askaris”. As I will mostly be using them in Great War in East Africa games – where MY “askaris” are a bit better clothed and equipped, these will be relegated to “Ruga Ruga” – irregular allied tribesmen armed with older firearms…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Martians – going to try and crank out a few before Savage Saturday Night… (so… about 36 hours from now…). After that it’s back to the fantasy Character types for Mikey K and some more Zulus (or maybe I’ll paint up the few Canal Martians I have… or scratch build a couple kites or screw galleys…). Whatever I do I probably won’t get a lot done over the next week as… well… I have some other stuff to do.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Usuthu!


I just finished reading the old Osprey campaign series book Zulu War 1879: Twilight of a Warrior Nation. It was fun because it was one of the earlier ones that not only covered the entire campaign but also included tips on wargaming the campaign in the back! They later published campaign series books on Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift and there are also a number of men-at-arms, warrior, and elite series books on the period… most of which I just picked up off of ebay and will be on their way shortly…

Here are a couple samples I’ve painted up of a few of the recently arrived Zulu War figure:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The two British chaps are from Black Tree Design and the Zulu/Natal Africans are from The Foundry.

The fellow with the red headband was mixed in with a lot of Zulus with Firearms I picked up off ebay and is actually a member of the Natal Native Contingent – who fought on the British side. I’ve only done these figures with firearms as the all the Zulus that showed up in the first batch came sans spears. I will have to manufacture a few (~140 – 110 for Zulus and another 30 for some Masai I picked up around the same time). I’ve also since ordered a couple lots of Black Tree Zulus which come with their spears cast on (I’ll probably end up painting them first).

The Black Tree British have funny pith helmets – as you can see, they have a line of piping (or something…) down the sides where, presumably, the seam of the cloth would go…? It looks kind of odd to me and I’ve not seen any pictures that show any sort of thing on foreign service pattern helmets at that time… so I think I’m going to shave them off the rest of the figures I have. I may have to just paint on some seams… Anyone out there know what this is all about?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More African stuff – whether tribal warriors of one sort or another, or askaris, or imperialistic European types…

I think I may need some more storage bins…

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

African Porters

As promised more Africans… I might have mentioned tribesmen… these are not-so-much tribesmen, but African none the less!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


African porters (and a European Explorer) - all from The Foundry


Martian from RAFM and tomb robber from Artizan Designs.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Africans. Probably askaris, or such, with firearms.

First load of Zulus arrived today, along with their British opponents and some Masai... expect them soon as well. If ever the other Napoleonics I ordered from Renegade would arrive I might participate in Curt's Spring Thaw Painting Challenge. As ever, we shall see...

(oooh, this is apparently post number 666)