Deutsch-Ostafrika: European Settlers

I'm getting ready for a colonial Africa game with axabrax next weekend, so I'm trying to get some of my WWI Africa purchases painted up that will look appropriate for this earlier period. As such, I've recently finished some European settlers:

These figure are Boers from Warlord's Anglo-Zulu War 1879 line, so are perfect for this earlier era.  There are four poses, with eight separate heads to allow for more variety.  Casting was very clean, with minimal mold lines and flash. The heads fit very well, and there were no unsightly gaps.

The figures are slightly smaller than African figures by other manufactures that I own:

L to R: Foundry, Copplestone, Warlord, Brigade

However, I don't think the height different is so significant that you will notice it when looking down at the table.

Though these figures are 30 years too early for when they will see most of their action, there are not many Europeans out there to choose from, and I highly doubt that simple people out in the colonies are going to be wearing the latest in European styles. 

Now we'll just have to wait and see how they perform on Saturday!

Heroclix Repaints

As I've stated earlier, I'm not a fan of the Heroclix figures.  A lot of the sculpting is merely mediocre, and the painting is terrible.  That being said, there are a lot of figures that my kids want that don't have something similar available in metal.  As such, I broke down and started looking on eBay for cheap Heroclix that seemed to have potential for conversion.  I ended up buying a bunch for $1-$3 from a vendor offering deep shipping discounts on multiple figures.

As expected, they looked terrible, but underneath the horrible painting, there were actually some pretty good sculpts for most of them.  The plastics they were made of seemed to vary between figures, with some being hard, and others soft.  Depending on the figure, they were cast with no bases, small bases around each foot, or a large crescent shaped based. Figure sized seemed to vary, but overall the majority weren't too different in size to my metal miniatures. All could be be popped off the Heroclix dial without too much effort using a blade . This I did, placing the figures on 30mm rimmed bases (unless the figure was too large) and added resin texture gel.  Based on what I'd read on LAF and other forums, I decided to forgo priming the figures and just start right on top of the existing paint job.

Currently, I have three figures completed:

Repainted Batman

The original Heroclix

The particular Batman figure runs large: He is 33cm foot to eye, putting him about half a head above the other standard size figures.  There are several other sculpts available, so perhaps one of them would be closer to the other figures.   That being said, this particular sculpt isn't too bad.  I opted to keep him in the more modern dark colors than the classic blue.

Repainted Darkseid

The original Heroclix

The original paint job on Darkseid actually wasn't too bad, just really flat looking. I think the 3-tone upgrade makes him pop much more. Darkseid is a large figure, running 42mm foot to eye.  Floating in the air, he would have been difficult to store in my current box, so I'll brought him back down to earth and put him on a 40mm base.

Repainted Abomination

The original Heroclix

Abomination is the last figure for this round of painting. The sculpting is good, but he was just a hunk of green plastic with two white dots for eyes and a smeared mouth.  Rather than keeping him bright green, I decided to give him more of an olive color, using Russian green as the base. I think this will make him stand out a bit more against the Hulk.

Overall, I have to say they are coming out better than I expected.

Masai Warriors

Another update for the Deutsch-Ostafrika project.  These are Masai warriors employed as scouts by my British forces.

Figures are from Foundry's Masai line. The figures come with shields, but irritatingly you have to buy Masai spears in a separate pack.  The Foundry website shows them with swords, but no swords were included with the two packs I ordered, so my troops are spears only.  These annoyances aside, the figures are beautifully sculpted and were very well cast with little flash.  Though expensive, I don't regret forking over the cash.

 For my unit, I went with a mix of bare heads and feathered headdresses. I opted for natural hair color rather than try to paint the red ochre often see with Masai. For cloth, most of my warriors are wearing the traditional red/oranges, but I've included some purple trade cloth to give them a bit more variety.

I referenced old Masai shield designs on Google images, but rather than copy specific shield patterns, I opted for fanciful designs using historical design elements. I also used various shades of orange/red brown to add more variety. Unless your are a Masai expert, I think they could pass as authentic enough to the lay person.

I have to say I think this is my favorite looking unit for Ostafrika and they will add a nice bit of color to the rest of the relatively drab soldiers.

New Heroes and Villains

The kids wanted to get a little painting in, and we managed to knock out a few new figures.

First up from the boys are Black Cat and American Dream:

Black Cat is from Reaper, and American Dream is an Old Glory figure. The boys did the bulk of the  painting, and then asked me to come in and do some clean up and detailing.

For myself, I finished up the half painted Beast and then painted a figure that we'll be using for Juggernaut.  These figures are also from Old Glory and Reaper.

 

Deutsch-Ostafrika: First British Troops and Some Animals

After having painted my German troops a while back,  it was time to return to Ostafrika and start on some British opponents.  First up are some Indian Muslim Troops:

These are from Copplestone Castings Back of Beyond range, and are only available as variations on the same basic pose. I would have preferred a bit more variety for skirmish gaming, but they are well sculpted and were available at my local hobby store.  The figures are a a little larger than Brigade Games' Sikhs, but not too bad. I've also purchased some British officers for them, but these have yet to be painted.

In addition to the troops, I've also painted up some animals:

I bought the rhinos a while ago and believe they were also manufactured  by Copplestone, but I don't have the packaging to confirm (and they are not currently listed on the Copplestone site).  They have been painted as black rhinos.

 The cattle are produced by Foundry, and can be found in the Masai section.  I have painted them to be Ankole-Watusi of eastern Africa.

Overall, I am very happy with how everything came out.