African adventure

 Love this illustration, this inspiration powered me through my unit of red coated regulars.

 I know it's not quite right but I couldn't wait to see what my new painted Zulus looked like on mass.

Speed painting British 1879 Infantry

 This is a plastic Perry figure. Very nice it is too, I do like the helmets on these sculpts.

Spray black and paint in the belts with a can. I then highlighted the canvas with an off white colour.

                  
 I used burnt red for the base of the tunic and then highlighted with bright red. I gave the red a wash of dark brown when it was dry too just to pick out some more detail.

 Foundry Drab B is then used to paint the helmet. This is then given a wash with brown ink to shade it. Job done! It doesn't really need any more. I think I might of added some black ink around the band on a couple of figures but that's it.

 Royal blue from Tamiya was used for the trousers, this was then washed with black and highlighted again with the same colour.

 I gave the trousers quite a good dry brushing of drab colour to act as dust. Details like the cuffs were added last. White is always tricky to paint but these British troops painted up quite quickly with only the Austrian knots on the arms causing any real concern.

 Perry plastics with Artizan metal Afghanistan British. The figures fit well together.

The belts and bags were given a wash with brown ink again to add some weathering and a campaign look.

the Perry plastics painted up well and I loved the fact you could have fun with the posing. I liked the idea of having a few looking down at their rifle as if they were having trouble loading it in the panic.

Let's Paint Zulus

 Getting there now and they are starting to look finished. I painted all of the weapons a darker shade of Burnt Umber. This looked good and I didn't need to paint any more than this on them, apart of course from the metal of the blades.

 One trick that really helped with these figures is to keep them stuck on their cereal packet strips. By bending the card I could reach all of the details without cutting the figures into separate pieces. This saved a lot of time picking up figures and speeded the whole process up loads. Also each strip got its own colour loin cloth which also speeded things up when painting colours.

 Always make notes of your colours and techniques as you go in a note book, can't stress this enough. It is a life saver if you ever need to return to a project a year later.

 Young unmarried Zulus of the horns of the Buffalo.

 These Perry plastic Zulus are great and I think they are some of the best on the market, I'm glad I waited. Lovely and simple to paint!

I did struggle to work out how to base these guys, but in the end went for separate bases. This is good for men who would be kings and could lead to some great looking formations. Multiple figure bases would be easier but I don't mind the idea of moving hundreds of figures around by hand...quite looking forward to it.

Painting 28mm Zulus

 I was lucky enough to find some Burnt Umber spray paint in WH smiths the other day and I grabbed it thinking it would save a lot of painting time. Turns out it was the best buy I ever made!

 I was a little worried at first because it looked very wet and flooded the details of the Perry plastic Zulus, however as it dried the detail came through and the colour was perfect. I had started to hand paint the plastics with Burnt Umber from P3 paints, but this spray can cut all of that lengthy process out.

 Above you can see the two different paints next to each other, hardy any difference between the paint pot and the spray can.

 To keep things really quick I used a big brush and brushed on FOUNDRY's African flesh 'B' and then 'C'. After this I washed the figure with black ink and finally highlighted again with Vajello Mahogany. As these figures are all flesh and very easy to dry brush I thought I would treat them to quite a few paint tones in their skin.

 A wash of black ink ties all the skin tones together. Again a big brush saves a lot of time.

These two paints were perfect for the Zulu clothing. The red leather colour is great for the leather around the bum area and the earth brown is excellent for the monkey tails around the loins. Once dry 'splodge' the brown with a lighter colour to add a little detail.

The Last Round

The Zulu Tray

 Last night I started on a new project...the Anglo-Zulu war. To make things easy for myself and to keep things from getting too crazy in my work space I have put together a Zulu tray. This is a place where my Zulus can safely sit out of harms way, with everything I need to construct and paint them. A kind of Zulu factory if you will.

 I have also been collecting paints for a while with African skin tones in mind, some are shop bought in their ready made triads from FOUNDRY, but others are tones I've put together from various makes.

'Zulus....thirty six of 'em!". The first box of plastic Perry Zulus run for cover. I'm glad I held out for as long as I did with this project, the Perrys release of plastics was well timed and I prefer them to others on the market. These figures will make One regiment, the in Gogbamkhosi.

All put away again after about an hours cutting and sticking, next up the paint. I've just found a can of Burnt Umber spray paint from WHSmiths which may speed things up a bit.

 I am looking forward to this one. Also have some Brits on the way too from Empress.

Private Whitworth, Berdan Sharpshooters and wheat fields

 Finished rebel marksman. The great thing about painting Confederates is once you have the grey, just add a little light brown to it and you have the colour for the trousers and kepi...loads of fun. It was nice to finally try out the Foundry Confederate paints.

 At the first rays of sunlight the sharpshooters were up and out in the garden for manoeuvres. My colour choice seems to have worked and I think this is good enough to put the rest of the unit into mass production.

 I actually used all three paint colours in the end, the miniature paints dark green was used to do the pipping on the collar and cuffs. So in the end It did come in handy.

 A harsh lamp shows the true colour, still quite shiny these guys are still in need of a matt varnish. This model still needs a little touching up...almost there.

 Some teddy bear fur 'wheat fields' finally get a spray of green and are stored ready for use. I have had this fur for around 17 years with this in mind. Job done.

 Little house on the prairy.

Olive green is sprayed around the edges and patches are blobbed around the 'field'.