Melton Prior inspired Hadendowa conversion

A while ago I bought three boxes of Perry Miniatires’ Sudanese tribesmen, so there are quite a lot of plastic figures to assemble. From time-to-time I read complaints about having to assemble these figures, the nature of it being characterised as a chore. I enjoy assembly, actually; it takes me right back to my early teens self assembling Airfix models. I make one or two at a time when I have a spare moment, and day-by day this gets them done at a reasonable rate. Priming and painting is another matter, though.

As I did all those years ago, I like to make things my own with minor adjustments or major conversions. The principal advantage of these hard-ish plastic figures is how easily they lend themselves to conversion. This account of a moment at El Teb in Melton Prior’s memoir Campaigns of a War Correspondent suggested assembling a figure with a throwing stick in one hand and two spears in the other:

One man in particular I noticed. He held spears in the left hand, and he actually flung his boomerang and succeeded in hitting one of our men on the leg before he was killed.

Three easy conversions. The fellow on the left has just drawn his sword. The fellow on the right was inspired by an account by Melton Prior at the second battle of El Teb. He’s left-handed, obviously.