El-Teb sugar refinery

I have been thinking about modelling the boiler for the derelict sugar refinery at El-Teb, which was fanatically defended by Mahdist warriors.

I am just about to use the last of a bottle of spectacles lens cleaner, and I think it may be just the right size to form the basis of the boiler. I bought a sheet of Slater’s Plasikard with embossed rivets, and now I am ready to give the model a go.

Lens cleaner bottle, a sheet of embossed rivets, and a determined Mahdist for scale.

Scenic backdrops

I have always been slightly envious of railway modellers’ scenic backdrops. These have made appearances in the photography of showpiece wargames too, notably Perry Miniatures’ facebook page and Wargames Illustrated, and others besides, I’m sure.

I decided to have some of my own, and began to look for suitable backdrops. Then there was the matter of mounting them; although they tend to be printed (inkjet on-demand, I assume) on fairly heavy stock, this is not rigid enough for game or photo session use.

Another aspect was that I wanted backdrops suitable for my two projects, this one based in nineteenth century Sudan and the other based in fifteenth century England. I figured that I would mount the different backdrops back-to-back on foamex.

I sourced two sets of Scalology backdrops from online model railway supplier Model Masters. These come in matched pairs for a maximum display width of three metres, each 1500mm x 381mm, including a 5mm boarder all round. I bought two lengths of foamex a bit larger than required, mounted the backdrops using 3M sheet adhesive, and then trimmed them to size.

Both sets cost around £80 all together, in terms of prints and materials.

Desert and verdant backdrops ready for gaming and photography … wait to see how they look in use.

KRRC and a low hill

I have just finished the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, distinctive in their black webbing, and a low hill. 

I have based the KRRC figures in pairs to allow them to be deployed in a loose formation for skirmishing. The hill is in two sections for flexibility and ease of storage … and ease of making, to be honest. I’m using A4 size XPS craft foam in various thicknesses.

On to the Black Watch next.

Top–to–bottom: the KRRC formed up and skirmishing; the new low hill.

A hill to die on

I have finally finished the three section hill, and I am rather pleased with how it turned out.

It took a bit of filling here and there to get the sections to fit properly (testament to my poor planning at the outset – lesson learned … although it is the first time I have made something like this).

Top–to–bottom: two sections and three sections … and those pesky Hadendowa riflemen – much more than a nuisance.

Large hill in three sections

I’m taking a pause before preparing my next Empire infantry unit for painting, and turning my hand to finishing a large piece of terrain.

Inspired by the Figuren Und Geschichten blog, I have wanted to make some reasonably large rock-faced hills for a while, and these have been taking shape slowly over the past month or so.

The finished feature will comprise three sections, allowing the outer two to fit together for a narrower piece.

The three sections of the hill. I am considering adding a fourth section … wait to see how these turn out.

The first of the palm trees

I was keen to see how the cheap plastic palms might turn out, so in-between painting a small host of Beja and varnishing my first British army infantry unit, I worked on a base of three trees.

These are made of polythene, so cleaning up the mould lines required a new scalpel blade, definite, clean cuts, and patience.

Once cleaned up I washed the parts in warm soapy water and left them to dry. A coat of varnish and they were ready for painting. I used Vallejo Tan Earth, followed by a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, with details picked out quite quickly in Iraqi Sand.

Using wood glue I sandwiched two layers of 2mm MDF off-cuts to a 60mm circular 2mm base. Once set I drilled these right through, ensuring that the resulting holes would give a very tight fit for the spigots moulded on the end of each trunk. After inserting the trunks I trimmed off any excess. Vallejo Sandy Paste, paint, sand, and detailing, and the result is way better than I was expecting.

The first of the palm trees … not too shabby.

Palm trees and a ruin

I’ve had a couple of scenic features in mind for a while: palm trees (since seeing a Facebook post by Perry Miniatures about their Partizan 2019 demonstration game); and the ruined sugar mill at El Teb. 

There are a host of plastic palm trees available on Amazon, but selecting a set that have reasonable detail requires that the images are scrutinised before purchase. In the end I got 30 in five sizes for about eight quid. Made of polythene, these will need mould seams removing before preparing for painting. I think they will turn out just fine.

The sugar mill at El Teb was more than just the boiler, obviously. I’m planning a model with abandoned machinery, components, and pipes, in addition to a boiler. The ruin is a rather fine resin piece from Battlescale. Looking at the size of the bricks it’s probably intended as a northern European piece. I have added a lintel over the doorway, and a couple of beam ends to correspond with the beams moulded with the floor section, to give it more of the look of the Renedra mud brick buildings I have.

Eight quids worth of Chinese palm trees, and a rather fine set of castings from Battlescale, with a couple of minor additions.

Terrain … takes ages

It really does. I have had the larger 610mmx610mm boards since the mid-2000s, and the narrow 610mmx305mm boards since March last year.

With so many years between manufacture, they were too different in appearance, and have required complete resurfacing. They are almost ready … I am just working on matching the edges to make the transition from board-to-board as smooth as possible, visually.

Meanwhile, an order of XPS foam has arrived, so I am beginning to think about how to make modular rocky hills.

Steady progress with the British infantry unit and command group continues, and I am sorting out the last of the figures to complete the Mahdist army (will it ever be finished, though?).

Now I am beginning to get an itch for my first game with everything I have gathered, assembled, painted, and based over the past couple of years.

Large and small terrain boards drying, and the raw materials for some rocky hills.

First army infantry unit, command group, and terrain boards upgrade

While making steady progress with my first army infantry unit, I have been working on General Graham’s command group, and finally turned my attention to upgrading my terrain boards.

I have made some progress with the figures I have been looking forward to doing for some time (link), a spirited set in mêlée, which capture a sense of the action seen in many of the contemporary eyewitness drawings and published prints.

I’ve had Perry Miniatures’ personality figures (SB1) and the mounted infantry officers (SB2) for a while now, and thought to paint up mounted figures for Graham, an officer from his staff, a red flag bearer, and a handful of officers on foot. The red flag bearer is a conversion of one of the mounted infantry officers from SB2, with an arm from the plastic infantry set (VLW 1 British Infantry in Afghanistan and Sudan 187785). The flag is tin foil, shaped to look as it would when not caught by a breeze.

The terrain boards are a set of 610mm x 305mm I had made last year. They complement a set of 610mm x 610mm boards I have had for ages (link), and the plan is to use them to give more flexibility in terms of table layout. They were ordered to match the boards I already had, but arrived looking a bit too green, which has persuaded me to completely repaint them. I am using a mixture of household emulsion and play pit sand, which results in a paste which provides a gritty texture when applied with a roller. It will be interesting to see how it comes up when dry brushed with lighter colours.

Top to bottom: my first army infantry unit, General Graham and his staff, with mini-me on the left, and terrian boards drying out.

Second Hadendowa rub, British hussars, and terrain items

The last nineteen days have been pretty productive as I made the most of any downtime I had to make progress with my burgeoning project.

Dubbed the green rub because of their green flags, the second Hadendowa unit is now finished, completed by more spirited swordsmen from Perry Miniatures’ metal range. I have enough metal and plastic figures for another rub (which will probably have red flags), although the command figures and riflemen are finished I want to concentrate on some Empire units first.

I have just finished priming fifteen horses and riders for the 19th Hussars. I also have a handful of command figures primed, including Valentine Baker, and a drummer boy wiping his brow that will become a mini me.

I stumbled on some rather nice Sudanese huts on the Hovels web site [link], and I couldn’t resist … so I bought three, which are just enough to give the sense of a settlement.

My mind has turned to upgrading my terrain boards too, to get them to match more closely the bases my figures are mounted on. Also I want to model some wells based on one of my existing terrain boards. I had seen some impressive water features on Perry Miniatures’ Facebook page, where Vellejo’s Water  Texture was highly recommended [link], so I bought some.

Top to bottom: The finished green rub; primed hussars; Sudanese village with goats and herder; the raw materials for some wells.

The second anniversary of my blog

Firstly, happy new year. It’s two years since my first post here, and what a couple of years we have all had. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic I have collected some 5,794 page views and six followers, although I cannot imagine that these six are responsible for all those page views. Limits to personal freedom and movement weren’t all bad though, as these circumstances enncouraged downtime focused on my Sudan project.

I thought it time to take stock. I work slowly, seeming to spend a lot of time on research and modelling (the Gatling gun limber model is a very good example of this), and not enough time actually painting miniatures.

All the same, I seem to have got quite a bit done, including a handful of scenic items comprising buildings, a fortification, supplies, barricades, trees, shrubs, and thorn bush.

The Mahdists are ahead in terms of finished miniatures, with a rub comprising a camel mounted band, two bands armed with spears and swords, a band armed with rifles, and a command group. Another rifle-armed band and a brass gun battery are finished (both destined to join the main command group. (I don’t think ‘flags’ as such were a form of organisation deployed by Osman Digna.)

Within a few weeks I should have added another Naval Brigade contingent (from HMS Hecla) and a RMLI company (from HMS Carysfort) to the Empire forces.

My first rub, which I have dubbed the Blue Rub because of the blue accent to the flags.

Mahdist brass gun battery; it’s very likely that the guns were spoils of the disastrous Hicks Pasha expedition.

A second rifle-armed band.

Naval Brigade contingent with Gatling gun battery, deployed by HMS Carysfort. Colonel Fred Burnaby is ready for anything at the front, while Melton Prior sketches at the rear.

Medical Staff Corps Number 3 Field Hospital.

A strong point built to protect the construction of the Suakin to Berber railway … a whole other project waiting in the wings.

Three buildings at this scale seems like plenty … but we shall see.

Thornbush for zaribas, and some tall scrub

British Empire units frequently constructed temporary but formidable field defences called zaribas formed of mimosa thorn bush. They feature so often and are so important that I had decided early on that they would be a feature of my collection.

Dave Docherty (One man and his brushes) has suggested a sound way of modelling these features using rubberised horse hair (ugh!), so rather than reinvent I followed in his sandy foot prints.

I decided that laser cut MDF bases 30mm x 180mm would form the basis for sections of the defences, so ordered 20 from Minibits/Pendragon. (I have stocks of 30mm x 30mm and 30mm x 60mm for smaller sections if required.) I then set about painting and texturing these prior to gluing the horsehair in position.

Dave’s method is documented here Link

The first batch of mimosa (I’ll make another ten), and some tall scrub (I’ll make some more of these too).

Rocky terrain

The Figuren Und Geschichten blog has some rather impressive terrain features formed around cork bark, the sort of thing I would like to have.

I had a look at the cork bark available from various modelling sources, but considered the sizes – height in particular – too unpredictable for my needs. A web search identified a turtle hut made of a substantial piece of cork bark (265mm x 200mm) for just under £16, which will be ideal for cutting down into suitable sections. I have quite enough polystyrene to make the rear tops and slopes with.

Some rather impressive rock features.
Credit: Figuren Und Geschichten

The raw material for my own, from The Cork Shed, with Melton Prior for scale.

Basing and scenics

Off-and-on this week I’ve made quite a bit of progress, to the point that I envisage having a number of items finished before the bank holiday weekend is over.

Apart from progress with basing figures, I sorted something which had been nagging since I assembled the Renadra 108mm two-story house: the thinness of the walls, especially when compared to the (very much better) mud brick house.

Quite a few based figures ready for the application of various grasses. The Naval Brigade Gatling gun crews are varnished and ready to base, which I am really looking forward to doing.

A bit of balsa and household filler sorted the appearance of the Renedra two story house. Just a bit of weathering to add and the base to finish.

Painting, basing, and sketching

I’ve had a mixed day today, but it feels like proper progress. I’ll allow the photos to speak for themselves.

The wet palette is just brilliant! Paint from two days ago is still usable, and the Naval Brigade Gatling gun crews are finally ready for shading.

Based figures, goats, and trees with base coat. I reminded myself that it’s much easier if the figure’s bases are painted prior to fixing to the MDF bases. In fact, I think I will paint the figure’s bases first in future.

I made a quick sketch of the strongpoint to get a sense of its size. The observation tower is the tallest part, almost half of the total height. It’s not really a very large piece in terms of its ‘footprint’, just very high. I may consider a lower tower, say half the height shown here. 28mm miniature for scale.

First impressions of the wet palette, and another modelling project

I had a a bit of time to prepare and use my new wet palette today. So far, so good.

The instructions suggest soaking the sponge with distilled water, not having any in the house and keen to get started, I used filtered water instead, and so far this seems to be fine. The paint stays wet and workable, which is a pleasure, and I can see that blending colours will be a lot easier too. It’s size is just perfect for my workspace.

In other news, I have been reading a bit about the Suakin to Berber railway, discovering a piece on William Edge, who was involved with the work in 1885, and an old post on a German blog that I follow (which is in German, but Google Translate is your friend). Apart from being better informed, I have decided that it would be interesting to model one of the forts built to protect the railway while work progressed, or didn’t.

Links
William Edge
The Berber Railway – in Sudan

The first Naval Brigade figures near completion, and the wet palette had something to do with it. I improved the appearance of the flap collar by painting the light blue on the underside and edges, giving the single white stripe a light blue border.

One of the strongpoints built along the route of the railway. This will make for a nice model and a perfect wargames scenario.

Making trees

I have added a guide to making the small acacia style trees.

Link

A couple of the finished trees.

Terrain: dwellings, trees, and hills

After getting out my terrain boards and ordering some additional features, I have pressed on with modelling hills and making more small trees.

I’m quite excited about the new terrain boards (sad, I know), which will provide a set of narrow boards for extending the gaming area. There will also be a wadi, a feature exploited successfully by the Madists on more than one occasion.

Six of the eight boards I have, all 610mm x 610mm (2' x 2'). The new boards are half this width, which will provide quite a bit of flexibility length-wise and width-wise.

The Renedra mud brick houses. I joined the short wall sections to make a longer feature.

Acacia trees, getting that windswept look …

… I’ve planted a few more … picture wire and clump foliage.

I’m re-modelling a couple of old Tiger Terrain hills with polystyrene, Polyfilla, and cork, to give a rocky appearance and more elevation …

… with scree slopes …