A squadron of Bengal Lancers - almost

These stalwart chaps are by Irregular Miniatures, from their Wars in India range. I bought them many moons ago and they've been in a half-painted state ever since. Now I've brought them over to this side of the Atlantic it's high time they were finished so they can take their rightful place in the Imperial army.

These figures look as dark as this in real life.

They're basically undercoated. I intend to paint them a bit brighter than would be usual with larger scale figures, since wee chaps this size tend to look darker than they should when painted in historical colours. While they're drying I think I'll crack on with a few more Sudanese buildings. Perhaps in a couple of weeks or so I might be able to play out the next game in the campaign. What a concept!

A Mass of Mahdist Matelots.

So, after a week of not being able to do very much hobby-wise, I took the opportunity this weekend to make the crew and passengers for the four feluccas I made earlier. They probably don't bear too close examination, but en-masse from a distance they look fine.

A bit out of focus - my camera is playing silly buggers - but it's enough to show the rows of figures made from Sculpy. For convenience I made them in rows of threes and fours.

A Mass of Mahdist Matelots push off from the shallows into the deeper waters of the Nile.

Follow the Nile. Deep to much deeper...* Sunrise over the Sudan sees an expedition afloat.

I glued the rows of figures onto the decks of the feluccas in a slightly random pattern, which kinda works. Although a bit fiddly the figures weren't too much of a problem to make, so I may make another batch to crew a Mahdist steamboat. The only things left to do before fighting out the next stage of the Nile campaign is to finish painting a squadron of Bengal Lancers and to make a few houses of a more urban nature for the Nile side town.

* A brownie point to whoever identifies the singer and song title the lyric comes from.