Building on an Empire

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Made more progress on the Malians, by painting some northern allies/subjects.  A unit of Tuareg spearmen:

Image from my Insta...

 These are Gripping Beast models straight out the pack.  I had a lot of fun with the various indigo colours for the clothes.  The shields are intended to reflect Hippo hide, which images show to be pretty dark, with a reddish-purplish hue.  The spears are brush bristles with flattened and shaped tips, I bought and cannibalised one yard brush head 20 years ago and it's still going strong, it'll outlive me!  The standard represents what is apparently the Mali imperial standard of the the period, but I can't prove that.

Of course with a burgeoning force, I need terrain; having done a bunch of palm trees, I'd been pondering how to go about convincing buildings.  I was both looking forward to the idea of some major scratchbuilds, and dreading the practicalities of doing so.

Glorious, tricky.

Fortune smiled however, and quite accidentally I came across the African range from Fogou Models.  This led to a very quick cost-benefit analysis and 15 minutes later I pressed fire on an order:

Looking good

With a neutral paint job these will be perfect for Mali, and pass muster for another 'secret' project.  The models are in a very strong resin, and dripping with texture, they should paint up a treat and I couldn't be more pleased.

All good.

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