Sudanese: Finishing off the rifles as I did with the Gordons, the bases were done.  I did use a different skin colour with some of the models; Charred Brown mixed with grey, white added for the highlights, finished off with a Vallejo Sepia/Devlan Mud wash.

Sudanese: I painted the rifle as I have with the Gordon Highlanders; adding Medium Fleshtone to the base colour strips were painted on the rifle.  A further lighter strip was painted followed by a (not pictured) strip of Charred Brown in between the lighter strips.

Sudanese:  The belts were highlighted with a bluey-grey and then given a careful covering of black ink.  The rifle is a mix of Flat earth and Charred Brown.

Sudanese: "What are you doing with that tarbush, it's yellow!"  No worries, kids, it a Medium Fleshtone basecoat. Red or yellow do not go well over white so I use a flesh colour for the basecoat.  For yellow, I'll just highlight it up and then wash it yellow ink. 

 For red I use Vallejo Gory Red over the tarbush.  By this time I have also painted all of the belts black.

Sudanese Infantry:  It's a limited pallette!  These are the colours I'll be using:

Uniform: White

Flesh: Vallejo Charred Brown, Burnt Umber, Flat Earth, Brown Sand, White, Devlan Mud/Black or Vallejo Sepia/Devlan Mud Wash

Belts/Boots/Sling: Black

Tarbush: Vallejo Medium Fleshtone, Gory Red

Rifle: Vallejo Flat Earth/Charred Brown, Medium Fleshtone

Steel:  Vallejo Natural Steel, Black

Brass: Vallejo Brass/Charred Brown

I did two different skin tones. The one below is a base of Charred Brown followed by a mix of Burnt Umber/Flat Earth..

The next stage is a broad highlight using Flat Earth.

 Then Brown Sand is added to Flat Earth for raised highlights.

Sudanese:  Spray 'em white and then wash with a watery mix of Vallejo Luftwaffe Uniform and German Grey.  I just then patiently built up the white uniform over three thin white layers, the final one being the highlighting of raised areas.

What's Coming Next?


I plan all the painting I am doing and going to do in some detail.  It's so I can keep track of my painting, record all the colours I use, and to give myself achievable targets.  Sad, eh?  So, in the next few weeks I have:


For the Sudan project I will be painting a dozen Sudanese Infantry.
Painting WWII US and British Infantry
Early Medieval Breton Cavalry
Victrix's new plastic Greek Hoplites


I have 6 major modelling plans for the year. First was to paint a few more units - 99 models to be exact - for my Anglo-Danish army (done) for Clash of Empires.  Second is a British-Egyptian force for Death in the Dark Continent to fight against my Beja.  This consists of:


6 Gordon Highlanders
3 Highlander Command
12 Sudanese Infantry
12 Egyptian Infantry 
6 Beja Skirmishers
Baggage (this will be a group of newspaper correspondents)


The Beja I will just borrow from the Beja army, though I will probably pick up some Sudanese Bazingers at a later date.  The highlanders are done and the Sudanese look dead easy to do.  The Egyptians are nearly identical so they'll be easy.  The highlander command will be fun since I have already figured out much of the painting to be done, so the newspaper dudes will end up being a bit of a treat at the end.

Gordon Highlanders: Done, done, done!  The figures were glued to their base, milliputted and sanded.  The sand was given a watered down coat of Vallejo Earth mixed with PVA.  A drybrush with Valleji Iraqi Sand, followed by one of Iraqi Sand mixed with white, finished the painting of the bases.  Some tufts completed the figures.

Gordon Highlanders:  For the wrap around the helmet, I just added white to Vallejo Earth and built up to a final highlight with white paint.  I like getting to these final stages with a unit, the excitement of getting them finished pushes you to get 'em done.  Listening to Olly Murs' new track as I polish them off.

 Gordon Highlanders:  Still on the helmet and sling, not long to go now.  In the top pic I added white to Vallejo Khaki, being careful not to be too heavy, in the bottom pic I added more white and highlighted the edges.

Gordon Highlanders:  Vallejo Earth is the base for the helmet and rifle sling; the sling and helmet are painted in the same manner as the belts (above).  Below shows the first Khaki stage on the helmet and sling.

Gordon Highlanders:  A thin line of Vallejo Charred Brown under the lighter wood stripes finishes the wood.  Vallejo Brass and Natural Steel are used as the basis for the metal.

 Gordon Highlanders:  The much used Vallejo Flat Earth provides the base for the rifle (above) and, adding Vallejo Medium Fleshtone to Flat Earth for the next stage, thin stripes are painted on (below).

 Gordon Highlanders:  Highlighting with some white added to the khaki finishes off the belts.

Gordon Highlanders:  Second coat for the belts is Vallejo Khaki.  Note the haversack belt in white.  Pretty quick painting step with a bit of Taylor Swift's vocal genius as inspiration.

Gordon Highlanders:  The haversack was built up to white by just adding white to the Vallejo Earth in successive layers, finishing off with...white! Watch for where the strap goes because the rest of the webbing is khaki.

Gordon Highlanders:  Belts are based with Vallejo Earth, don't forget the strapping around the water bottle.  It's a bit of a slog but shouldn't whine as it's only 6 dudes - if I was doing a Napoleonic era battalion of 32 figures I would never have got this far - and some atmospheric tunes the soulful voice of Matt Cardle makes the time fly by.

Gordon Highlanders:  You guys are serious enough to not need the sporran step typed out but I'll do it anyway. Just add a bit more white and drybush. Then drybrush white. Vallejo Brass for the, er, brass and plain black for the tassles. Should take less than half an hour for the lot.  Now have tea.

Gordon Highlanders:  You can see the fronts of the flashes here.  The water bottle (right hip) is painted with Vallejo Flat Earth and the sporran based with the ubiquitous Earth mixed with white.

Eyes; I feckin' hate eyes. Mine have been getting worse these last couple of years and I am totally unable to paint eyes without artificial aids.  I use a hobby headband type thingy with the magnifying glasses. It has a pathetic light on it as well (that I never use), but for a tenner it has been a decent buy.  So that's how I paint eyes.  And sometimes I get it into my head that all the eyes have to be painted. Not a big issue with 6 highlanders, but I have just finished an Anglo-Danish army of over 200 guys and my eyes are killing me because of painting eyes that no fucker will ever see or appreciate.

Oh music. For this I was entertained by the current Take That album - they have emerged to become a most respected and admired group of music maestros, and have sealed a place for themselves in the minds of serious music lovers.

Gordon Highlanders:  Socks and Gaiters and more non-military music, this time some Michael Buble and Girls Aloud.  Gaiters were based with Vallejo Earth with white added in a few layers to build up the colour.  Flashes were done in a dark red with black criss-crossing. This is a lot less scary than it seems.  I did an X on the front and back, followed by a V on the sides (as shown above). See the following pics for the front.  Six models took around 15 minutes. Shoes are black.  Easy.

Gordon Highlanders:  I needed some suitably stirring music to get moving on these boys - not shitty military music, I put on the much underrated song-wizards Banarama.  A Vallejo Brown  Rose and Medium Fleshtone mix was the basis of the skin highlighting, add tiny bits of white to the mix for the raised detail.  A very thin wash (as described earlier) aided with the blending.

Gordon Highlanders:  A dose of Devlan Mud/Ogryn Flesh wash adds the shading on the flesh. I don't use many GW paints but the aforementioned are very good. I used to use Winsor & Newton Peat Brown ink but will admit that the GW stuff is even better.

Gordon Highlanders:  I have a ton of ways to paint flesh and this was the first time I used Vallejo Brown Rose as a basecoat.  Also basecoated belts and rifle with Vallejo Charred Brown.

Gordon Highlanders:  I've never painted highlanders before, perhaps a bit surprising since I joined a Scottish regiment when I was 18, so I always wanted a few of these elite soldiers for a new force for colonial gaming in 19th century Sudan. So, first I did a bit of research and found some good examples of painted figures on the web.  Here are some great ones:
http://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_35_49&products_id=2389
http://over-open-sights.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/perry-sudan-gordon-highlanders-3.html
http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/forum/showthread.php?17991-London-Show-5th-December-2009-Photo-s-amp-Report/page2
http://media.photobucket.com/image/gordon%20highlanders%20sudan/AndersHeintz/Blog%20Pics/Horan%20Figures/Horan_26_4x6.jpg
http://www.johnjenkinsdesigns.com/GDH02.JPG
http://www.perry-miniatures.com/pages.php?page=sudan-uniform-guide

Then I figured out what paints to use. The Vallejo paints are from the Model Colour range.  Here are the main ones:
Kilt: GW Dark Angel Green
Tunic: Vallejo Luftwaffe Uniform
Flesh: Vallejo Brown Rose
Belt/Helmets: Vallejo Khaki
Wood/Water Bottle: Vallejo Flat Earth
Brass: Vallejo Brass
Steel: Vallejo Natural Steel

The tunic was basecoated with Luftwaffe Uniform and the kilt was done with Dark Angel Green.
3 broad strips of GW Regal Blue were painted horizontally around the kilt, followed by thinner horizontal and vertical strips of Vallejo Medium Fleshtone. I find yellows are too bright for this sort of cloth and using the flesh colour makes it appear to meld with the kilt as it does on the real thing.

Dark Age Terrain:  I did 3 pieces, here are a few shots

Dark Age Terrain:  And after the static grass, some tufts, a bit of twig and some leaves, it's all done.

Dark Age Terrain:  The rocks got some spots of staining.  Using 3 different, watered-down colours - Vallejo Charred Brown, Ogryn Flesh Wash, Black and Vallejo Earth - I dabbed patches onto the rocks here and there.  After it was dry it got a zap of Testor's Dull Cote then some static grass.

Dark Age Terrain:  Then the rocks got a coat of a greyish-brown and in the next photo I add some colour to give them some realism.

Dark Age Terrain:  Just two quick drybrushes of Iraqi Sand - this is the same method I use for my Dark Age figures minus the last step - followed by a very light one of Iraqi mixed with a wee bit of white and onto the rocks.

Dark Age Terrain:  I always like to add a couple of terrain features with each new army I paint.  My Anglo-Danes are now done, so they needed some rough ground to guard their flanks.  Super quick to do, it's just a few rocks on a sanded base.  I spray the terrain after it's sanded and then wash a mix of black, brown and PVA over it to hold all the sand on.  The following day I drybrushed Vallejo Burnt Umber over it.

Irish Bonnachts:  following a wash of Devlan Mud mixed with a bit of black all that remained was basing.  I do a 3-stage drybrush - Burnt Umber, Iraqi Sand, then Iraqi Sand again - before a couple of sprays of Testor's Dull Cote.  A generous amount of static grass, silflor tufts and leaves finishes the job.

I actually finished these a week ago but waited til I had knocked together a simple little lightbox out of foamcard before I took a final snap.