Elements of a new force on the way.

I recently decided the unpainted lead mountain was out of control and that I would not buy anything more till Salute in April. I have failed. I was contemplating a Western Sudan force but have opted instead for Abyssinia ,  I am reading The Barefoot Emperor by Philip Marsden.

This is the story of Emperor Tewodros II , known as Theodore in the UK, who decided to take on the British Empire because Queen Victoria (gawd bless her) omitted to write back to him. Obviously a bit more than that was involved , here is a good link for the history of Ethiopia http://www.angelfire.com/ny/ethiocrown/

I am planning on a force based on a later Emperor, Menelik II , who took on the Italians and gave them a good thumping at Adowa , the biggest defeat of a European nation in Africa during colonial times.

There are suitable figures available from Irregular, Bicorne,Empress , Askari and Castaway . I have ordered a small quantity from Irregular and Bicorne to start off with, hopefully get some of Empresses at Salute , heres what they look like when painted by a master

Im not sure how all the ranges will scale up against each other , hopefully not too badly. Some of the ranges are actually for the the 1935-36 Italian invasion of Abyssinia but the tribal levies were pretty much unchanged from the latter years of the 19c.

Thats it for now. My plans this week are to finish off the 6 DA Europeans and a few Japanese VSF items and to actually have a game next sunday of HoDA with Karl Peters force up against the Force Publique.