First Abyssinians Arrive

The order from Irregular arrived today and Ive had a email to say the Bicorne order has been dispatched. From reading the forums I know the quality of these two ranges is not as high as Askari and a long way behind Empress offerings , however Im not disappointed so far, these had a bit of flash and the sculpt quality is what I would call old school but with a reasonable paint job I think they will be ok, service from both companies is meant to be excellent and so far I can confirm that.Here are a few pics of the Irregular order that I have cleaned up so far.

Here are a few charcters, at the front from left to right is a std bearer, MenelikII , coptic priest with 2 parasol bearers behind.

Here are the infantry with small variants, I ordered 5 of the same code and they are all slightly different. There outfit is a bit fancy for standard tribal troops so they may have to be a chiefs retinue.

Galla heavy cavalry. These Im not too sure about , the riders have mail shirts which is fine but I have no reference for the quilted armour on the horses , I did order some Savannah cavalry too but these are definately the Galla. If anyone knows how these should be painted I would appreciate it!!

The order also contained 5 musketeers and 3 light cavalry as well as some Savannah heavy and light cavalry and Savannah infantry.

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.