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Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Bear with me.

Now I was hoping that with the start of the summer holidays that I would find myself with hour upon hour of precious hobby time, sadly this has proved not to be the case!  The ubiquitous 'things to do' list seemed to grow exponentially, not unlike the weeds in our garden, and as the academic year came crashing to an end, I just stopped.  Now feeling a little more rested I have started to build a routine that will hopefully allow me to return to Blogging with more vim and vigour.
As I mentioned in my previous post the hobby focus for this summer is to host a game of 'Congo' and with a couple of dates in mind it has been all steam ahead!  Now I had thought that I had assembled and prepped all the miniatures required for the scenario that I have in mind, but only the other day I found myself making yet another order to 'North Star Miniatures' for something that I just couldn't live without - it would appear that you can never have enough Ruga Ruga!
Anyway, I digress, but let me assure you, good reader, that miniatures are being painted and jungle is steadily amassing and so to keep up with progress, I thought that I would share these four 'Wargames Foundry' Bearers.  Essential to any expedition, Bearers in 'Congo' are a relatively cheap addition to the column and whilst don't add anything to the group's firepower or melee potential they do allow the group to ignore the effect of a movement stress token*, hopefully giving the intrepid explorers an slight advantage as they race to capture the sacred objectives.
*The token still counts as a stress token though.

74 comments:

  1. Wonderful painting - I agree, you can never have enough bearers (and Ruga Ruga). Congo has been on our to do list for TOO long.

    Frank
    http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com.au/

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    1. Thank you Frank, really looking forward to the game now.

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  2. Congo is a great game, I am working on my fourth column which is Zanzibari.
    The bearers can also be used as a casualty instead of a more useful figure. Nice painting on the bearers. I need a few more. The great thing about Congo is the small size of the units and they can interchange between columns.

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    1. Thank you Simon, I'm really enjoying finding the miniatures and can already see how some of them can be used in different groups. I now have an Adventures column and Forest Tribes, but do fancy a Zanzibari column, very colourful. By the way Simon, do you have a blog?

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  3. Nice work, Michael. I love the Congo rules. Trouble is, between North Star, Foundry and others, there's a heck of a lot of sculpts on my wish list! And that's before I even think paddle steamers...

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    1. Thank you Leo and I know what you mean. I have a paddle steamer waiting in the wings, but would love a Masai tribe!

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  4. Outstanding job Michael, they look superb!

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  5. I was expecting something ursine....

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  6. They turned out great! Looking forward to seeing your trip into the Congo!

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    1. Than you Brian, I have been flat out this week with the scenery.

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  7. It just wouldn't be an Afrcian style game without beaers now would it ?

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  8. Excellent. I think these would be valuable additions to any deep African expedition.

    My dyslexia miss read the title the first time and it "Beer with me!" That works for me too.

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    1. Thank you Clint and I am sure they will be pressed into service for many adventure. Beer sounds good, I'll get them in. ;)

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  9. Very nice skin color and baggage is nicely painted too!
    Like them a lot!

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  10. Stunning work!
    Since your announcement in your last post I've been watching a lot of Congo play-throughs at Youtube (especially from Ralph Astley) and I'm seriously considering to start with the game.
    Your beautifully painted models are not helping, ... 😁

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    1. I shall have to go and have a look at those videos, thank you for the pointer. Sorry about the temptation, but there will be more to see soon. :)

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  11. Great skin tones on these Michael. Very well done Sir.

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  12. Looking forward to feasting my eyes on your summer output.

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    1. That is very kind, I hope not to disappoint.

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  13. Thought you'd been a bit quiet, Michael. These are splendid and looking forward to the Summer output enormously :-)

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    1. Yes sorry about that, hopefully more regular post from now on.

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  14. They are gorgeous. What is your black skin recipe? I always struggle with that skin tone.
    It will be great to see you blogging more over the summer. And a project based on the Congo feels like a great opportunity for some fun with dinosaurs.

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    1. Thank you Mike, as for recipes I have tried a few over the years. More recently I am using the following. I airbrushed the miniatures, there were quite a few, using a base of Vallejo Model Air Burt Umber. I then put on the first highlight with Reaper Master Series Dark Skin, followed by a final highlight of Reaper Master Series Dark Skin highlights.

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  15. Excellent work Michael.
    I loathe the "things to do list"...I try to put "burn the things to do list" up at the top of the list...

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  16. Lovely job on a lovely set of figs! Really must get some bearers myself!

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    1. Thank you Gordon, loved working on these, but have the North Star ones around here somewhere.

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  17. They look great.
    And you're right about the Northstar Ruga-Ruga I think I might *be* some of those too.

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    1. Thank you, mine are in the post, I just gave in again.

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  18. Smashing work Michael as always this looks like it will be stunning once finished.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger, there is still plenty to do, but we are underway now.

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  19. Excellent work as always Michael! You've certainly gotten the darker flesh tones mastered!

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    1. Thank you Terry, I have tried various approached, but this ones seems to work well for me.

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  20. As the others have said, fantastic skin on those!

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  21. Beautiful figures .........I haven't reached the point yet where I have enough of anything 😀

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  22. Another over the deep center field home run!

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  23. Absolutely wonderful work Michael! Really looking forward to see it all come together.

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    1. Thank you Nick, the jungle itself is taking the most time, but I am starting to feel that I am getting somewhere with it now.

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  24. Lovely work on the bearers Michael; cracking stuff. :)

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  25. Those native porters look fab Michael :)

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    1. Thank you Tamsin, I was really pleased myself, but had to stop myself from starting more of them rather than just completing what was needed for the first encounter.

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  26. As the song says "the jungle is massive". Looking forward to seeing your finished scenery as you 'carry on up the jungle'. You have got a Terry Scott in a loincloth, right?

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    1. Not got a Terry Scott yet, but I do have a rather splendid Sid James that will be making an appearance. :)

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  27. Beautifully painted skin tones and they all look even better together. Nice!

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    1. Thank you, I am really hoping that the unit will hope together, so far so good.

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  28. Top job dear sir and you've nailed that skin.

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  29. Fabulous looking natives; the skin tone is excellent.

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  30. Awesome work! Everything is spot on with these - excellent painting of subtle skin tone, & fine hues & detail on the baggage. Very nice bases too.

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  31. Your porters look really nice. I played a game of Congo at Historicon a couple of weeks back, and had a lot of fun with it. It's a neat system.

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  32. Excellent work on those, my friend.

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