Here are my first attempts at scratch-building some Sudan village pieces. After having read a thread on The Miniatures Page and visiting the Touching History Blog. www.touchinghistory.blogspot.com/2010/03/model-sale_21.html I decided to give these a shot. Here we see some British soldiers manning the village among some of my new palm trees.
The buildings were not very difficult to make as they are architechtually simple. The buildings are made out of matt board folded, scored and glued. After assembly, I cut out some doors and windows with an exacto knife. I covered the buildings in drywall compound. I then cut some basal wood strips to make the door frames and glued some wood inside the buildings for the doors. The building on the left has a roof made out of bits cut from a hand broom.
Last shot a little bit closer in. I am toying with the idea of making the buildings large enough to hide one base within them. At my 1:10 scale this would equal approximately 50 men so that seems as if it might be a bit crowded inside. I am working on a domed masque next. You can click on the pictures to blow them up.
A couple of books I have been reading and can recommend. The Zulu War by Michael Barthorp. Easy to read book with brief overview of the forces involved and a chronological sequence of the campaign. Good book for introduction into the period. My friend Ray is doing the Zulu war in 1/72nd so this was a good read for me to quickly learn about the period.
The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James. This is not an easy read. An old History professor of mine recommended this book as the definitive book of the Haitian Revolution. Very thorough well researched book a bit dry, very social and Marxist historical perspective, a very strong examination of the causes of the revolution but with barely a mention of the tactics or battles fought. An excellent scholastic book but not much for the wargamer. I hope to one day write some rules for this conflict as it is terribly fascinating period of revolution and change. Well that is what I have been up to lately. Good gaming.
