72nd Highlanders for NWF - First trio finished

During the last days I kept working on the first batch of my NWF 72nd Highlanders. 'First batch' actually means five figures but I've got some work to do on the sergeant and the drummer. So here are the leading officer and two privates:

Three men finished... Nine to go.

The figures are some colonial British from the excellent Sudan range by Perry Miniatures. As usual the sculpts are a blast and the casting quality is excellent as well. Actually those chaps are meant to serve in the Sudan during the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1884/85 but luckily the 72nd Highlanders were one of the few regiments who wore the very same dress during the 2nd Anlgo-Afghan War 1879/80. It's called the 'Indian Service Dress' and it has some minor difference in the webbing and the way the greatcoat is carried.

Additionally the 72nd wore a very special set of trousers. They had tartan trews and wore puttees made of tartan fabric as well. Really a colourful look they had but for the ambitious painter it's a hard challenge to catch this uniform in 28mm.

Anyway yours truly did his very best to do justice to those brave Scotsmen. For the base colour of the pantaloons I used a very dark red for the shades (VMC 'Hull Red') and then lightened it up to VMC 'Vermillion'. Afterwards I applied the tartan. Firstly with 'Hull Red' again painting the basic check. Then I outlined it with VMC 'Buff' and VMC 'Pastel Blue'.

It's not a perfect recreation of the Prince Edward Stuart Tartan but on a 28mm it gives an idea of the main characteristics of the pattern. At least within my means. Meanwhile I discovered that there are a couple of versions of this tartan but I decided to stay more or less to the version I found in the Osprey book about the British Army on campaign in 1880s:

Picture from Maiwand Day blog

Many thanks to those who brought me onto the scent of the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War. Firstly 'Mad Guru' who is running the 'Maiwand Day' blog, then my friend Michael who has been working on his very own NWF collection for years, then to the most honourable Michael Awdry esq. who's fueling any interest in Victorian warfare on his wonderful blog and last but not least to Mark Hargreaves and Darrell Hindley for their priceless advice regarding the colours.

Most of you will know the preview pictures for the upcoming pastic box by Michael and Alan Perry:

Picture from Perry Miniatures

Picture from Perry Miniatures

During the last years the twins made a couple of excellent plastic boxes but this one is really the one I'm waiting most desperately for. I really envy those of you chaps who'll be able to lay their greedy hands on some of them next week at Salute but I'm sure to get one myself as soon as possible. The perfect addition for my slowly growing collection and a reason to hope for some metal sets the Perrys might expand their range with. Some very nice tribesmen are announced already but who knows what else they have in mind....