More 72nd Highlanders

After a lot of zombies here is a post about a historical theatre of war again. Finally my unit of 72nd Highlanders fills the ranks having nine brave Scotsmen ready for action now. This meaning that yours truly managed to finish six new figures by now:

The figures represent some soldiers from the 72nd Highlanders dressed in the uniform this regiment was wearing during their mission to Afghanistan in 1879/80. The sculpts are by Michael Perry and the figures are part of Perry Miniatures' Sudan range. Actually some of the few sets that work for the Sudan quarrel of 1883-85 as well as for the slightly earlier 2nd Anglo-Afghan War.

Most interesting part of these uniforms are of course the trews. As far as I know the 72nd was the only regiment wearing tartan trews and tartan puttees and thus the greatest challenge was to create an idea of the traditional pattern on those miniatures. Although I wasn't able to recreate the tartan right down to the last detail I'm really satisfied with the overall impression. Especially from two feet gaming distance... 

On some of the figures I changed the style of painting the covered helmet slightly. While I didn't do anything but drybrushing on the first figures I tried to outline the segments of the helmet under the cover more on the later figures (good to see on the first picture on the aiming fellow on the far left). Although I know it was covered and probably the segments didn't show through too much I prefer the more detailed look. Let's call it artistic freedom.

As before I employed mostly Vallejo Model Colors and Vallejo Game Colors. The uniform itself - meaning helmet cover and jacket in this case - is based on VGC 'Khaki', VMC 'Iraqui Sand' and VMC 'Pale Sand'.

For the trews I painted a base colour of VMC 'Hull Red', VMC 'Crimson Red' and VMC 'Vermillion'. Above that dark chequers of VMC 'Hull Red' with thin lines of VMC 'Buff' and VMC 'Pastel Blue'.

As usual I took the pictures before varnishing the figures so the bases aren't finished yet. However I'll keep them simple and don't want to add more than some static grass and maybe a small piece of clump foliage here or there.

So now there are three more highlanders needed to complete the unit. Although the trio is on my workbench since Monday I didn't manage to finish them. Preparing other figures, painting more zombies, the IIHF World Championship and an evening at the cinema enjoying 'X-Men: Apocalypse' simply took too much time during the last days.

Anyway I'm really keen on finishing these 72nd Highlanders to tackle the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment afterwards. For this I prepared a couple of the wonderful new NWF plastics from Perry Miniatures and I'm looking forward to seeing how the paint. Afterwards I'll need some precious pieces for my NWF collection. Does anybody know whether the 'Extras' from the Sudan Range - namely the hospital set (SU3) and the heliograph section (SU2) - are suitable for NWF as well? 

SU2 - Heliograph Section by Perry Miniatures

Although I found a couple of sources about infantry uniforms during the NWF I pretty unsure with artillery and medical corps. So maybe a head swap with some of the correctly covered plastic head would do?

SU3 - Hospital Scene by Perry Miniatures

That's it for now. Please enjoy the weekend and don't forget to have a look at the 'Paint Table Saturday' group on Google+.