"Painting Tuaregs?" Topic

Good day colonialists, I'm finally starting to paint my Tuareg figs, they've been sitting in a box for 20 or so years while I painted the Sudan, NWF, etc. I've tried several different blues with washes all primed with black. I'm wondering what paint colors from which mfgrs that people have used? Any pictures to add to the color pallet would be awesome.

If you can buy or borrow a copy, the November 1965 issue of National Geographic has an article by Belgian writer Victor Englebert titled "I Joined a Sahara Salt Caravan," about a trip with a modern (OK, a 1965) Tuareg caravan. The color photos show Tuareg blue clothing in various stages of fading ranging from an almost black blue to a turquoise. I do a three layer painting process with shade, color, and highlight. One trick I used with my Tuaregs was to use the usual blue color as the shade on some figures, and the highlight blue became the basic color on these, then was mixed with some white to become the highlight. It provided a little variety for Tuareg blue.
My Tuaregs came from Askari Miniatures, who had a painting guide for Tuaregs back then.
It is supposed to be an indigo based dye, but I don't have any paint labeled indigo.
Grelber

Grelber, thank you for the advice. I'm trying something similar and also with washes. Using a lighter blue washed with a darker blue.

The Tuareg people are a very diverse group both in appearance and dress.

There are from modern times, but provide some ideas.

Historic Tuareg may have been less diverse within any one group (tribe).

Tuaregs dark colors:

Dark over light:

Light overdark:

I have painted up many in 15mm which is more accepting of washes.
For larger figure, I would suggest under highlighting for the dark colors.
Prime Black, drybrush white. Then paint over with a thin (translucent) coat of color.
If you can find inks in the right colors, even better.

For effect, I went with lots of light/dark contrast on each figure, and wide range of colors and combos between figures.

Some inspiration on my blog?
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I was watching a lot of 1977's March or Die when i did these up:

More here though I mixed up Arabic figures from Antiquity to the early 20th Century, from Morocco to the Middle East. All wrong now in hindsight, but I wanted as many as I could get on the table as possible and loved the variety.

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From an earlier discussion on TMP;
TMP link

I use acrylics, mostly valejo. A combination of faded black/black grey, a variety of blues including dark prussian blue and prussian blue, and various white/off white shades. Tuareg robes lend themselves to shading and highlighting with your preferred techniques. I've had success with citadel shade 'drakenhof nightshade' over blue block painting. I'm also enjoying using army painter 'spaceship exterior' which is a light grey as a base coat for white, highlighted with a little pure white. Happy painting to you Sgt Guinness.

Corporal Steiner, excellent motivation indeed sir! I love the campaign premise, the map, the figs, the terrain, all excellent! Thank you for posting. I will be following your blog.

Flashman14, I did the very same thing with my 15mm FFL collection adding troops from every 15mm mfgr from biblical to 1900's for variety. Thank you for posting. I've been a long time fan of your blog.

Gerry, great to hear from you my friend. Thank you for the painting advice and for resurrecting that awesome thread. Highly motivational! I've got a bunch of your amazing FFL, Berbers, and Tuaregs begging for me to slap some paint on them. If been hoarding them in my lead pile from when I used to frequent Historicon long ago. I've got a bunch primed and plan on painting some. I'll post some pics.

Cheers

Here is my first attempt at painting Tuaregs for my French Colonial collection. They are not official Tuareg castings however I think they fit the bill well enough for my games. This will be a command group for my TSATF games, the mullah being the chieftain of a 3 tribe clan. His loyal followers I intend to use to give a +1 for moral or melee purposes for any unit they get attached to during the game.

This group was for one of my entries in the 11th annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

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I used a couple of different shades of blue from Polly Scale with washes and highlights. I do plan use the colors that Save Gordon here stated to and I will order the Foundry color set that Hu Rhu at LAF recommended to add variety and to add some white and black robes and headdresses as well.

This has definitely motivated me to paint the pile of Castaway Arts and Askari Miniatures Tuaregs I have in my naked lead pile.

Here's a few more pics and links on my blog.
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Love that movie.