"Painting the horde" Topic

I have sizeable armies for the Colonial campaigns in Zululand & the Sudan. This means, of course, a lot, but not enough, natives & a relative few but too many Colonial soldiers. …..I *really* need to paint another Zulu regiment…..or two….

I am curious. How do you handle painting the masses of indigenous troops needed in Colonial games?

Do you paint the lots of indigenous figures differently from the few uniform Europeans? Do you use speed methods, simplified palettes, or full detail on both anyway? What actually works for you?

Seifried Method, now known as "speed paints" is usually the best solution for me. Line up a bunch, and get different numbers of paints for each item of clothing--say six colors for coats, five for trousers and seven for hats--obviously depending on the overall native dress. Then go down the lines, painting every sixth coat the same color, every fifth pair of trousers and every 7th hat so you only duplicate on the 211th casting.

For Zulu, you need to paint skin as though it were clothing. Line up every bottle of dark brown or black you can find--NOT washes--or spray prime everyone black and damp brush with every dark brown you have. Paint shields by regiment, of course--but they're not being run off in a shield factory. Do a base white, red-brown or black and modify from there. But remember you're going for mass effect. You're not entering them into a painting competition, but putting an impi on the table by next week.

The smaller numbers of the regular Euros make them more prone to be picked out as individuals. ("A uniform is a great way to show your individuality."--Terry Pratchett.) If you want to stain or fade uniforms, this is where it pays off. European armed civilians--think Boers especially--can be painted on the Native system.

Agree with Robert – that's how I painted the horde of Celts we used to use for our Ancients battles (have to have someone for the Legions to beat on) – line 'em up, paint en masse and washes/contrast paints are your friends

Sure, sure — mass-painting works. But I'll argue this: if your "horde" looks like it was painted by a factory line, are you really capturing the chaos and individuality of an impi charging?

I've seen tables where the natives are indistinguishable brown blobs and the Colonials look like a dress parade — suddenly the "historical feel" disappears.

I agree with RP but perhaps even more so. Mix in at least a handful of individually painted, unique figures – tribal leaders, a special unit etc. Otherwise, it's just a miniatures carpet.

Who's brave enough to admit they actually care about individuality in the mass?

I do an equally poor job on both my colonials and natives. I will admit a fondness for band box British, white helmets and all.

I think this is where big-battle and skirmish games diverge as far as hordes of natives are concerned.

In big Colonial battles, individuality reads as pattern and contrast. Variation in skin tones, shields, basing and formations does the work; painting every figure to skirmish standard doesn't add much once you've got 100+ on the table.

In skirmish games, the opposite is true. With 10–20 figures, every model is a character, so extra detail actually shows and pays off.

My approach is paint for distance and mass, then spend effort on leaders and focal points for native units. I guess a more painstaking approach – a "skirmish" figure approach – is needed for Europeans.

Do these photos illustrate what I mean?

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Sorry but hordes are people too. They are done when each figure's eyes are dotted.

+1 ochoin. Exactly what I strive for. Although I do have some personality figures for both sides of my colonial armies (15mm).

"Sorry but hordes are people too."

This would make a great bumper sticker or T-shirt. I want one.

Those figs are beautiful! I try and prime in the base color. Badger makes a Nubian flesh primer. I love thus period. I sold off much of my 15mm figs for it. Now I only have 1/72 and 6mm figs for it. I do own 28mm Zulu's but I use them as Ngoni for my Darkest Africa 28mm armies.

Thanks.

John

"I try and prime in the base color."

John – great tip. I wish I'd known this years ago.

Well, when I started to paint my Zulu hordes -- these are Ral Parthas from the 80s, so in full regalia pretty much -- my approach was I set up a huge assembly line on my game table, had all my Zulus assembled, primed, and organized by regiment in piles, and a series of paper cups with slightly diluted chocolate brown paints in each. And I went around and dipped each Zulu in brown paint and set them up to dry. I still have a number of these ready for expansion, but in the time since, I have been able to knock off a 20-man Zulu unit from this semi-pre-painted lot in a weekend. I just paint around the skin and I use dry brushing for the cow tails and kilt tails so most of the detail work goes by fast. And the shields are done last.

But that's my only useful short cut. I have about 16 Zulu regiments now plus misc. riflemen and leader types. It's tedious, but not impossible to crank these out, and the more stripped down figures would go even faster. Maybe a spray brown would suit just as well? Then paint what's left.

Re Zulus I was told this, works well…
‘Painting zulus is a simple basecoat (matte humbrol enamel red brown) and tinted varnish wash process so not too bad. Providing the shields look good, the Iklwa and Assegai glint brightly in the sun and you have clean white feathers they look better painted than they actually are…'

😁

Nice work – the bases are excellent.