Ngoni standard bearer and witchdoctor

In Chris Peers' Darkest Africa rules the leader in an Ngoni army has to be one of the warriors. The figure on the left, therefore, represents a standard bearer who can cancel out a compulsory morale test.

The witchdoctor can force an opposing unit to take a morale test but is really only effective against other tribal opponents, not white men or Arabs (the latter is not clear from the rules but can be inferred).

Five more Ngoni

I finished another five Ngoni today. Two of the Ngoni (on the left) have the Zebra mane headresses popular in Southern Tanganyika.

Some of the Ngoni dyed their cocks feather headresses red and the character with the club and red feather headress will be my tribal chief.

I worked on bending the shields with some pliers and they look better than the flat ones I painted last week.

The Ngoni shields were very similar to Zulu ones and so here are some pictures of Zulu shields to show the construction and colouring. The shield is made from cow-hide with its natural colouring.

On the back you can see how the carrying pole was attached. This is an original pole from a Zulu War period shield. Finding these now is quite unusual as those brought back to Britain as souvenirs were usually rolled up and the pole discarded.

The fur decoration seen at the top of Zulu and Ngoni shield poles was usually made from Antelope or Springbok fur and so would have been a light, sandy tan colour.

First Ngoni

I have painted the first of my Copplestone Castings Ngoni. They took longer to paint than Azande warriors but that is becuase their costume is more elaborate. They look very splendid, though, and I have got another five on the go. The shields, in particular took ages!

The shields are the only things I would take issue with as regards accuracy. The figures themselves are very accurate but the shields are modelled as flat. The Ngoni's Zulu-style shields were made from animal hide with a pole threaded into the back to give them rigidity.

Most of the pictures I have seen of them show them as slightly convex with the edge turned up slightly. The Copplestone shields are too thick to bend but I guess it doesn't matter too much as the size and profile is spot on.

Coming next: Ngoni!

For some reason I have a sudden urge to paint some more African tribesmen and although I should be doing some more Azande, to finally finish off my army, I have a couple of packs of Copplestone Castings Ngoni in the lead pile. So I cleaned them and based them this week and hope to get some done over the next few weeks.

The picture above is from a 1958 postcard showing some Ngoni in their traditional cocksfeather headdresses. It's a good colour reference for the shields too.