Ansar / Dervish Gun Crews

                                      Ansar / Dervish Gun Crews

I promised a good friend of mine that I would paint him some 28mm Dervish gun crews for his upcoming Sudan convention game for use with his TSATF variant of naval combat called "Gunboat & Dhow". Well about a year or more later I've finally gotten around to completing them! Thankfully he wasn't relying on these for his game.....

(All of these awesome gun positions were made by Bill Daniel at The Gamer`s Garage. wdaniel994@comcast.net)

These gunners were slightly converted from Old Glory Ansar swordsmen and spearmen packs CSD-04 & CSD-05. The weapons were removed, arms re-positioned, holes drilled in the hands, and fabricated gunnery tools installed. One crewman is a Perry plastic figure and another is an Askari Mini's fig from the excavation pack used as a ladle bearer. The gun crews are set up for the standard The Sword And The Flame gun crews of (3) gunners and one commander. The figs have a hand spike, sponge, rammer, ladle, bucket, or fuse lighter.

                         The following pics are the works in progress set.

Once the figs are completed, glue dried, figs cleaned and washed they are ready for priming. In this case I chose a flat white base coat followed by painting the various skin tones.

  This photo shows the troops just before applying the Poly Shades Minwax wash and sealer.

Followed by the figs being brushed with the dip but prior to being sprayed with Testors lusterless Flat sealer. I let the paint dry for 24 hrs, then brush the minwax dip and let dry for 24 hrs, then I spray them with matt flat sealer.

And the final step is to add a little flocking or bushes to the bases. The end product is a nice flat finish that is fairly strong and protected.

Here are (2) pics of an Ansar crew from Cannon Fodder Minis. There are (3) captured Egyptian Gunners pressed into service with a large Sudanese task master "commanding" the battery. This unit is set up for The Sword And The Flame, it's a basic (4) man gun crew, (3) gunners and (1) commander/officer.