Tamaai 1884

[Angus Tura 774]

Long ago, when Col. suggested this GB I said I was glad that there wasn't a time limit...so, I'd better do this build/paint.

 

The British occupied Egypt in 1882 and stayed until 1956. There were many objections to this state of affairs, one of the earliest being the Mahdist Rebellion which culminated in Gordon's death at Khartoum and the relief of Khartoum in1885. The battle of Tamaai in 1884 was a defeat for the Mahdists but only after they had broken into one of the British squares. They were repelled by the Black Watch and by the 1st Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment.

 

1st York and Lancaster and 1st Black Watch rallying for the counter-attack at the Battle of Tamaai on 13th March 1884 in the Sudanese War, by Douglas Giles.  

The Original of this is in the York and Lancs Regimental Museum in Rotherham, but unfortunately that is Coronavirus-closed. 

 

I have a stash of Yorkshire-related figures amongst which is this:

 

 

Here he is stuck together with Blu-tac:

 

 

The base is by Richard of Oakwood Studios in Leeds. When I first got the figure out of its box I was not at all sure about the pose/animation but it has grown on me over time, sitting on my desk in its blu-tacced state. The sculpture and the casting is very good.

 

See you shortly,

 

Alan

 

 

[Col. 12,053]

A wonderful subject choice Alan. We seldom see figures in the GBs so I'm delighted you've picked this one.

[Valkyrie 4,526]

Good bit of history too, looks interesting all in.

[CliffB 9,576]

I look forward to another masterclass in figure painting Alan

Roughly what size is the figure?

 

 

Cheers

[Angus Tura 774]

Cliff and all, thanks. I'm not sure about "masterclass", Cliff. It can surely only qualify as a "class" if it gets finished, unlike every other previous attempt.

He's "54mm" but actually a touch over 60mm. So, about 1/30.

 

That 

[JOCKNEY 13,066]

Looks terrific Alan

Forgive my shocking history knowledge, but would this be the same "Sudan" conflict that Corporal Jones used to talk about in Dad's Army ?

cheers Pat

 

[fatfingers 2,931]

Nice figure. My grandad was in the 'Cat & Cabbage' regiment in WW2 until he got 'nabbed' in North Africa. Quite fancy a visit to the Regimental Museum if it re-opens at some point in the future.

 

Look forward to seeing this progress

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Foxbat 3,157]

4 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Looks terrific Alan

Forgive my shocking history knowledge, but would this be the same "Sudan" conflict that Corporal Jones used to talk about in Dad's Army ?

cheers Pat

 

My first reply was rubbish. Should have just Googled in the first place. Of course he has his pwn Wiki entry with a full back story, so yes, that was the same 'Sudan'

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Corporal_Jones

 

Andy

 

Edited February 18 by Foxbat

[Angus Tura 774]

Pat and Andy: I am here to tell you that they do not like it up 'em.

 

You could be forgiven for asking why I'm posting the exact same image of this build as last time:

 

 

Although there has been very little progress there has been a lot of time-spent.

 

I've filled a bit of a defect in the right arm and carved up the pegs on his feet to start base-making. Mostly however, I've been making a strap for his Martini-Henry out of empty tomato puree tube.

 

 

When I was a kid-modeller, I used to get very annoyed at older modellers writing in Military Modelling &c. that I should use metal foil from wine bottles for making 54mm belts and straps. I was 13 and my presbyterian Scottish parents considered wine to be: a. Foreign; and b. The Work of the Devil. Nowadays, of course, wine bottles have plastic foil on them.

 

There are very small resin loops on the Martini-Henry to fit the strap. So, I spent one evening under-cutting them with a razor saw and opening them up....before breaking the back-end one off while threading the strap through. Then another evening spent making a new loop out of 5 amp wire.

 

 

The resin rifle needed de-warping in boiling water and I hope that it doesn't re-warp after all the grief it's given me.

 

Alan

[Col. 12,053]

That's all time well spent Alan. Nice work.

[Angus Tura 774]

Thanks Col. It would have been time well spent....if I hadn't managed to break the second resin buckle off. Here is Mk.2:

 

 

Both buckles now fusewire. After a lot of time-consuming mucking about I found that bending the wire over the corner of a hold-and-fold actually makes making the buckles quite easy. I have also added a brass pin to the wrist to hold it for painting and to secure it. The lever of the Martini-Henry broke before I even got it off its resin block. The new one is more, heavier, fuse wire flattened and bent with some pliers.

 

Photographing things for Britmodeller is a bit unforgiving: I see that the trigger and trigger-guard need more clean-up. Thankfully, having cleaned up the body of the figure, head and right arm, the assembly is essentially done.

 

See you later,

 

Alan