Meroitic Kushite - posted by John Edmundson, 4 May 2020

Having decided to finally realise my dream of getting a Meroitic Kushite army (15mm of course) but not being able to find any figures I like, I've had to start improvising. The plan is that every week I'll try to do a couple of elements; it will be slow because at present, the only figure in the army that will be "straight out of the box" will be the archer I inquired about the other day. And hence the half chalk, half vermilion painted Ps - I'm going to be restrained and keep that for the tribal archers and trogodyte Ps.

When I started my Andalusians many years ago, I bought a pack of 50 (as they did then) Old Glory Berber javelinmen. "I'll need tons of them", I told myself. Then they arrived and I found they were skimpy little loinclothed Berbers. No self respecting 11th Century Andalusian would have a bar of them. It was either get a later Moorish army (I've played a game using stand-in figures to play test the DBMM PO rules vs DBM Cm(I) rules but even I am not that masochistic. Meroitic Kushites are one thing. Later Moors are a whole other thing . . .

But I digress, it was either later Moors or stick them in a cupboard while I thought what to do. A decade or so later, they aren't even in the Old Glory Andalusian range any more (although their photo still appears in the Arab Conquest range. The far more urbane (read 'soft') Andalusians now have them recast in much more modest kilts than the budgie smugglers of the earlier incarnation. Hey, I thought. I could use them. So long story slightly short, they are now going to morph into Meroitic axemen as Irr Bd(I) and possibly axe armed figures on Irr Bw (O) elements.

So here's a first crack at it. I used some crusty old milliput that didn't work smooth, despite the microwave trick, so I might try green stuff next time since I have some in the garage.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/permalink/1493015977524656/

Here's the skimpy loinclothed Berber. That long projection from his groin is the loincloth, before you start thinking otherwise. A quick wash of black so the detail would come up in the photo.

This is him as he appears on the OG website under Arab Conquest. You can see here that the long dangly bit comes from the waist and is part of his loincloth. He's not just pilfered from their Gaesatae pack although the original master seems to be.

Here he is after a makeover; javelin shortened, bent and the bent bit hammered and trimmed into an axe. Loincloth of milliput (as noted in the original comment) and his old buckler trimmed off and replaced by a larger body shield, per the McBride Osprey illustration.

Another not so good shot. A great discovery though was that, being the hoarder that I am, nothing gets thrown out. The wee bits of metal that join the feet of riders in the casting process, hammered until they are flat and thin, are really great to fabricate new shields from. I just clipped it into shape and filed it.

Here's the McBride illustration. I'll be experimenting with feathers in the hair etc too as I go along. Also, the archers (Ps) I already did have a first version of the style of clothing the archer here is wearing. There's plenty of scope for variation in costume from these two to full or one shoulder tunics or wrap-around dressing gown style. It'll be slow going but fun.