So, I've been steadily applying effort towards reducing my "Scramble" unpainted lead pile, or what I prefer to call my Slightly Cracked Colonials. For the last two years I've been painting away and today I decided to take detailed stock of where I am at. Keep in mind the numbers below are changing regularly as I get more done.
Here is the broad number set: 1,876 humans, 1,384 African wild animals, for a total of 3,260. There are also some other bits, 3 dogs, 1 horse, 4 bullocks, 30 canoes, 2 pulled carts, and 3 hand pushed carts; that adds 43 to the total. Also a fair amount of dead figures. And somewhere mixed into my WWI German East Africa stuff waiting to get painted are 36 American sailors suitable for say the battle of Midway and some Pickle troops (picklehaub Germans I plan to paint in pickle colors - just for the fun of it). Might be a few other things in the mix - and some of the stuff is very much of a Pulp purpose. Probably be adding some figures from a 'new' range from Khurasan that fits that last - once they are released.
Oh, 969 of the people are already painted and 482 of the wild animals for 1,451 total or a bit above 44% of the current collection.
More for my records than for your delectation, here are some break downs of the numbers:
ANIMALS -
Elephants 60 3 3 0 painted, based, textured - just needs tufting and seal coating
Giraffes 60 2 2 0 game ready
Wildebeest 180 8 6 0 painted, based, in process for texturing then tufting and sealing
Cape Buffalo 96 0 4 2/2 game ready (the 2/2 is a couple of animals with riders)
Vervet Monkeys 24 0 0 2 game ready (the last two are based with the ridden buffalo)
Okapi 6 0 0 0 game ready
Ostriches 36 1 0 0 12 painted, the rest primed and ready to paint
Rhinos 30 0 0 0 24 primed and ready to paint, 6 to prep and prime
Sable Antelope 42 0 0 0 primed and ready to paint (adapted from some goats!)
Warthogs 36 0 0 0 primed and ready to paint
Gorillas 18 0 0 0 primed and ready to paint
Gorillas * 12 0 0 0 game ready (these are more pulp gorillas, angry and violent)
Baboons 48 3 0 0 primed and ready to paint
Chimps 34 4 0 3 primed and ready to paint (last three accompany Tarzan)
Hippos 39 1 0 0 24 primed and ready to paint, 15 to prep and prime (12 waterline)
Crocs, gators, etc. 63 0 0 0 48 partially painted, 15 to prep and prime (12 waterline)
Quagga 96 3 4 0 during the Victorian era these were thought a different species
Zebras 120 4 4 0 primed and ready to paint
Flamingos 24 1 0 0 bought painted, HO scale birds
Gazelle/Antelope 72 3 4 0 61 primed, balance to prep and prime
Gazelle/Antelope 60 1 2 0 41 primed, balance to prep and prime
Gazelle/Antelope 60 1 2 0 41 primed, balance to prep and prime
Pangoloin 3 0 0 0 painted toy models, just need to work on texturing bases
Anteaters 3 0 0 0 as above
Leopard 3 0 0 0 primed and ready to paint (from HATT Jungle set)
Cheetahs 3 0 0 0 as above (or one of the two was from a plastic toy set)
Hyenas 24 0 0 0 primed and ready to paint
Lions 75 0 0 0 48 part painted or primed and ready, 27 to prep and prime
The way the numbers work is first number is the main grouping/herd, then for the live animal trade, then dead, and the last number is for 'special' situations.
Yes, that is a lot of animals - and I plan to add a lot more if a certain company releases a long promised range.
The Gazelle/Antelope are models of Pronghorn antelope I will paint up as various ungulate species to fill in gaps - though hoping some of those 'pending' animals will better fill some of those gaps.
The reason for so many lions is working to find better options, originally just had Irregular male lions and using their tiger for my female lions, then added some smaller bead animals for younger lions, then adding in the lions from the HATT jungle sets (bought three total) and more recently finding some nicer sculpted metal lions and some smaller lions from Pendraken for young. And, if those pending animals materialize, will be adding even more lions. May not paint them all if the last hoped for batch meets higher expectations.
PEOPLE -
Tarzan grouping, 23 figures (4 versions of Tarzan with a chimp and Waziri for three of the versions, 4 of Jane - with dogs for three of the versions, and 4 of their son - one of the Cape buffalo riders(fourth version is the family nicely dressed for a ride to Europe); 6 canoes with 30 canoers; 38 Dahomey Amazons (and the 1 horse included); 6 archers of indeterminate assignment at this time; 39 Waziri warriors in three groups of 12 plus the leader (who can be an arch-enemy if I need to use him that way against Tarzan). Hopefully, it is obvious that these figures are more pulp oriented whereas much of the rest can just as easily be historical.
The pygmies consist of 96 warriors, 24 villagers (adapted from 10 mm figures since no one makes any 15 mm pygmy villagers that I could find), and a chieftain group of 3 figures.
There are two 'grand' natives sets (the italicized paragraphs here), each more or less composed the same, the great difference is one group has Ashanti and the other Maori - and a color theme difference to make it easy to tell them apart.
Each of the two groups has 9 groups of 12 for 108 warriors, 6 groups of 12 for 72 villagers, 36 canoers in 12 canoes, a witch doctor led (3 figures) group of 3 units at 12 each, and 12 bound captives - and three sub-chiefs and one paramount chief (or king).
There are 5 native leader groups, 3 figures each; these are a mix of African and Arabic peoples.
One 'grand' set has those Maori, 4 groups of 12 for 48 figures, the other has the same but Ashanti.
And last there are 6 groups, 3 figures each, of "Great White Hunters" (2) and a gun bearer (African). One of the groups has two female white hunters.
The italicized above and the pygmies are all painted - just a smattering of bases to finish texturing with a large amount needed grass tufts and such added.
For my "Zanzibari" civilians, there are 8 groups of 12 figures for a total of 96 with a fair balance of male, female and a lesser balance of children. Child figures are often hard to find for many periods in my chosen 15 mm sized figures.
An additional 10 groups of 12, mostly all white except for the natives in the archaeological dig grouping, are European whites. Some of these are armed, some are not, some fit history fine and others lean into the pulp elements, but more so historical.
For my many river boats, side wheeler sized and launch sized - and a couple of iron glads and a few Chinese junks, I have 10 groups of European sailors plus six extra figures for 126. There are also three native crews so another 36. And two shore parties of sailors decked out for land fighting. (And somewhere those 36 sailors mentioned earlier in this post.). And just mixed in with this group are 6 men and three push carts. [not included in the totals above are my dhows with their crews - but can certainly be pressed into use here, not yet prepped for painting, I think I have 8 of them with 5 crew each]
Some light-hearted relief comes in the form of the Daftu (a man who goes by Digits on the Lead Adventure Forum started a lovely thread in the Pulp board titled Daftest Africa. When he asked about points of inspiration, I tossed the idea of the Daftu tribe, a play on the Bantu peoples of Africa). Since, at least not to date, he hasn't created such, I decided to create my own Daftu tribal figures and just to be different I, mostly, will be using figures originally intended for John Carter style Mars figures. Mine, however, will be very much earth bound. There are 24 'character' groupings of figures and 5 groups of 12 warriors for 84 total people in this group.
For European forces to 'protect' the Europeans, I have a number of figures. For British I have 12 sailors and 18 soldiers. There are 24 figures in slouch hats that might serve in some capacity but I haven't decided for sure. And then there are 24 Odonites, figures for my fictional alter ego, Odo - much more of him and his ancestry and progeny at some later date. There are 24 figures as a start for the Force Publique - hoping to augment this with some Belgian figures from QRF's WWI ranges - if they release appropriate figures (if not, I will order in some of their ACW figures for a rag-tag version). Another 24 figures will represent US Marines (I did say Slightly Cracked - not aware of any Marines in East Africa in my intended time frame (which is remarkably fluid at times). French are represented by 24 sailors. And the Germans have 24 figures plus 3 more - and more planned like the Pickle Haube troops mentioned above.
There are also 72 native units to assist, or maybe resist, the European forces. Likely I will add a bunch more to this using 1880s or so Egyptian soldiers that have become surplus over time.
There are also 10 groups of 3 each, 30 total, of "Adventurers", most if not all of the groups include at least one woman, maybe two sometimes. This definitely, but not entirely, leans into the pulp side of it all. Some stalwarts of fiction and cinema may be found mixed in here.
One of the "conceits" of my inspired variation of the Scramble will actually have the Germans in the place of the heroic people (this is pre-Nazi and Carl Peters is a vastly reduced presence) with the British being much more the villainous side of the affair. For those who don't know, despite the less noble element of the Germans in Africa (and they had no monopoly on ill deeds, all the European powers were less than noble in their treatment of the native Africans), at least the Germans worked to better educate the locals and trained them much better in the military arts in relative terms according to my readings. This is perhaps influenced by my German heritage which harkens back at least to the revolutionary days. Then again, I can trace my first ancestors in America to 1630 and the ship William and Mary out of England. So, I can land on both sides of that issue through family heritage.
I don't intend to create games of native bashing but of Europeans in conflict with one another in the quest for colonies, domination, and the like and dragging, usually unwillingly and unwittingly, the indigenous people along. And, when history is in second - or even third place - behind pulp, all sorts of odd things might intrude - like tanks and airplanes very much out of place - as long as it makes the game that much more fun. Just no VSF, but maybe steam traction, slow, clunky, and very unreliable.
By in large, except for rounding out my German East Africa stuff with Belgians and Portuguese if they become available and more African animals, I am at an end of collecting periods. But things that fit here - like those pending Pulp figures from Khurasan I intend to add - may join into this happy madness.
