Scenics: Springbok Herd and a Lion

Antelope from Irregular Miniatures Painted as Springbok

I'm working through my first batches of German Schutztruppe, both mounted and on foot, and it's taken me longer than the first Hereros did because I've been struggling to get the paint mix right for the various shades of faded khaki and corduroy brown (not to mention the whites of their eyes).

Along the way, I've taken the opportunity to use some of that excess paint to work on some scenic elements, particularly wildlife.  That has been a welcome change, using different techniques, and I'm quite pleased with the results.

Here are some antelope figures I picked up from Irregular Miniatures and have painted as Springbok.

They work fine for 28mm scale, though they are well fed little antelope and my partner teases me about my "goats".  I am very fond of them, as they remind me of the herds I used to see in Namibia.  I used a palette of orange ocher mixed with sand yellow for their fur, and dark brown with grey highlights for the horns.   I have other antelope that I will get around to painting - gemsbok and greater kudu,- and my gaming table could start to look like Etosha Pan (which would really only be appropriate only for the attack of 500 Owambo warriors on a handful of Schutztruppe at Fort Namutoni).

The springbok seem blissfully unaware that there is danger nearby.  I picked up this lion in a Big Game Hunt set by Foundry that also had a great German figure in a Sudwester hat and a monocle, and some Africans in European clothing who have gone off to join the Herero forces.  I used various tans and sand colors for his tawny coat, dry brushing the mane and using a stone gray for his underbelly.  I am especially pleased by his eye, the same orange ocher as the Springbok with a black spot in the center which I added with the aid of a round, pointed toothpick.  I have more to do with the groundwork on this figure and will be adding tufts of grass, but he is quite splendid and I guess I'll have to get some crouching lionesses to add to his pride.