Work continues apace here at Awdry Towers with regards to the assembly of forces required for our forthcoming game of ‚Congo‘.  The latest troops off the production line are the Askaris and mine have come from ‚Copplestone Castings‘, now available through ‚North Star Military Figures‘.

These have wonderfully characterful faces and the rest of the sculpts are refreshingly simple with just the right amount of detail to work with.  Mine will make up the ranks of a White Man Expedition force, which has a particularly British feel to it at present and I thought that the khaki uniform might help to further unify them.  

There is an option to either field Trained Askari, armed with rifles or regular Askari, with muskets.  Clearly there is a difference in value and range of weapon and I shall need to think about the balance of the column before I decide which variant I will use.  Not  sure that there is any historical accuracy in the red caps, but they stir fond memories of all those adventure films I remember from my youth.