Death in the Dark Continent Darkest Africa Project Revival

I've had a rethink about my 28mm projects for 2024 and have decided to rebase my Darkest Africa tribal figures for Death in the Dark Continent. I've had a long term interest in Darkest Africa, going way back to my first blog post in 2009. In the intervening fifteen years (!) I've based up a whole generic villager Nkonde army, initially for In the Heart of Africa, the rules which originally sparked my enthusiasm for the genre. I briefly fiddled about with the figures for Congo but that seemed a bit too silly for my taste, so I've now moved on to Death in the Dark Continent, another Chris Peers rule set with less of a skirmish focus but in other respects very much akin to In the Heart of Africa.   

The plan now is to rebase the figures I have laboriously super glued to 2p coins, gluing them instead on to 30mm x 60mm bases. I have enough figures prepared for a decent sized generic villager army, with plenty more in the lead pile to expand the number of units and also build at least one opposing force, perhaps an expedition or naval landing party. I'm in a bit of a quandary, however, as I'm not decided if this will be an East African or Central African army, with the key difference being in the type of shields and head gear on display. 

One alternative option would have been to use the figures for a specific East African army but the Foundry figures are not really suitable for this, really being more 'jungle cannibal' in style and design. In fact, that would be another possibility, with the downside that I have a limited number of shields with which to kit them out. A bit more thought is needed to work out what to do, but at least I have a head start when it comes to cleaning up, assembling and undercoating the figures, most of which will end up as spear or bow armed skirmishers, with some musketeers to add a bit of oomph.

I'm looking forward to getting on with this, as soon as I can clear the decks.