Over the years Ann and I have enjoyed several trips to Morocco and have always been captivated by the sights, sounds and smells of the Souk’s or markets, often located in the beautiful old Medinas. For me two of the most distinguishing signs of a North African marketplace are the cones of spices and the stalls stacked high with fresh fruit, particularly oranges.

Being a lifelong modeller and miniatures gamer, I of course wanted to be able to represent these sights in my games, particularly Pulp Alley as I have set many scenarios in the Middle East or North Africa. When we started off as a miniatures & terrain manufacturer, many years ago, a set of Souk props were one of the earliest items that we released, moulded in resin and sculpted by Mark Fuller.

Over the last year or so I have been increasingly impressed by the range of Speed Paints, manufactured by Army Painter. If you’ve not come across them yet, I would highly recommend giving them a try. They are a clever formulation of pigment and medium which flows in such a way as to naturally shade and highlight with a single application. If you want to try with a single pot to see if they are for you, I’d recommend ‘Crusader Skin‘ which is the best flesh tone I’ve come across in 40 years of painting!

I undercoated the models with Halfords Matt White Autospray. It’s a lot cheaper than hobby sprays and gives a great finish. I like to apply and ink wash and white drybrush prior to painting. It’s partly because as I get older it helps me to ‘read’ the miniatures and see the detail and divisions between areas and partly to exaggerate highlights and shadows.

I spent about 90 minutes to paint the twelve items in the set. They were all painted with a single coat of speedpaint with no additional washes or dry-brushing. I am very pleased with the vibrant results, I think the oranges and banana’s have come out particularly well. When I painted my original set I had painted the clothes the produce is displayed on as a light brown, this time I went with shades of blue as this is a typical Berber colour and shows the produce of nicely.

Check out the ‘Souk Props’ for further details in the webstore.