Basing the Ila
Below. Before I stuck anything to anything, I placed the models on the bases just to see how they fitted, then moved the around to get an arrangement I was happy with.
I placed the models on the bases just to see how they fitted, then moved the around to get an arrangement I was happy with. The Ila move stealthily through their home terrain
their patterns like the Zulus or Masai, so instead one base in  each unit includes a different animal model”. So animals it had  to be as well!  I had already painted the animals for this purpose, I chose to  paint some mandrills, converting the North Star baboons for the  purpose. Originally I was going to use baboons, but I thought  mandrills looked more startling, and although the Ila and  mandrill geographical ranges don’t overlap, I took some artistic  licence and thought that the mandrills range might have a  bigger range in the past. I am always willing to sacrifice some  historical accuracy for colour!  But before I stuck anything to anything, I placed the models on  the bases just to see how they fitted, then moved the around to  get an arrangement I was happy with. This also allowed me to  see how much extra stuff I would need to fill the rest of the  base, quite a bit as it happens!
Following Chris’s guidance I based up these Ila to go with his  Death in the Dark Continent” rules. I wanted them to be quite  radical diorama type bases with suitable vegetation as Chris  suggests, and I have included some animals too! As  skirmishers they only need to one or two models per base  anyway, but I didn’t go quite as far as Chris said by have no  models on the bases at all! Design To start with I had to decide what the Ila’s bases would be  like. In his article on the Ila Chris says “The most distinctive  feature of Ila warriors was the extraordinary hair cone or  “isusu”, which was allegedly designed to allow the members  of hunting or war parties to see each other over the tall grass  of the Kafue floodplain.” So tall grass it had to be!   Also in his basing article he says “The men in my Ila army, for  instance, have no shields and so cannot be distinguished by  
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