Fuzzy Wuzzies sir, faahsands of 'em

Alright, not quite thousands. But as the summer rumbles on, the Sudan project continues bearing fruit. Another ten Mahdists ready to throw out the 'Turks' that are interfering in their tribal lands again. 

A mixed group this time, though mostly the most feared of warriors, the Hadendowa of the Beja tribe. To borrow from Mr Kipling (not a cake in sight though):

   So 'ere's ~to~ you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
   You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;

As well as five plastics, the five on the left are metals from pack SA10 and will serve as a small unit of Beja marksmen.



I've a game arranged with Samulus on Saturday so it is great to have these done to make a near round fifty Mahdists. I'm not quite ready really but about 80% of the minis used will be full painted amd the rest base coloured, which is very pleasing considering I've done the whole project myself in around 12 months.

I also knocked out two Egyptian officers in just two nights, so they will be able to lead from the front on Saturday. I think the poses are fantastic, the Perrys do such great command packs. I made the mistake of not shaking the Windsor and Newton Galeria varnish before applying so they came out really shiny. But I think two coats of Dullcote had saved them.

Beja, Beja everywhere

A quick update today, with a small batch of Beja finished over the last week. A bigger batch would have been more efficient, but these were all ready to go a week ago. This puts the 'Mahdist count' at 39 - I'll take a group shot at some point.

I've another larger group that I prepped at the same time and are just ready to be started. Once they're finished, I should have broken the back of the initial Mahdist forces, which will be a relief!

Update:

I didn't think these merited a post of their own, but It feels worth marking the end of my recent rebasing. These Beja camelry are now on 'pill' bases rather than the square ones before (cut with a saw, no less).

I did quite a lot of damage as I was rebasing them as I took the opportunity to pin them onto the camels (heaven knows why I didn't do that in the first place!). So a lot of tidying was required and I also tweaked a few of the colours to make them match my more recent Mahdists.

Perhaps there is something in the air at the moment as Mr Awdry has also been rebasing old work. 

Sudan: Mahdist reinforcements

My last post showed the British and Egyptian forces so far. While I already had a number of Ansar finished during Curt's painting challenge, I did add a few to supplement those. First up, I made up some more of the Perry plastics, this time as Beja tribesmen or 'fuzzy-wuzzies' (the nickname derived from the quite excellent hair they sport...). These will tend to be represent more elite warriors in game. These were painted in the same way as before, which is really quick to do and effective to get very dark African skin tones. 

I couldn't resist these camel-riders either. Great miniatures, they will be mobile and pack quite a punch. The above are loosely painted as dismounted versions of each. Perry Miniatures once more. 

A few of you commented you were looking forward to the project developing. Well, that's it so far, this was a little skirmish side-project and was never meant to take over. I'm quite pleased I painted everything to be honest!  I have some terrain I may do more work on and write up and AARs to post. But this is the most of it for now!

 Though, as I am a bit 'ooh, shiney', I would quite like a few more packs, which I may pick up here and there...