Sudan - A lot more Mahdists

While I have done some Mahdists, there is nowhere near enough for a game - or indeed had I really made a serious dent in the nearly 2,000 that I have in the box.

So you're going to get a 'shed' (or perhaps small desert oasis) load of them in today's post. 

While there are quite a few, I continue to find the painting really enjoyable and relaxing.  What is not enjoyable or relaxing - is the basing of that many figures / bases.  I have been looking at 2/3rds of these for three days and resisting all urges to finish them off having glued them down.  Having the distraction of the others to complete painting was an easy out for me to avoid the basing effort.  I suspect many of us are the same when it comes to basing.

So this week we have 56 bases with 10 figures to a base of Mahdist troops.  These are the last of these types that I bought and with the others already painted (220 figures) gives me 780 of these fellas [I was pretty sure I ordered for 800 so maybe I have another pack hiding somewhere :) ]   I still have an equivalent number of the Mahdist forces wearing the jibbah that I need to paint.

With no way of differentiating between the units, I have based them around coloured flags.  So starting with what I understand are the Hadendowah or fuzzy-wuzzys, we have the white flags and the dark green flags.

Then I have the Nile River Arabs with their red and blue flags 

And one together with the other Hadendowah - in the back row - that I had painted earlier - that is all 780 of them.

All the Mahdists that are left are the white robed Beja warriors with the colour patches.  But there are a lot still to do.

Sudan - More Egyptian Infantry and Mahdist camels and cavalry

I’ve done the remaining two battalions of Egyptian Infantry that I bought in my initial order from Pendraken - the decision to get more will be put off until later this year.   I’ve also turned back to the Mahdists with the debut of their camels and more light cavalry.

Firstly the Egyptians and not much more to say about them.

Then we have 45 Mahdist camels and riders.  I have done 15 of these with the colour patched jibbah and the rest in plain clothing.  

And finally 60 more light cavalry. Again, I have done 30 of these in patched coloured jibbahs and the rest in plain clothing.  

Sudan - Unusual Soldiers of the Queen

The Sudan adventure continues with a number of the more unusual British and Empire units.

Firstly we have a few batteries of Gatling guns with their Naval crews.

Keeping with the naval theme, I have then done the Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) battalion with their grey serge uniforms and white helmets and webbing.

And for even more naval action there is a battalion from the Naval Brigade in their sailor uniforms with the straw boater.  I bought these as a battalion when ordering from Pendraken, but from my reading so far it appears as though they were actually used to man the Gatling and Maxim guns and were not fielded as a formed battalion.  In any case, they look good, are different and are always seen in 28mm Sudan armies as a formed unit - so I am having them.

Next up is a unit of dismounted Camel Regiment troops to go with the mounted camels (a few who are accompanying them for flavour - but painted earlier) that I put up as one of my early entries.  These are a smaller unit to match the number of figures in the mounted regiment.

Lastly we have a regiment of Indian Lancers.  Both the 9th and 13th Bengal Lancers served in the Sudan campaign.  However, as I could not find much description of their field uniform I have loosely followed a picture in Mike Snook's Go Strong Into the Desert.  If anyone is interested in the 1885 campaign this is a wonderful book.

Sudan - start of the Egyptians and British limbers

I’ve moved onto the Egyptians and wanted to get one unit of each arm painted so I could get happy with the paint recipes for future units.  

In the original purchase from Pendraken, I bought sufficient Egyptian infantry to make three battalions.  Subsequently I have looked at the OOB for the iconic Battle of Omdurman and have seen there are 16 Egyptian and Sudanese battalions on the field.  It is a decision for later whether I acquire the figures to refight that battle - which I think would look pretty spectacular.  However, that is a further 26 packs from Pendraken and at somewhere near GBP 7 per pack you can see that even 10mm can get pretty expensive.  I think I need to do some more research to see whether anywhere near that many battalions were used in other battles.

So first is the Egyptian 2nd Infantry Battalion.  

Then we have the first two of five batteries needed (for Omdurman) of Egyptian artillery.

And finally the first regiment of Egyptian cavalry.  I like the combination of the red fez and blue pants.

Lastly, for no other reason that they were the first bag I pulled out of the figure box, I have the first limber teams for the British Artillery batteries. 

Sudan - A few more mounted Mahdists and the big man himself

I thought I would take the opportunity to do a base for the big man himself - so here is my interpretation of the Mahdi.

While still 10mm Pendraken figures, this time the three mounted figures are from their Ottoman range. The Mahdi and the camel kettle drummer (I have no idea if they used kettle drums :) ) looked fine straight from the bag. But if you look close enough you may notice the Mahdi's personal flag holder has an Ottoman Bork on his head. The two foot figures are from the Sudan range and have appeared in many of my Mahdist foot units.

For the flags, I have tried to do an interpretation (because of size) of images in an article in The Mahdist Wars Source Book by The Virtual Armchair General. The green flag on the mounted figure is described as the Mahdi's personal flag which was captured in 1899 at Um Diwaykarat where the Khalifa was killed. The flag being held by the foot figure is based on one that is on display at the Khalifa's house in Omdurman and was captured in the Battle of Omdurman (again from the Source book).

I have finished off the Mahdist light cavalry.  

Then I have more Mahdist camels.  Previous camels were done in the white jibbah with their coloured patches and this time I used more earthy tones similar to those I used on the Hadendowah and Nile River Arabs.

Sudan - artillery and Mahdist cavalry

This time I have artillery for both sides and some Mahdist cavalry.

The British artillery is a 9lb RML battery from the Pendraken Zulu Wars range.

While the Mahdist artillery battery is using captured Krupp guns.

Finally there are two types of Mahdist cavalry - armoured and light cavalry. From reading I understand there is no evidence that they wore their armour into battle - but Pendraken make them, they are different and I hadn’t read anything about them when I made the purchase a few years ago.