Thirty Mahdists

Another project finished.  The figures have been in my possession since December 2014 when I received them as part of the post NWS Kris Kringle shuffle.

I started work on them in December last year, The Mahdists are Coming, so it has taken me just under three months to complete them.

Flags came from http://www.warflag.com/flags/colonial/dervish.shtml

 A bit of over exposure.

Now corrected, but I liked the previous bright glare of the hot Sudan sun, 

so kept that photo in the mix.

 When I say complete...  Well, this base...

 Is different to this one.  In the previous base the figures are resting on an extra washer that gives then just that bit of extra height so their base sits better with the movement tray.

 For what is a simple uniform, the flesh tones took me the most time, then I put in some double work on the white tunics.  But the coloured patches were easy.  

It helped that I was working on other projects while doing these.

The flags, as noted, were images sourced from the Internet and printed, folded, crushed and glued.

Also, note on this figure that I have him sitting on a second washer which would be the next task if I decide to raise them all so they sit flusher with the sabot.

 It took me a few brain cycles to finally settle on how I was going to base the figures.  I am very happy with what I came up with as it was relatively easy to do, versatile and provides other opportunities. 

I had these 25mm slotted magnetic bases I was going to use and I figured doing a sabot that would then be affixed to a metal base was the way to go.  This failed as the base size for Sands of the Sudan would have only accommodated four figures (as it is the recommended basing is 7 to 10), but worse my 25mm bit meant it was all too tight to reliable drill out four holes (as can be seen above).  Plus the 25mm bases would have been a snug fit.  I then switched to 20mm plastic bases and a 20mm bit but that would also have been a tight fit as well and still left me with the magnetisation to do.  But then I found the miracle ingredient:

These washers were perfect, coming in at 18mm made for a decent fit.  I glued the drilled out MDF base to a backing of magnetic paper (actually one of those fridge magnets that are now prevalent in mailbox drop advertising material).  I painted the MDF first which made life easy.

Terrain

 And here we have the thirty Mahdists swarming over my latest bits of desert terrain.

 I wanted ridges and cliffs.

 But more importantly I just need a bit more to supplement my previous production.