A few more Mahdists

Work has continued with the remaining foot elements for the the 2nd El Teb order of battle, completing extra rifle and spear armed units, rifle skirmishers and a Krupp gun set with captured crew. These are all Perry figures a mix of metal and plastic.

 

And now some group shots

The rise of the Ansar & Paint table Saturday

Well after all the work, this last "little" project is now finished. All together some 236 figures completed from start to finish. This gets the order of battle for the Mahdist forces for the battle of El Teb to about 80% completed. So i am going to push on finish them off. That will let me pick off the Colonial forces through the rest of the year. 

I worked on the whole lot , just patiently working my way through them. There were pretty simple to do. I had made a decision this was about "painting the unit" not the individuals , so there is no hyper detailing.  The mass does the real effect here I think  , and they look just I had envisaged at the start, so pleased with the end result.

They were airbrushed in a mix of two shades of brown, the hair and weapon black base completed. Then the whole figure is given a dark black/brown wash, cloth is painted in range of 5 different shades in a random combination. The cloth area is then given a lighter wash. The flesh tops are then highlighted in a thin dark earth colour. Spears and shield highlight wood was then done. Its finished off with good coat of a gloss varnish - which is just a personal thing as I think it helps a bit to keep these figures together over the year and it fills out joint problems etc. A matt varnish over and then do the metals and base up.

The flags are by The Virtual Armchair General, a simple print off and  stick on some piano wire. Lots of choice on the flag sets as well.

and backed up by the Beja of the existing collection.

So what is on the table now then?

The remaining Mahdist foot units, a Krupp gun, the mounted commnanders and a start on cleaning up the Baggara cavalry units, and few camel - just for Clint. There are few bits of Old West stuff as well. This lot should help sustain the position in the challenge points tally.

Paint Table Saturday..

Well this little lot will be finished tomorrow. So it will be an empty paint table on Sunday evening with a bit of luck.

A total of some 256 Mahdists in the front 8 ranks.. The back 4 are part of the existing collection. I could not resist putting them all together.

This is about 80% of the order of battle for my Mahdist force for El Teb. Just a couple of foot units with rifles to add, a gun , and a cavalry unit.

Worth a point or several in the paint challenge.. I shall split them up to submit once finished to get some better photographs.

The Hero Round Submission - "Blondie"

This one could just as easily have been a villain entry. Another 54 mm figure by Andrea Miniatures and a real joy to paint , crisp casting and detail and yet another poncho to paint!

Inspired by the classic spaghetti western The Good , The Band and the Ugly.

I fancy doing a scenario based around the graveyard scene at the end of the film. We will see how that goes over this year.

Vapnartak 2014... A grand day out.

A good trip to York today, I went a couple of years ago and had to battle through snow, very different this year, parked up ok and to the entrance just after 10am , where there was a queue. It did seem pretty busy. But there seemed to me a lot of the "same" and less diversity.

I get through the doors to be greeted with this sight. Sorry folks..







Our very own Loki... Unchained from his painting garret.

Obviously painting that ruddy spider and bucket loads of Nubians is really talking its toll...he woke up when I told him I need more Out Of Ammo markers for our next Blog Con meet up , as based on the standard of shooting by the lads last time I did not have enough. Seriously though Andrew, great to meet up again.

Alright , so what else did I get. Sarissa Precision were there in person, so I was able to look at all their buildings in the flesh. I sourced extra bits to make Chinatown. Also some more terrain bits and varnish etc.





There were a number of eye candy games , I do wish a little more effort was made on communications about them. The Wake Island 192? Was my favourite












































I met up with a number of old friends for a chat and to plan some meet ups later in the year.

All in all a good day

Paint table Saturday

Managed some more work on the Mahdists. Left with a couple of colours to finish on them, and some shade and highlight. I have been doing the standard bearers today. I have used flags from The Virtual Armchair General.




Will be ready to start basing these lads sometime next week.