From RichardM - A 'few' more Mahdists (560 points)

While I have done some Mahdists through the challenge, there was 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 in the challenge - 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.

I am hoping to get another post in before the challenge closes on Thursday - I have some more mounted sitting on the desk in various stages of painting - hopefully.

On the chance that that I may not get the extra post in on time, it is timely now to recognise the challenge itself.  I have had a lot of fun and sense of achievement in this Challenge. I did participate last year but never really got into a rhythm.  One thing that definitely helped me this year was the weekly catchups for us southerners (on the globe).  A really nice group of men discussing the usual rubbish (and sometimes something very useful) that wargamers tend to talk about when they get together.  Thanks gentlemen.  Especial thanks to Millsy for his role as Minion, his encouragement, as well as being organiser of the weekly call.  And of course to Curt for the whole challenge.  I also want to thank all who have commented on the posts along the way - I have really appreciated it.

Points are pretty easy for this one - 560 10mm foot figures = 560 points.

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BOOM goes the dynamite as Richard drops a final week points bomb! 

Nothing quite like a big horde in smaller scales to get the wargaming juices flowing - fabulous! And it probably took just as much time to base as it did to paint the little buggers. The little splashes of colour really life the whole forec though, and as a result it looks wonderfully dynamic. Great job!

- Paul