15mm Essex Colonial: Dervish Rebasing Project TSATF

      I was introduced to Sudan gaming many years ago through dear friend Stuart McDonald (d.1998). The interest was strengthened through TSATF games that he ran but at the time, there wasn't available to me a Zulu or a March or Die movie to give it that inspirational oomph. Since he had most of what we needed to play I never felt compelled to mirror his output in any way. Nonetheless I was asked to provide more Dervish to help provide bulk to fight his British. My responsibility was simply to add reinforcements while he maintained the buildings, terrain, artillery, cavalry and all that. I bought a couple units of British anyway as counterpoint but it was the Dervish we needed more urgently.
  
     I painted (even eyes for crissakes!) and based them up individually in the traditional Sword and the Flame manner. But moving this many figures around is a pain and I have not found a way to make movement trays look esthetically appealing. I recently re-based Arabs for my fully fledged FFL games here and really liked the results and found that basing Native infantry in this manner doesn't affect the game appreciably at all. It was inevitable I'd cast an eye on these Dervish and redo them as well. Another benefit, to re-base them on steel washers, is that they will be better secured in my magnet lined trays rather than ranked up in an old nuts & bolts organizer drawer. So there is a preservation angle to all this too. Anyway, here's the results:

L to R, 1 leader, 2x4 men, 2x3 men, 2x2 men and an individual spearman to make change = 20 figs.

These are the most arid looking bases I've ever done but they came out really well; the recipe is a perfect harmonious triad -all from FolkArt: 1. Mushroom, 2. Country Twill (heavy dry brush) 3. Final dry brush highlight: Linen. I went back and edged the sides with Mushroom to finish. Tufts are Highland Tufts from Army Painter.

The Ansar unit organization didn't shake out so neatly and the astute observer will see there's only 18 men in each of the three units at rear. There's million ways to explain that on the tabletop of course. All rifles were based 2 per stand with a single for change. This was done in the odd event I needed Dervish rifles on walls or on buildings in a defensive role.

For the Fuzzys I had enough to make a dedicated Rifle Unit. They were based: 1 leader, 2 individual rifleman to make change and 10x2 men =23.

As for the British, I only have one and a half units painted up. They are still on wooden bases and the steel base replacements are on order. Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath.

Thanks for looking. Questions? Comments? Feel free to post and/or Follow ...!