More Colonial Sudan - Madhist Armoured Emir and Cavalry

Death to the colonial oppressors! 

Another colonial Sudan entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This is a group of Madhist cavalry led by an armoured emir and his standard bearer. The figures are all from the Perry Brothers' amazing Colonial Sudan collection.

Armoured emir, with cloth barding

Another view of the barding and the chain mail

Cool armour - not sure it stops a round from a Martini-Henry...

The emir and the standard bearer are riding horses clad in a cloth barding that is quite unique - you can still see contemporary examples of it online from festivals/celebrations in various parts of Africa today.  I tried to copy the example from the Perry Brothers' product listing on their site (the paint job on that site is obviously much, much nicer).

Standard bearer riding high - banner allegedly says something about serving god, but it may say "up with Queen Victoria's skirt!" for all I know...

The banner is from The Virtual Armchair General.  It's not the nicest banner I have ever worked with, but it is still OK and the service from them is top notch.  I recommend them to you for any gaming needs you might have.

Baggara tribesmen

Rider with a "liberated" Remington rifle

The other riders are armed with a mix of spears and Remington breech-loader rifles, likely captured from one of the multiple Egyptian expeditions crushed by the Madhi's troops as his rebellion took hold of the Sudan.

I experimented with a new macro lense for a couple of these pictures 

I almost went cross-eyed painting the cloth barding on the emir and the standard bearer, but I was pleased with the result.  The Madhists will now have a nice, scary looking leadership focal point the next time we get the Sudan figs out on the table!