Perry Miniatures’ Mahdist Ansar

There are plenty of reviews of Perry Miniatures’ Mahdist Ansar 28mm plastic figures on the web, but I thought to include a brief overview for completeness.

Nicely packaged and presented, the box contains six sprues: two identical command sprues; three identical ‘rank and file’ sprues; one sprue of bases; and a four page booklet. The informative text, written by Mike Snook, includes guides to tribal dress, and six flags.

The figures are cleanly moulded, nicely proportioned, and a good match for the twins’ metal range; if anything the plastic figures are ever so slightly bulkier, and a little taller. This assessment is based on the metal figures I have bought so far, limited to Beja rifle armed and camel mounted figures. There is likely to be more on this in a later post, I feel.

They assemble reasonably quickly, but reward careful matching of arms to torsos, and a little filler as required.

A pretty comprehensive four page booklet, written by Mike Snook, provides a brief history of the different tribes drawn to the Mahdi’s cause, examples of their dress …

… an overview of the 1881–1885 conflict, and even a small set of finely reproduced flags.

The command sprue features two figures, two ‘fuzzy wuzzy’ style heads, one head with a skull cap, one head in a turban, a sword, a Remington rifle, a drum, and a flag staff. There are two of these sprues in the box.

The ‘rank and file’ sprue features six poses, which are duplicated, twelve in all, with two Remington rifles, two sticks, two swords, eight spears, 12 shields …

… 12 Beja ‘fuzzy wuzzy’ style heads, five heads with scull caps (two styles), four shaven heads, one head with short hair, one head in a turban. There are three of these sprues in the box.

There is a lot of subtle detail in the mouldings …

… testament to the skill of the sculptor, the design of the sprues, and the quality of the tooling.