Sikh Wars gets a Rocket

 Whilst I have not seen images of Rockets for the Sikh Wars I have seen a couple of references to their use by the British, in particular Flashman refers to them at Ferozeshah and thats good enough for me.

Of course nobody does a Sikh Wars rocket and crew but the Perry's British Auxillery Legion rocket from the First Carlist War range is perfect.

I also took the opportunity to try something slightly different with the light box, suggestions were to leave the internal light off and light it with LED's externally only and use a blue back ground, so I have both blue and white here, have to say not a fan of the blue but the external light seems to have worked.

The only minor change to the figures is to give the crew white cap covers for their forage caps except the officer, the uniforms are literally identical to those in use in India so this works really well.

I was tempted to have a cloud of smoke and a rocket leaving the launcher but I was concerned I wouldnt make a good enough job, the figures are lovely so I decided not to detract from them.

I am still experimenting with the long dry grass, clumps like this at different legnths I think work a bit better than previous efforts, I like the effect but will continue to improve on this with practice I think.

The rules for rockets are super eratic and they rely on luck far more than anything else on table, both Black Powder and Sharp practice which I will use these with have fun rules for rockets but as you may have seen from previous battle reports they can also be very frustrating for the user.

I will try the blue background again with redcoated Sepoys to see if that works any better.

I took the opportunity to get a few snaps of this base of Sikh irregular cavalry too as I based it at the same time as the rocket.

Again the white background seems to work really well and sets off the colours, even the pale ones.

The blue again whilst working just doesnt seem as nice to me.

Both figures are Wargames Foundry from the Sikh Wars range, with the trumpeter riding a Polish rennaisaince horse for variety.

So continued progress and focus on the Sikh Wars project and I continue to surprise myself by being able to stick with it for so long without getting distratced by other pretty things that "need" painting like the Jacobites, Elizabethans and Russian Civil War. I will eventually get around to finishiing those Great Northern War Swedes too. Promise!

Stay safe, see you soon.