Khalsa Ji! More Sikhs off the Workbench

 I have been able to finish a bunch of Sikhs and start the next units for these, some really colourful figures coming off the workbench this week.

I am particularly pleased with these two Sikh Officers, Both Foundry figures the right hand chap is riding a Riders of Rohan plastic Horse which fits quite well I feel for the Sikhs.

The colours have come out really well with these two, Reds and Oranges being useful colours for the Sikhs.

I have also finished some generic irregular Sikhs, the middle chap is Empress the outside ones both Foundry. Not sure how the one without beard is  still a Sikh, not that it matters too much. I saw a picture of an Indian without beard that a fellow Indian claimed was a Sikh but a Jat, I would be interested to do a bit more digging on that.

This next bunch are part of the second battalion of white turbaned Sikh regulars. You may remember I found a unit on Ebay which I had painted and sold to chum Chris many years ago, this is to be the second battalion of that regiment. 

I have also started the first uniformed Sikh irregulars, these would be the bodyguard unit of some rich Raja like Goolab Singh or a garrison for a more affluent fort or City like Multan. The colour scheme was a popular one for irregular cavalry so makes sense for an irregular foot unit. A mix of Empress and Foundry with one Old Glory figure in the middle.

Then we have the rest of the white turbaed regulars, all Foundry figures this is clearly a unit in firing line. I still love these, small by todays standards but still lovely sculpts.

Here is this weeks haul altogether which I am pretty pleased with both in quality and quantity.

And the white turnabned unit on bases ready for the basing department to do her thing. The last game we played before lockdown had only 3 battalions of Sikh regulars, once these are based I will have 8 organised in brigades of two regiments each of two battalions.

Thanks for taking the time to have a flick through my blog, next up probably will be more Sikh irregulars, especially those green coats and possibly the Bengal Europeans.

Until then stay safe. 

Review of The Elizabethan Irish

 Continueing with the theme of reviewing my Elizabethan Ireland project we move onto the "Mere Irish". Probably meant to be as a derogatory as it sounds "Mere Irish" was used to describe the native Irish forces, it is worth noting that the native Irish fought for either side and sometimes both.

Initially organised for Pikemans lament I may need to add figures if I am to do Sharply Buffed or another rule set. The Six horse are all Redoubt enterprises with head swaps. Nice figures with awful heads originally. The heads were salvaged from a range of different figures including Perry Irish and C

I am told Perry's are looking at Irish horse for the Wars of the Roses so I will either expand with those or add some Dark Age Irish possibly from Crusader or Footsore.

Taking the best armed Kern this is a unit of Bonnaught ready to rush any English units that get dis-ordered by skirmishers. Mainly Perrys, the chap at the front is I think Crusader with a helmet added.

The Shotte are again mainly Perry, this first unit has an Essex figure included and a head swap to add a "modern" helmet in the mix.

A bit more colour in this next unit with some minor conversions to produce more Shotte, as well as another Essex figure there are two Crusader Kern leaning on decapitated heads!

These four all started as Kern with Javelins and have had hand swaps to add firearms, I think they have come out OK. This gives me 2 units of skirmishers, a third might be nice at some point.

This next lot will need to be added in with other units but for mow they are pictured seperately, the Antideluvian miniatures based on the Mollo engraving. Lovely.

The Gallowglass are the heavy troops fro the Irish and again two units, a mix of Antideluvian and Perry which go well together despite the disparity in the historical era they are designed for. 

This second unit also from erry and     Antideluvian with a Foundry warrior added in with a helmet swap to bring him up to date.

The remaining Gallowglass form a little command unit but could also be the start of a third unit of 8 if we go with Sharply Buffed rather than Pikemans lament.

The Archers are also mainly Perry and Antideluvian with a Crusader figure second from right thrown in too.

The Irish prior to the 9 years war or Tyrones rebellion were still very anitquated for the most part in their weapons and tactics, they were however still very effective.

Javelin armed troops again the three manufacturers and a helmet added to the crusader figure ont he left.

And a last unit of Kern javelin men. They really are lovely figures.

Thats feels like a nice rounded force for the Irish with just a couple of figure to add here and there, I suppose I better get some game time organised and playtest some rules!

Thanks for bearign with me,till next time stay safe.

Sikh Wars Progress Regulars off The Workbench

 I have the bit between my teeth a little at the moment with the Sikh Wars project, seeing some real progress. I reckon I ma about two thirds of the way through this project with very little left to buy for it other than Gurkhas when Empress release them at some point. Of course I may still et carried away and buy more at some point.

Before we look at the units lets start small with this very nice Bhisti, think he came out well. Useful for the baggage train and Sharp Practice. From Foundry's Sikh Wars range.

I also managed a couple of Sikh Irregular cavalry, these two will finish off another unit once based.

Both Foundry figures I particularly like the yellow coated one, the shield on the back of the other chap is a plastic Perry Dahl.

Moving onto the infantry these guys are additions to the 43rd Bengal Native Infantry. As I am not a massive fan of the Studio Miniatures Sepoy figure I have used a number of other figures to add some variety. The standard bearer is Iron Duke and the native officer is a plastic Perry with a head swap. The second from the right also has a head swap improving him somewhat and the Officer, whilst a nicer Studio figure, has had his sabre swapped as the old one was more of bendy knife than a sword.

You can see here the Officer is actually very characterful with the sling nicely modelled and the new sword works much better than the old.

For the Sikhs I am painting the second battalion of a regiment I have had for a while, these studio miniatures figures with topknot are currently the only Sikhs available in this style so nice to have. Nice figures if not much in the way of variety.

I have enough for another two battalions in this style of turban, I may go with a green one next time.

Returning to the sepoys I now have the last of this particular regiment finished, Studio Miniatures with some other characters mixed in. Empress standard bearers and Foundry musicians plus some Perry Plastics.

These three in particular are Perry British Plastic Napoleonics with head swaps, the chap on the left has worked well, the other two slightly less so but they add some variety to the Studio marching chaps.

That finishes another battalion which will give me 3 EIC brigades of 3 battalions each with one Queens and two sepoy battalions leaving 2 more Brigades to complete.

I have also finished off the last of the Sikhs for this battalion. Interesting to see how much larger the new Studio bugler is than the original figure on his left, the standard bearer and drummer are both Foundy and whilst small dont look too bad in the overall unit.

Here is the finished lot taking me to 7 battalions of regular Sikhs, I will look to get another one done fairly shortly so I have two strong brigades each with two regiments of two battalions.

I managed to find 4 Sikh currassier on ebay amongst a lot that also had the kneeling camels I used for Zamberuks, as I only have a small unit of 6 of these currently the extra 4 are ideal to finish the unit off, 3 more to do then! 

And lastly finishing as I started with a Sikh Bhisti, different pallette to the first one, I quite like both of them really.

So thats it on these for now, as mentioned the next unit is likely to be a Sikh Regular battalion to match the white turbaned one I already have and then I may look at the Bengal European Light Infantry.

See you soon, stay safe!

Indian Baggage Train for Sikh Wars

 I was very keen from the start to have a baggage train for the Sikh Wars project, it was a fundamental and vulnerable part of any Indian army and featured heavily in some battles and campaigns in particular, the alomost battle of Budowhal being a good example. So I wanted to be able to represent it on table, its also really useful for Sharp Practice type games too. Our Facebook Group dedicated to Wargaming in India also has lots of inspiration so I didint want to let the side down!

With that in mind I have started collecting a few bits and in particular some of the wonderful Empress figures from the Iron Duke range Indian Mutiny. Over this last week I have managed to get a fair few of them painted so thought I might share with you.

I do already have a couple of camels, these two are from different manufatcurers, the left hand one being Elite I think from their Sudan range and the right hand being part of the Empress ammunition train.

The Empress camel comes with a walking drover whilst the rest of that pack are below with mounted cameleers.

These camels are pretty slim and gangly but the end result is lovely, the riders are great and I am really pleased with them.

The ellephant is absolutely lovely and I really enjoyed painting this.I did wonder about how to place the Mahout but a quick look at the Empress site gives an image of how it is intended to sit.

Another Empress model the Elephant is resin and the mahout is a seperate Metal figure, the baggage is also seperate but cast from resin like the nellie.

A really quick and effective paint job, very pleased with this, Elephants and Camels are a must for an India game I think.

Inspired by how the baggage is coming on I also built this Bullock cart, along with drover and a baggage mule.

The drover is the Empress figure that comes with the cart and is a really lovely characterful figure. Love his whiskers. The mule I got second and touched up, not sure of manufacturer.

The cart is cracking, its not glued in place yet, I will need to do the basing first, hence the cap to stop it failing over. The Bullocks are not quite the colour I was going for, probably needing to be a little whiter, still I think they will look nice once they are based.

This donkey with a load of fruit and veg is a Perry Carlist wars figure with an Empress drover encouraging it on, although he doesnt look very enthusiastic does he!

I have kept it on its own base as it will then be usable for all sorts of different geography including the one it was actually designed for in Spain.

I have enjoyed doing these a lot and considering doing some more, I think however I should get this lot based up and on table with the other bits and see how much they all take up before investing in any more. I may even base them myself!

Thats it for now so thanks for reading and until next time, Stay Safe!