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!