The Baggage Train Completed

 I decided to crack on with basing up the Baggage and I am quite impressed with how it looks all together. Some lovely peices from a number of manufacturers but mainly Empress. I doubt I will add too much more to these.

Indian baggage trains were typically huge and also quite vulnerable, great for small scale scenarios or objectives in larger battles. The British had a lot of trouble in the Second Sikh War in particular with the Sikhs driving off their camels when they were taken out to graze.

One of my inspirations for this was Budowhal. The day before Harry Smiths victory at Aliwal he was caught tired and strung out near the Village of Budowhal , the Sikhs did not press, their leader was a little timid, and Sir Harry extricated his Division but at the loss of a company of infantry and all of his baggage, I have always wondered how he might of fared if he chose to try and rescue the baggage. A nice game at a managable size.

I think this will add lots of character to our games but also serve as an objective in some cases, particularly Sharp Practice games or similar..

Empress ammunition camels with a pretty tired looking Foundry bearer walking alongside.

The elephant limber is Foundry from the Inidan mutiny range and was donated by chum Mark.

I am really pleased with this Empress Bullock cart, the Bullocks could perhaps be whiter but I think they lok OK. 

I dont think they used a lot of donkeys and mules in India but I had these handy so a shame not include them. 

The drovers, Bhistis and bearers. A mix of Empress and Foundry. A suitably disreputable bunch.

The Camels look particularly nice en-masse like this, mainly Empress with a couple of others chucked in. I think thats probably enough camels. Empress do another 4 baggage camels but I think I have enough for now.

So thats the baggage where I want it pretty much, see you next time, stay safe!

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!