Indian Mutiny Project - the Rebel Raja of Rhanipur's Citizen Matchlock Men

Another unit completed for the (fictional) Raja of Rhanipur's army for my Indian Mutiny project. This is a unit of citizen matchlock men. The figures are by Mutineer Miniatures. I kept up the colour scheme from the Baluchis I previously posted, so yellow, purple and pale blue are the theme colours. In reality, these men would have worn civilian native dress, but keeping the theme colours on them keeps the force looking cohesive on the table top as well as adding that splash of Hollywood technicolour that I'm so fond of.

Next up, the first company of HM 95th foot...

TMWWBK Indian Mutiny - The Raja Of Rhanipur's Mercenary Baluchi Matchlock Men

Here is the first unit for the Indian Mutiny rebel forces. These are Mercenary Baluchi tribesmen serving in the Raja of Rhanipur's private army in his Baluchi Battalion. They are Foundry models from the Darkest Africa range. They'll be Irregular Infantry, with antiquated musket (matchlocks) and poor shots (representing low rate of fire) but I'll upgrade their fighting stat to 5+ due to the fact that the Baluchis were fierce raiders and these models have huge and hulking great tulwars and little bucklers. They'll not be a lot of use against British/Company regulars in open battle, but they'll be tougher to shift if holding a prepared position in any scenario where the British/Company are attacking.

I wanted the three units of the Raja's personal army to be quite brightly uniformed to contrast with the mass of sepoy rebels who'll mostly be clad in off-white, so I chose yellow, purple and pale blue as they are pleasing enough together. However, I had no idea how bloody awful Foundry Bright Yellow is as a colour. It went on ok as a base coat over the white undercoat, but didn't take the dip wash well and was a nightmare to highlight due to low pigment strength. Still, after a huge battle, I managed to get them to look half-decent, so they'll do. They look ok at table-top distance and the bright colours will look good on a big 6x6 table if and when we take this project to a wargame show.

Next up: Rhanipur Citizen Matchlockmen 

Change of Focus - TMWWBK Indian Mutiny Project Finally Launched!

Well, I'm stuck in for a week all on my own-some with a temperature and a bit of a cough (joy!) and as it's all pretty mild thus far, I've been busy painting. I needed a break from chopping up Plastics for Elves and I've been reading a book on the Indian Mutiny so I dragged my sorry carcass up the loft and got out the Indian Mutiny figures I bought 5 years ago and made a start.
As always with TMWWBK, I have a factual basis for my games but a fictional setting, so I'm obviously in the 1857 Mutiny, but in the fictional campaign to subdue the rebel Raja of Rhanipur (back-story to come later).
The British East India Company force is build around two companies of the 53rd Foot simply because I wanted some troops in red and the picture in the old Osprey book (below) really drew me in.

The trickiest bit was that this regiment have red facings on their scarlet tunics so finding the right reds was paramount. Luckily, Foundry Scarlet is perfect for the facings and their Light Red is perfect for the tunics. The lighting has washed out the colour a bit on the pics below but I can assure you the choices are as bang on as you can get. 

The models are Mutineer miniatures. Lovely sculpts. The only snag is that the sculptor (Mike Owen?), while brilliant at these advancing poses, is incapable of doing decent firing poses. So the next unit, which is a firing line, aren't quite as good on the pose front, but they'll paint up well enough. The rest of my British EIC force is Iron Duke miniatures which are universally superb, if very slightly smaller than the Mutineer figures. 

Anyway, here is the first company of the 53rd Foot. Painting is my usual method that you all know well enough by now. The Army Painter Strong Tone dip is perfect for the Mutiny as it gives everything a slightly 'dirty' feel with these reds and off-whites.

Next up, the Raja of Rhanipur's Baluchi Mercenary Battalion...

Bitten by the Sharp Practice 2 Bug...

So, last Monday, Rich Clarke of Too Fat Lardies came to the Peterborough club to do us a demo of the soon-to-be-released Black Powder skirmish game, Sharp Practice 2.

I was intending to play, but as there were ten interested players, I opted to sit and watch.

Now, as you probably know, I have never had any interest whatsoever in traditional European warfare in the black powder era, especially not Napoleonics. However, I do have more than a passing interest in the French Indian War, the American War of Independence, the American Civil War and especially the Indian Mutiny, all of which are ideal for these rules.

Anyway, Rich brought along an AWI scenario and what a cracker it was!! The rules just worked perfectly, with all the troops doing exactly what they should and the actual mechanisms are just brilliant! I came away totally inspired and immediately pre-ordered the rules.

Of course, the next question was which period to go for. The great thing about these rules is that 40-50 men per force will give you a great game, so no need to face endless hours painting hundreds of models. This makes it most definitely do-able, so I dug out the Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny rebel Sepoys I bought a couple of years ago and then went straight to both their website and to Empress Miniatures (for the fabulous Iron Duke Mutiny range) and blew over £250 buying enough troops for a force of Brits and a force of rebels. Yup, Indian Mutiny it is (well...first...I suspect FIW and AWI may follow long term!)

Now, a couple of days later, the models I already had from my previous purchase are undercoated and ready for paint!! Of course, the great thing is, they'll also be great for the upcoming Osprey rules 'The Men Who Would Be Kings' about which I have waxed lyrical on here many times.

So, hopefully, in not too many weeks, I'll have some to show you. I also have a few extra NW Frontier minis to paint up for Partizan and a HUGE war mammoth to do for the start of the club Kings of War campaign, but I hope to get them done alongside some Sepoys. Keep an eye on the blog for updates...this is one project I may even get as far as finishing!!!!

New Project for 2015/16

I am very pleased to be able to announce that I have decided on a brand new project for 2015/16. By that, I mean something to get my teeth into that I might actually finish and that I will actually game (as opposed to all the nice things that I have models for 'cos I like them, but currently  have little chance of gaming, e.g Wars of the Roses, French Indian War).

This will be an Indian Mutiny project for The Men Who Would Be Kings. The aim is to have two sizeable forces completed by the time the rules are officially released in August 2016.

The forces will comprise a mixture of units from Mutineer Miniatures and the upcoming range from Iron Duke Miniatures as sold by Empress Miniatures. This means that I will be able to use models from two of my favourite sculptors, Paul Hicks (whose marvellous Empress British Colonial infantry are the 'Suffolk Regt' in my NW Frontier Games) and Mike Owen.

Using the two ranges means I will get the best of both worlds, as Mike Owen is a master of characterful 'character' models and the 'at the ready' and 'march attack' type poses (although IMHO, his firing poses are never quite right) and Paul seems to just have a fabulous eye for great poses - his 'firing pose' figures are superb (check out my 'Suffolks' for proof of that) and he also produces some great models in other poses too. Check out the (currently small) gallery on the Iron Duke website here for initial releases in the range. Also, check out the workbench here...those Sikhs!!! Wow!!

The 'backstory' for my forces is a British Field Force attempting to overthrow the Rani of Rhanjipur (a fictional personage and locality not so loosely based on the real Rani of Jhansi in the Mutiny...look her up) in late 1857/early 1858. This means that all my British troops can be armed with the Enfield Rifle and, as the campaign starts in the 'cold season', I can have a wide range of uniform colours for the Brits, including at least one red coated unit (whereas a summer campaign would see them all in white/dyed various early khaki shades). The story is that rebel fugitives from Delhi have persuaded the (hitherto undecided) garrison regiments in Rhanjipur to rebel. The rebellious Sepoys look to the Rhani for leadership, as they know that she harbours a deep dislike of the British as she has been ill-treated by them since the demise of her husband and, being a woman of remarkable temper and blessed with the personality of command, she is a natural choice to lead...

I have been interested in this period since I was a teenager but have never been able to find a reason to game it. TMWWBK is giving me an excellent excuse to finally put together the forces and have a bash and these new ranges are 'the dog's flopsy bits!!!' (err...that means they area a 'bit good' for those of you to whom English is not a first language or to whom such imagery is unfamiliar!!)

The first order has just gone to Mutineer Miniatures for a bunch of rebellious Sepoys, The Rani and friends and a few of her own private army of matchlock men...

Exciting times!! I will also continue to work on the later Colonials as I still need to get more stuff on the table for that. British artillery and more Pathan Swordsmen will hopefully be complete early next week if not before...