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...

54mm Western Movie Wargames - US Cavalry, 'John Ford Style'

Apologies for the lengthy gap between posts. Life has thrown a few real curveballs of late and continues to do so. Anyway, I'm bouncing back with a new project that will hopefully come to full fruition for the show circuit next year... Western movie war-games....

When I was a boy, I was fascinated by the old Hollywood US Cavalry vs Indians  westerns. I absolutely loved them, and I still do. Ok, the plotlines are often terribly thin and the treatment of the Native Americans in many of them is less than great, but there’s still something about them that keeps me watching.

Ever since I began wargaming, I’ve wanted to do something ‘Hollywood’ like that but have never found quite the right models. You see, for me, the Cavalry have to have yellow neckerchiefs, braces, gauntlets, carry sabres, etc, and no 28mm range has that. What DOES have that, though, is the old 1970s Airfix soft plastic 54mm range! I had a set as a kid and recently found a load on EBAY in various stages of disrepair. A quick interweb search also found me Paragon miniatures, whose Cavalry are ok, but have small heads, but who do produce some rather lovely Apaches, and that was it… We’re on our way.

So, here’s the first batch of Cavalry. The models I bought came in various states of repair. Some were ‘as new’, but others were smothered in enamel paint. They were popped in a plastic sealable freezer bag along with the contents of a tin of Mr Muscle oven cleaner and were left there to fester overnight. They were then brushed clean in warm water, which cleaned 99% of the gloop off very well. Next, I washed them in warm soapy water to remove any remaining oven cleaner (nasty stuff!) and oily mould residue, which can stubbornly remain even after 40 years, according to some folks in the know. Once dry, they were given a good coating of Testors Dullcote which provides an anchor for the paint. I then brushed on a thin white undercoat.

The models were then painted just the way I do 28mm: basecoat, dip and highlight, usually with basecoat colours. I guessed these needed an extra highlight to bring them out the way I wanted, so I used mid-tone basecoats and highlights thus:

Shirts: Foundry Union Blue, highlighted with Union Blue light and Sky blue

Trousers: Foundry Union trouser, highlighted with basecoat colour and Union trouser light

Braces and gauntlets: GW Karak Stone highlighted with basecoat colour and GW Screaming skull

Hats: GW Baneblade brown, highlighted with basecoat colour and Karak stone. Hat bands were done with Foundry Ochre shade highlighted with Ochre light

Neckerchief and trouser stripes: Foundry yellow, highlighted with basecoat colour and yellow light

Boots and belts: GW Abaddon black, highlighted with Foundry Charcoal black and Charcoal black light;

Buckles: GW shining gold (base and highlight)

Gun barrels and scabbards: GW Boltgun metal (yes, I still have some!) this was highlighted with GW Ironbreaker for sabre scabbards.

Sabre: GW Ironbreaker, highlighted with basecoat colour and GW Runefang Steel.

Bases: GW Steel Legion Drab – no dip, just drybrushed with Screaming skull.

I’m very pleased with them! 

So, here we have:

Captain Kirby Yorke (played by the master, Mr John Wayne, in Fort Apache and Rio Grande – although in the latter, he’d been promoted) with sergeant Travis Tyree (played by Ben Johnson in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon – he’d also been in Rio Grande but as a lowly trooper so must have been promoted before re-deployment to the plains!) Tyree is a conversion, as seen in the accompanying pic. His left arm comes from the obligatory (and often useless) prone pose that Airfix always loved so much. Capt. Yorke’s shoulder rank bars are Greenstuff.

Bugler and trooper standing firing. The bugler has the left arm from the mounted standard bearer/bugler model.

Two kneeling troopers.

 The whole group.

Am angling to use a modification of Osprey’s The Men Who Would Be Kings, as it’s suitably ‘Hollywood’ in scope and a chap on the Facebook fan group has done some work on something similar, which he has shared.

There’ll be more to come on this project over the next few months, with more dismounted chaps, horseholders and some mounted versions next on the agenda, as I haven’t purchased any Apaches yet.