Soldiers of the Queen-Empress Part 5

The Pathans


I suppose my Pathan tribesmen aren't really soldiers of the Raj, but it wold be silly to change the title of the series with the 5th installment. Half of them have probably served in the Guides anyway.


I didn't really give the defenders of the Faithful much thought though. I started with about 100 second hand figures; a mix of Old Glory Pathans with rifles and OG Pathan Command and some Foundry Darkest Africa Zanzibaris. I've since added about 20 Bicorne kneeling and prone tribesmen armed with jezzails.

For cavalry I have a bag of 10 Old Glory mounted tribesmen. Another 10 Bicorne mounted tribesmen armed with lances and rifles have made it to the undercoating stage.

For the ghazis, the wild sword waving religious fanatics who gave the British so much worry, I have co-opted about a dozen Old Glory sword armed infantry from my Medieval Saracen army. I also have another dozen or so Bicorne ghazis I haven't painted yet.


To lead them I got the Essex Khitan Lio warlord with the falcon. But as I was base coating him I realized He's got no beard! No self-respecting Pathan khan is going beardless! Plus he was wearing a fur trimmed cap instead of a turban. Green stuff to the rescue and I added a beard and a turban to him.


To inspire the warriors I have co-opted this Gripping Beast sword-waving, fire-breathing imam from my Medieval Saracen army. He's definitely preaching a jihad.

The Pathans and British both built sangars in defensive positions. These are roughly semi-circular low walls built of loose rock. I got the idea to make them from "John the OFM" on The Miniatures Page. The base is an obsolete computer CD cut in half. Around the curved edge I lay a bead of Gorrilla Glue (tm) and cover with damp fish tank gravel (bought in the black colour). Gorrilla Glue is interesting stuff. It reacts with water and expands as it sets. The more water the more expansion. Give it 24 hours and then shake off the loose gravel. Repeat to make another layer. Repeat as many times as you want until you get the height desired. I then spread a thin layer of epoxy on the rest of the CD and cover in sand. Some quick painting and drybrushing and there you have it. I use the same technique to make my WW2 shell craters and rubble.
The Pathans didn't generally have artillery but I allow Usman Khan to have two. They're obviously old captured 7 pounder mountain guns (from Bicorne). Crewing them are some Bicorne Mahdist artillery crew. The sponge is ridiculously big, but what can you do? When defending something like a fort they might get to use a Napoleonic era 12 or 24 pounder.

Not to be outdone, the Pathans have their own rear-echelon elements. A flock of sheep and shepherd (from Bicorne):

And a bazaar. The civilians and stalls are all Bicorne. The Bicorne stalls have nice tops full of goods but the bottoms are these awkward boxes that would be a pain to assemble. So I made the wooden stall frame works out of match sticks and used tea-dyed cotton for the awnings and then inserted the Bicorne cast table tops between the legs of the frame work. Somewhere, I think on the Red Shadow wargames website I saw a rug merchant that used printed out and rolled up rugs. I've dutifully printed off the sheet of rug graphics and have some interesting beads to make more pots, but I still have to assemble the stalls.


I like the idea of using markers in my games, but they do take money and effort. I had an extra Bicorne moutain gun with badly cast wheels so I made a wrecked gun marker. Beside it is one of several Bicorne ammo boxes for indicating 'low ammo' status.

I also got a bunch of casualties from Bicorne and added some extra rifles from RAFM. I'm debating either rebasing them on round bases with numbers from 1 to 8 or just adding numbers around the current bases to indicate the number of hits on a unit.

I've got casualty figures for the British and Indian troops too, but I haven't painted them up yet. I probably should move that to the top of the 'to-do' list, then I can stop using the rubber casualty caps for my Colonial games.

New Frontiers

This has perhaps been my most versatile army. Units of course show up in Pulp adventure games set in the subcontinent and sometimes they’ve been used for World War One in Palestine scenarios. In a stranger twist, they once traded in their screw guns for lasguns and joined into a play-by-email Warhammer 40K campaign as an Imperial Guard force. Writing the back ground fluff was a lot of fun. I was reading P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories, so the character of my commanding officer; Brigadier General Pelham Gronville Wooster V.C., with his chief of staff, Major Jeeves and faithful batman Radu became well established. But the campaign fell apart just as I moved to engage some Chaos forces and signaled a “Tally-ho!” to my allies. Probably for the best. I find 40K a very unsatisfying game if one plays anything other than Marines.
Lately another friend has got us all drawn into a Victorian Science Fiction campaign of the Great War of 1885 featuring diabolical steam contraptions and the Prussians invading England. My friend Peter has now sent his Tsarist legions (complete with Cossacks riding clockwork scorpions!) forth to invade Afghanistan with the ultimate goal of seizing the Jewel in the Crown, India. A few steam tanks don’t bother me quite so much as Space Marines and the scratch building challenges of converting something into something else is quite enjoyable. So a 1/35th scale PzII model donated by a friend has had a card board casemate built over top with a gun sticking out the front and a smoke stack on top to make the “Armoured Steam Traction Engine Mk I (India pattern).” An ASTE MkII is in the works using a 1/72nd scale self-propelled gun chassis. It will be smaller and perhaps mount a 1 pounder pompom gun.
Now that I have assembled a varied and balanced force, capable of providing troops for any number of scenarios on the savage North-West Frontier, it only remains to expand my British battalions. These will enable me to expand my campaigning to the Sudan and building up my embryonic Boer forces will enable me to also fight battles in South Africa. Rumor has it that the pirates which infest the mouth of the Kachumbar River have increased their depredations, so a flotilla of gunboats and a small Naval Brigade are in the works as well.
That brings us to the end of the tour through my large and still growing Colonial collection. I really don’t know how I decided to build an Indian Army. I wasn’t even aware that there was a separate “Indian Army” when I started. Maybe it was my fondness for curry; although my appreciation of Indian cuisine has expanded since starting this project. So maybe building the army actually encouraged my appreciation of new culture? Or perhaps it was an infatuation with Bollywood dancing girls? After Gunga Din, Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Kipling and Flashman, I knew I wanted the dusty, rocky hills of the North West Frontier. Whatever the reason, it’s been a lot of fun, many samosas have been consumed and lots of miniatures painted.

Books I Found Useful

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/
Barthorp, Micheal. Indian Infantry Regiments 1860-1914, Osprey Publishing, 1979.
Barthorp, Micheal. Queen Victoria’s Commanders. Osprey Publishing, 2000.
Barthorp, Micheal. The British Army on Campaign (3):1856-1881. Osprey Publishing, 1988.
Barthorp, Micheal. The British Army on Campaign (4):1882-1902. Osprey Publishing, 1988.
Bond, Brian ed. Victorian Military Campaigns. Praeger, New York, 1967.
Churchill, Winston S. Frontiers and Wars. Konecky & Konecky, New York, 1962.
Farwell, Byron. The Gurkhas. W.W.Norton & Co. New York, 1984.
Farwell, Byron. Queen Victoria’s Little Wars. Harper & Row, New York, 1972.
Farwell, Byron. Mr. Kipling’s Army. W.W.Norton & Co., New York, 1981.
Harris, R.G. Bengal Cavalry Regiments 1857-1914. Osprey Publishing, 1979.
Holmes, Richard. Sahib, the British Soldier in India. Harper Collins, 2005.
Hutchinson, Col. H.D. The Campaign in Tirah 1897-1898. The Nafziger Collection, Inc., 2008.
Masters, John. Bugles and a Tiger. Cassell & Co., 2002.
Richards, D.S. The Savage Frontier. Macmillan Ltd., London, 1990.
Wilkinson-Latham, Robert. North-West Frontier 1837-1947. Osprey Publishing, 1977.


To see part 1- cavalry go to this previous posting.

To see part 2- infantry go to this previous posting.

To see part 3- artillery go to this previous posting.

To see part 4-baggage go to this previous posting.

To see this army in action go here.

Soldiers of the Queen-Empress Part 4

"An Extraordinary Assemblage:" The Baggage Train

One contemporary observer commented that an army in India on the march was like "Smithfield market" for it's combination of people, animals, colours and sounds. The troops were followed by an enormous train of bullock carts, elephants, camels and civilians. I always enjoy modeling the rear echelon elements in an army and I like seeing it in others too. A notable example is Der Alte Fritz's Seven Years War collection complete with a field bakery and forge. I think these vignettes give a great opportunity to the modeller to put some humour and humanity on the tabletop, provide more visual interest to the display and they make for potentially attractive objectives in games.

In keeping with this theme I've endeavoured to assemble a suitably large and eclectic collection of baggage for my Anglo-Indian army. The bullock cart to the left is a "Houston's Colonial Wagon" model from Old Glory. The driver is from the "Chaos in Cairo" range. I found another pair of oxen in my extras box plus some wheels so I think I need to make a second. Plus paint up loads for them. The bhisti (pronounced 'beastie') above is a Foundry figure. Old Glory also makes one but like Foundry he's buried in a pack with a bunch of other figures. Really one needs whole packs of bhistis. Every unit should be accompanied by one or two. I'm trying to convince Askari miniatures to make and release a pack of 8 bhistis.

The 'centre piece' of my baggage train is the pack elephant.
He's a RAFM elephant. I used a Ral Partha Mahdist camel rider for the mahout. I had to separate his crossed-at-the-ankles legs and then bend them back to fit him behind the ears of the elephant. The bundles were made with green stuff and tied up with some embroidery floss donated by my wife. The Ral Partha camel was then given some big bundles of green stuff as well, but he didn't seem to get in front of the camera. Which is too bad, realy. I find the contrast of the very slightly built Ral Partha camel under these enormous bales contrasted with the more robust pack camel pictured above and it's smaller load rather amusing.

In the picture above the title you can see a few other pack camels, 'Chaos in Cairo' drivers and a pack mule. As Howard Whitehouse once said to me: You can never have too many pack camels.

To care for the wounded I've added the Perry Field Hospital set from their excellent Sudan line.And a Bicorne vignette of native stretcher bearers not-to-gently picking up a wounded soldier. This might make a good 'shaken' marker for Black Powder games except I think I may need more than just the one!


For the General's HQ I have an Old Glory heliograph team. The pack comes with two teams, but I couldn't see the point of having two on the same table, so I gave the extra one to Rico.This will make another fine objective for a game. The Imperial detachment having to defend the signal outpost on the hill. I also have an idea that it could be used to extend my CiC's command radius to any Imperial unit within line of sight.

For the spiritual care of my troops I've added a Padre. On the left is the original RAFM figure; a cavalry officer in undress forge cap. On the right is my conversion. I removed his sabre and using metal foil I made a prayer book that I tucked into his arm. The clerical collar was ajust achieved with a daub of paint.
Here's a fuzzy close up:
One of my gaming friends is a Canadian Forces Chaplain (see his blog). During a game he, of course took this figure as his on-table avatar. The rules in use involved wounded which were removed to the wagons at the baggage train. As our column pushed up the valley a force of tribal cavalry appeared on our rear flank. The Padre was the nearest 'command' figure and rallied the lightly wounded, forming them into a firing line which delivered a few well-aimed vollies to drive off the enemy cavalry and save the critically wounded. Thus the legend of the Reverend Capt. Peterson, VC was born. I should probably paint a small VC on the figure. Even though Mike has been posted away, a chaplain, priest or religious figure of some kind now seems to find it's way into all of our armies.

For the ammunition train I got a second bag of the Old Glory artillery mules and added small ammo boxes from RAFM instead of the gun pieces.


Here is another fun little piece. The Bicorne War Correspondent (is it Melton Prior or Rudyard Kipling?) sitting on a box sketching or writing an article. You can't see it well, but there's a gin bottle on the ground beside him. Beside him is another Foundry bhisti obviously inspiring the poem Gunga Din.
Here are some larger pics of each:



And to entertain the troops for a well-deserved victory celebration, the nautch dancer. She's a Reaper mini. She might also be a spy.



Coming up next: Part 5- the Pathans!

To see part 1- cavalry go to this previous posting.

To see part 2- infantry go to this previous posting.

To see part 3- artillery go to this previous posting.

To see this army in action go here.

Soldiers of the Queen-Empress part 3

Artillery

When you consider how important artillery was to the Imperial armies, it is rather hard to find good guns and gunners.

The Perry's make a lovely 'screw gun' with British crew for the Sudan campaign and Empress Miniatures are releasing field guns for the Zulu War. But for those of us who want the 12 and 15 pdr Breech Loading Rifles and standing gunners in uniforms suitable for the NWF or South Africa, well there's a lot of having to make do.

That being said, I've amassed a ridiculously large artillery park for the British.



I started with the ubiquitous mountain artillery. After the Mutiny, most native batteries were disbanded and replaced by British, but one battery of Mountain Artillery still had native gunners. I opted for the iconic 2.5 inch Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) "screw gun" used in the later part of the century. It was called a "screw gun" because it had a longer barrel which came in two pieces to make it easier for the mules to carry, and the barrel screwed into the breech. Old Glory do these quite well. A pack of screw guns gets you four guns. A pack of gunners gets you five 4 man crews plus an officer (I gave my extra crew to my Colonial gaming munshi Rico). Then the pack of artillery mules gives you 6 mules and enough loads to do either a screw gun or the older 7 pdr mountain gun. One should have one team of six mules for each gun, but that would be rather expensive. So I divide my 6 mules between however many guns I'm using that game to show the section moving.

When facing hordes of angry natives who object to your presence in their valley, it is a really good idea to increase your firepower with some machine guns.


As Hillaire Belloc put it:
Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.

Again I have an assortment. I have the Old Glory Maxim gun on cavalry carriage and the RAFM Gatling gun. To transport the gatling gun I have the RAFM elephant set. This is actually one of the protoypes kit-bashed by my other Colonial gaming munshi, Pasha Dan. He's friends with the owners of RAFM and figured out the kit for them by sitting down with a big box of spare parts and the film Gunga Din.

To get some heavier firepower up into the roadless mountains I thought an elephant battery would be pretty cool. The only reference I could find of what I wanted was a picture in the Osprey MAA #201 British Army on Campaign 4 1882-1902. Page 18 has a not terribly clear picture of an elephant battery formed up in 1897. I had a couple of spare elephants and some green stuff and set to work. One elephant transports the barrel of the breech loading rifle and the other carries the gun carriage. The poles are to help get the pieces of the gun off and back on to the animal's back. I use extra muleskinners from the mountain artillery to lead the elephants. I left the pieces of the gun loose so I can remove them and set the gun up, rather than having two separate gun models.

The gun moving:

Deployed and ready to fire:



For plain old field artillery I started with the Old Glory 9 pdr. But I don't really like the crew. They seem to be all over the place. I prefer the way the Perry's sculpt gun crews; the whole crew will be performing the actions appropriate to one part of the drill, loading, firing etc. But these fellows will do. I don't like the look of other Colonial British gun crews I've found and I can't afford Foundry.

Moving the field artillery is another issue. Foundry are the only manufacturers that I've found of Colonial British artillery limbers and teams. The price is suitably horrendous. But after consulting Dan and Rico I hit on getting some RAFM ACW era limbers and converting the riders and drivers.

The gunners riding on the ammo box are just the ACW figures with the ACW kepi heads replaced by British pith helmet heads. Rico gave me the idea to use RAFM's Northwest Mounted Police figures for the drivers. I cut off their carbine hands and replaced them with the whip hand from the ACW drivers. Their kit isn't exactly right, but as the Yorkshireman says better than nowt.



To complete the battery I also have an ammunition caisson. Now if I'm ever faced with rules that have 'out of ammo' rolls, I'm all set. It's also just nice to be able to include the B-echelon stuff that is so essential to keeping the fighting units in the field.



Here's the complete RHA battery on the move. 2 guns plus caisson. The guns are RAFM ACW breech loading rifles. The OG 9 pdr looks a bit big hooked up to the RAFM limbers plus by the time of the Boer War the British had switched over to BLRs for their field artillery. Unfortunately the ACW guns don't have seats on the carriages for the gunners. Perhaps I should ponder modifying the breech on the OG muzzle loaders?



The limbered RHA battery isn't really needed at all for the North West Frontier games. In The Campaign in Tirah the authour, Col. Hutchinson, noted how by the time the road was cleared and the 'big guns' could be brought up the tribes were ready to settle. The Pathans found the fire of the little screw guns deadly enough, so the arrival of the bigger RHA battery helped make up the mind of the last few hold outs. But I do want to stretch my games to the Second Boer War in which Indian Mountain guns and elephant batteries really don't play a part. We also indulge in some occassional VSF silliness and the RHA battery makes a nice support for my cavalry brigade when going up against Peter's Russian army.

The only thing I'm missing really are rockets. Empress does a lovely little set which are on my shopping list. Although whenever I use Barry's Naval Brigade rocket battery the damn thing blows up on me! So maybe I should leave well enough alone?

Since we've been talking about Gatling guns, I'll close with this except from Sir Henry Newbolt's Vitai Lampada:
The sand of the desert is sodden red, --
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; --
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

Coming up next: Part 4- the Rear Echelon!

To see part 1- cavalry go to this previous posting.

To see part 2- infantry go to this previous posting.

To see this army in action go here.

Soldiers of the Queen-Empress part 2

Infantry

Now in Injia's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen
-“Gunga Din” R. Kipling

I have a lot of infantry. But really, to try and cover the full spectacle of the British Imperial army you need a lot of different regiments to choose from. Or you end up deploying the same army every game. Which is boring.






The Imperial army in India in the later 19th century was really made up of two components; the Indian Army and the British Army in India. After the Great Mutiny (1857-59) when the sepoy regiments of the Honourable East India Company mutinied, the British government took direct control of the Company territories and turned the Company native regiments into the Indian Army. British garrisons were increased to maintain a ratio of 3 or 4 native to 1 British regiment in the subcontinent. Before the Mutiny, the ratio was more like 10:1.



Obviously I need a lot of infantry: Sikhs, Guides, Gurkhas, Highlanders, the Rifle Brigade, plus regular old Tommy Aitkens and Johnny Sepoy. My first purchase was a bag of Old Glory "Sikhs Attacking w/Command". The 30 odd figure bag including an Indian officer, British officer, two buglers and two NCOs. The figure in the center is from the Foundry "Sikh and Guide Command" pack which I added later.



Here's one of the 12 figure companies I've divided them into. I hate leaving unused figures in the box, so I like rules that are more flexible in unit size (Or like Black Powder which don't care about number of figures at all):



An action shot. One company up front skirmishing with one company formed up behind in support:



Of course after I painted them I learned that Indian regiments left their equipment brown. Oops.

I also did up a bag of Old Glory Indian infantry as the 1st Madras Pioneers. OG doesn't include command in the regular Indian infantry bags, and I wasn't going to buy a whole Command bag to get leaders for one 30 figure unit. But Peter found a couple of Foundry Indian officers at a Historicon flea-market for me and I added a couple of Indian buglers from Bicorne. According to the Osprey MAA#92 Indian Infantry Regiments 1860-1914 plate F1 the regiment served in Burma in 1886 wearing khaki and their colourful regimental turbans, this gave me an excuse to add a splash of colour into a sea of khaki.

Here's a couple of views of the turban:


Here's one of the companies lead by a junior British officer:


It would be nice if they had the proper sapper kit with picks and shovels carried on their backs, but no one makes those. I'm assuming that the entrenching gear has been left with the baggage for the battle.

Pride of place in my army is my detachment from the Corps of Guides. These tough frontier tribesmen were turned into the best regiment of the Raj. The Guides were so important to the defence of the North West Frontier that they were never sent anywhere else. Even during World War 2 they stayed on the Frontier. Raised by John Nicholson and Joe Lumsden after the 1st Sikh War they quickly proved their worth. The march to Delhi during the Mutiny and then the defence of the Kabul Residency in 1879 are just a few examples of their courage and loyalty. The Guides pioneered the use of kahki (from the Hindi word for 'dust') and saw constant action. Places in the regiment were highly sought after, so they had their pick of the best recruits, both Native and British.





My Guides are Foundry figures and are wearing the poshteen or sheep skin coats used in the cold mountains. I'm not sure what's going on with the colour here, I was still learning the best lighting during this photo session obviously. A couple of packs of Foundry troops and the Command figures from the "Sikh & Guide Command" plus a British officer give me a detachment of 21 figures divided into 2 companies.

Now what would a British Indian army be without Gurkhas? Every Imperial Field Force needs at least one unit of these cheerfully fierce, tough little hillmen. Mine are from Foundry.


For their uniforms I mixed in a bit of green to the kahki to make them, well, more greenish. I also left their hats and puttees green to reinforce their rifle regiment heritage.

Here are some of the command figures: British officer, Gurkha NCO, Gurkha Native officer, bugler and jawan (rifleman).



Here a comparison shot of the two British officers who lead them. The one on the left is from RAFM, the one on the right from Foundry. I thought having his sword out was more appropriate to leading my Gurkhas in a charge.



Here's a nice action shot of them clearing a village. This pic was used for the cover of my first issue of HMG Magazine as Editor.



For British infantry I so far only have two units. One regular line regiment and one unit of Highlanders. The line battalion is from Bicorne and are in the 1898 kit used at the Battle of Omdurman. But the neck flaps were used in India as well, and I got them cheap from Don when he was briefly the American manufacturer for Bicorne. I have loads more primed and waiting paint so I'm going to do some with black equipment to represent the Rifle Brigade or King's Royal Rifle Corps.




The command are a mix of Old Glory and Foundry.

Finally we come to the Highlanders. These were a gift from Peter and are Perry Miniatures. I love them. I took a long time over them and I think the kilts turned out quite nicely. I didn't bother with the narrow striping in the tartan, since that just muddies the effect and is a pain to try and do on the pleats anyway.



And here they are storming some sangars on the Frontier. Notice the subaltern leading the attack with his claymore and pistol:



So that, so far is the main force of my Indian Army. Sometimes I group the Gurkhas and Guides into a Frontier Force brigade and then match one of my British units with one of the larger Native to give me three smallish 'brigades'. But not always.

For future painting I've got 30-odd Bicorne Indian infantry, some RAFM "Space 1889" British to give me one unit in the scarlet uniforms plus loads more Bicorne infantry (some of whom will become Rifles). Once I get some more Boers done and want to take my Colonial games to South Africa I'll need to replace the Indian troops with more British. I also have a small landing party of armed sailors in the 'waiting to get painted box,' so some infantry may get turned into Royal Marines too. I'm sure the mouth of the Kachumbar River is infested with pirates who will need to be burnt out. Or they can take on Patrick's Zanzibari slavers too.

Coming up next; artillery.

To see this army in action go to my previous post.

For Part 1-Cavalry go to my previous post.