Sikh Infantry, Dragoons and Artillery

I've made a bit of a start on the Sikh Army. The figures are 1/72nd Newline Designs.
Flag is by The Virtual Armchair General.
I'm finding the figures quick to paint in comparison to the usual 28mm and a pleasant alternative. 

First up are some Sikh infantry, Fauj-i-ain (regular infantry).
A Dragoon Regiment (I need to pick up command because I neglected to place these on my order!),  and finally some Sikh Artillery. These are probably my favourite arm of the Sikh Army, reputed to never surrender, preferring to die with their guns, and after the bayonet was run through them they were recorded as throwing their arms around their guns and kissing them before they died.

I'm really looking forward to fielding my Sikh Wars armies, I've only just discovered the period and I'm finding it one of fascinating engagements between two well matched armies, the Sikh army has superb regular line infantry and artillery (more than a match for the British forces, and in the case of the artillery superior), only let down by the quality of the cavalry (numerically superior but not as effective as their opponents).

I've currently got a batch of irregular Sikh Infantry on the painting table, and will be working on these a bit at a time inbetween other projects, I find this approach tends to increase my output as I don't get bored with one period or type of figure.

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1866 Austrians

 The first unit of 1866 Austrians by North Star Miniatures are completed. The only problem I'm having is finding suitable flags for the period, if all else fails I'll have to use Napoleonic ones.

Once again these miniatures were a delight to paint.

This time though I started with a grey undercoat 'German Field Grey' Bolt Action spray by Warlord Games. It was then business as usual with base colours added and a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone Ink added. The coat was dry brushed with Foundry Quagmire Grey. Trousers were painted in Foundry Night Sky. All paints used were from the Foundry range.

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FROSTGRAVE

When it was first released Frostgrave didn't really catch my attention, but with the start of the current NickStarter campaign at North Star Miniatures for the first Frostgrave supplement 'Thaw of the Lich Lord', I thought I'd take the plunge. I can see the game appealing to both my girls who enjoy dungeon style games, and the can even paint up their own wizards.

So while I'm waiting for the delivery of my 'Thaw of the Lich Lord' goodies,  I've been on the look out for suitable terrain, and as Halloween is nearly upon us I've been searching the local shops for suitable items I can use.

At my local ASDA store I found a skeleton hand candle holder, immediately I thought giant plinth with a statue in the place of the candle. Might leave as it is or paint grey (still undecided).

A giant plastic Wizard off eBay, I plan to paint as a giant statue.

I also picked up some nice crystals from The Dice Bag Lady, excellent service and purveyor of many fine and interesting items to boot. Not pictured, I also picked up some of the female warriors and female head sets (for converting the Frostgrave plastics into female warbands for the girls).

Finally I got some inexpensive snow covered trees off eBay, nice enough and should add another clump of terrain to the table.

I've included a 28mm figure in some of the photos for scale.

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Unit Markers for Black Powder

For those of you who are interested in the unit markers in the last post here's how I made them.

They are designed to be used with Black Powder rules by Warlord Games. Though I did many years ago I knew a couple of wargamers who used similar markers instead of figures as a more cost effective way of gaming.


1. Large base is 40 x 80mm mdf. With PVA, glue the unit name and a 20 x 20mm mdf base to the top left hand corner of the 40 x 80mm base. Set aside to dry.

 2. Place a cross on the 20 x 20mm base going from corner to corner to find the centre. Varnish the unit name.

3. Drill a small hole in the centre mark. Add a small amount of super glue to the hole and insert the unit flag.

 4. Immediately place a small amount of 2 part epoxy putty (here I have used green stuff), before the super glue has set. This adds extra support for the flag.

 5. Using green stuff (or another 2 part epoxy putty) create the shapes for the markers to be placed.      Make the ridges a similar height to the 20mm base at the side.

6. The centre section needs to be  large enough to hold a D6.

7. The left and right sections to be larger enough to hold a 20 x 20mm base. Slightly dampening the edges of the 20 x 20mm base then slide into the gap to help shape the putty. Remove the 20 x 20mm bases and tidy up the edges by pushing with a wet scalpel.

8. Add a little putty to the bottom corners of the base, and smooth so that there is a gradual slope. Once done set aside to dry. Then finish off to match you're usual basing style, in the this case I've used sand and Foundry Base Sand shades.

9.  Below are a couple of markers that I've made from the 20x20mm bases. Again I've used Foundry Sand as the base colour.

10. Below are pictures of the finished bases. The slot for the Brigade marker is secure during play with movement on the table. Casualties taken are indicated by the D6, and unit morale can be easily inserted or removed as required (in this case Shaken).

Unit 4 casualties and Shaken

Unit 1 casualty

 

 Unit no casualty

Sikh Wars

This is the first posting on the mystery 20mm project - or 1/72nd Sikh Wars to be more precise.

I've been eyeing the Newline Designs 1/72nd Sikh Wars for sometime and finally decided to take the plunge. Ospreys ordered, figures arrived and all seemed to be going nicely to plan until I looked for some suitable flags...problem, all my usual sources came up blank.
It was then that the Internet came to my rescue and I found The Virtual Armchair General (TVAG) who just so happened to carry an extensive range of Sikh War Flags. Order was placed and despite being held to ransom by Customs and the Post Office the flags duly arrived. I can recommend TVAG for a rapid response and excellent customer service, all the flags you'll need for covering the First and Second Sikh Wars are available, well worth considering as you get lots of flags for your money.

The Newline miniatures are very nice, castings are crisp with a little flash which is easy to remove.

First up are a couple of units of Bengal Native Infantry Sepoys. Newline Designs do packs of 4 figures and unit deals of 24 figures. However the unit deals only contain one standard bearer (my fault for not checking first). I spent some time considering basing, unit size etc. and finally decided on 16 figure units based 4 figures to a 40mm square base. I also decided to use a single standard bearer and to incorporate the second flag on a marker base that sits behind the unit on the table. I've always preferred my game markers to be a part of the table or unit having some visual appeal rather than chits of paper or randomly placed dice (which I have the habit of picking up in error).

The marker base is for use with Black Powder rules and contains a slot for a token indicating the brigade the unit is associated with, a slot for a D6 to indicate casualties and another slot for a marker to denote shaken etc.  I will include more pictures of how I made these markers in a separate post for those interested. 

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Early Achaemenid Persian Sparabara

Finished these a while ago and just managed to organise myself to take some photos.
Two additional units of Sparabara, this time 32 figures strong.

The figures in each of new units are 28mm Miniature Design Studios (which I believe are now available from Caliver Books). I really like these figures, especially the way in which the front ranks look engaged. They are nice to paint, and match pretty well with Crusader Miniatures (as can be seen in the other units).

The Sparabara form the backbone of my Early Achaemenid Persian infantry, I still have a couple more units to paint but they will probably have to wait while I concentrate on other projects for a while. That's not to say that there will be no more ancients on the blog until then, far from it.

I've also included a group shot of the 4 Sparabara units that I've completed to date.

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