Mahratta war British Sepoys

Here are a few photos of my British infantry and the Mahratta guns. Above is the nearly completed 12th Madras with green facings. To the left of the picture are the first couple of figures for my 3rd Sepoy battalion the 10th Madras. I am basing my initial forces on Wellesleys army at Assaye so there will be 2 British battalions, 4 Sepoy battalions and a unit of pickets, 1 British cavalry regiment and 3 Madras Native cavalry regiments.

Not sure how the above photo sneaked in! The red battalion from my Mahratta regular brigade.

Next is the completed 4th Madras with orange facings.

This unit is a mix of standing firing figures in the front rank and a variety of loading and at ready figures in the second rank. The firing figure is nice but I have found the ankles to be very thin and one broke even with gentle handling. The remaing battalions will therefore be in marching or advancing poses. Flags are by The Virtual Armchair General who do all regiments in both Wellesleys and Lakes armies and over 100 Mahratta flags. The added bonus is that the proprietor is an absolute gentleman and was very helpful in printing the flags slightly over size to complement the larger Redoubt figures.

A shot (round?) of my Mahratta guns collected so far. The mortar to the right is actually a Mysore Tiger Mortar but it will see service with my Mahrattas. The guns are by Elite and are from my Napoleonic collection ( a good cost saving).

The 4th Madras again....

Finally a couple of photos of the First Brigade commander Lieutenant-Colonel William Wallace who commanded the 74th foot and the 4th and 12th Madras at Assaye. Wallace is a Redoubt figure while his second in command is an Elite Miniatures staff officer (a lovely one piece casting).

That's it for now. I have another Mahratta cavalry unit on the painting table as well as a regular infantry battalion and I will post photos when they are done. Dave H.

Mysore Bullocks!

No this post is not about my painful medical condition but I couldn't resist the title!
In addition to the infantry and cavalry I have been painting some artillery and 'logistical' support.

First up are some supply camels and these can be used for either side. A huge number of camp followers (no sniggering Brian) and support personnel accompanied both the British and Mahratta armies (approximately 10 for every fighting man in the British army) and I feel this has to be represented on the wargames table. I intend to have a base of these camels for every brigade as De Boigne had 126 for each of his brigades. I think the defence and safe movement of the baggage train will make an interesting scenario in itself.

Now to the bullocks mentioned in the post title. Not just bullocks but Mysore bullocks, reputedly the strongest in India. Wellesley used these in his Madras army during the Deccan campaign and Redoubt make lovely models of them (which my painting does not do justice). They were used to pull the artillery and as the model represents a 6lb gun (attached to each battalion in 2 gun sections) I have used 2 bullocks to pull it. Bigger guns will have 4 bullocks, or even an elephant to pull them.

The gun and the limber are also by Redoubt who also make a bullock cart, a couple of which I will be adding to the baggage train.

The gun deployed for action. Actually most of the artillery personnel was European assisted by Indian Lascars but the British artillery crew which Redoubt produce are in the Bengal Horse Artillery uniform! I will use these when I paint up my galloper guns which accompanied the cavalry.

I hope the last three posts have been of some interest to people. In my opinion this is a lovely range of figures which, if not always entirely accurate, has a huge amount of charm and some really beautiful figures! I will post more photos as I complete further units.

Mahratta Regular Brigade

Here are a few photos of my first Regular brigade for the Mahratta army. They will have in addition an Najib/Matchlock battalion and each regular battalion will have a gun attached, to represent the 5 guns which De Boigne allocated to each battalion!

Figures are, as usual, by Redoubt except for the Brigade commander, which is an Elite French Revolutionary officer from their 30mm range.

The Green battalion - actually all the battalions will eventually be named, as in DeBoigne's and Perron's army, after great cities and fortresses - Delhi, Agra etc

I will paint another brigade, the first battalion of which is on the painting table, and these will represent the First Brigade, the 'Cheria Fauj', (The Army of Birds). They will be dressed as De Boigne dressed them in Scarlet coats, black belts and Blue Turbans.

Next up is some artillery and draft animals.

Mahratta Update!

My Mahratta project has taken a back seat this past year and a half without any new additions. However at the start of 2014 I have decided that I must push on with it and try to paint up enough figures to have a game. After all that is the whole point, these are not just for show!

So I sent away to Redoubt for some new figures and painted them up as soon as they arrived, which is quite good going for me ( I don't have the luxury of being retired John!). The first photos are of my new Mahratta cavalry commander. Actually I think he is more like a Rajput or Moghul Prince of high blood and he will certainly figure prominently in future scenarios. It is a beautiful figure.

Although the figures are on their final bases I have still to finalise how I will texture them.

Next up is another European/French mercenary commander and I have painted him based on the description of Colonel Pedron, captured by Lake at Aligurh, "an elderly man, clad in a green jacket with gold lace and epaulets". The figure is by Elite (from the 30mm range) and fits in nicely size-wise with the Redoubt figures.

Accompanying him is an Indian officer, one of my favourite figures that Redoubt do.

Next are some irregular troops. The two above are classed as Pathans on the Redoubt site and I intend to mix them in with my Matchlock men to make up the najib battalions which formed part of the regular brigades. They can of course be used independently and as garrison troops.

Lastly is a figure of an Arab mercenary, which is lovely, and I intend to have a unit of these also.
That's all for now but I will post some further photos later of the other units I have completed. Dave H.

Mahratta Command

My Mahratta project continues to proceed slowly but I have made an early New Years resolution to push on with this in 2013. My first Mahratta regular brigade is almost finished and I have started to paint and base some command groups. John posted a photo of my first British command group in a previous post. The photos here show my first completed brigade command base for the Mahrattas. In 1803 most of Scindias brigades were commanded by Frenchmen so I decided to use a Revolutionary period figure to represent this. The mounted figure is by Elite Miniatures and the foot figure is a Redoubt Indian commander from their Wellington in India range.

I am quite pleased at how the base has come out and my painting does seem to be improving. I plan to have 3 or 4 of these brigade commands in the Mahratta army to lead the infantry brigades. They will wear different coloured jackets to differentiate them.

I have 12 figures currently on the painting table to complete the regular element of my first brigade and plan to have the brigade complete and based during the Xmas holidays. I will post some photos once I have finished.

Maharatta Infantry

I (Dave) have finished adding the flag and basing my first infantry unit. They are Mahratta regular infantry of the army of Daolat Rao Scindia and will be led by Colonel Pohlman commanding from the back of an elephant. Pohlman is painted and is awaiting the arrival of his elephant. The flag I have chosen has an elephant motif and the other battalions in the compoo will also have the same motif, although the flags will reflect the turban colour of the unit.

I am quite pleased at how the basing has turned out. I wanted to try and capture the Indian hot, dry earth but with patches of greenery. I may in the future add sum grass tufts of more autumnal colours. Still I am pleased with my first attempts at more then simple flocking.

Next up for basing is the Red Turban battalion, they already have their flag attached, followed by the Orange Turbans. As I have said before, the Mahratta regulars will be colour identified which is perfect for the failing eyesight of the group! (figures by Redoubt and flag by The Virtual Armchair General).

Mahratta Update

Here are a few photos of my first Mahratta unit to receive their flag which has just arrived from The Virtual Armchair General (TVAG) who is based in the U.S.

TVAG does a comprehensive range of flags to cover the 2nd Anglo Mahratta war. For $35 I received almost 100 flags and, while they are obviously not of the quality you would expect from, say GMB, they are a good balance of quality and price. I really like them.

Patrick Wilson the owner of TVAG is a real gentlemen and answered any queries I had promptly and with good humour. The order was dispatched the same day I confirmed it and would have arrived in 7 days if the Her Majestys Customs hadn't got their mits on it!
   I will post more photos soon as the units receive their flags. Figures as usual are by Redoubt.

 

Great Northern War WIP

I managed to get a few photos of the Uppland regiment which I finished painting last month. I am quite pleased with them and I think they are an acceptable wargame standard. The figures are Musketeer Miniatures and they are very easy to paint with nice raised detail and a clean finish.

I still have to add the pikes but Musketeer had none in stock, and still don't, so I will probably order some from Front Rank. I have the flags, which are by Little Big Men, and will fit them when I do the pikes.

Also I have been thinking about basing all my Great Northern War and Mahratta war figures on hard board bases, as John has been doing, so these bases are just temporary and mean I can store the figures safely.

The above figure was a spare one I had and I have painted him in the uniform of the Queen Dowagers Life Regiment. I will probably paint a couple of garrison regiments in the future and this regiment has a particularly nice combination of uniform colours and flags. I have another 24 figure regiment to paint in Karpus but at the moment I have been painting more of the Mahratta figures as I want to complete my first Brigade of Mahratta regulars.

Our ex pat Chris popped in on Sunday to say hi and presented me with a Tiger mortar and crew (thank you Chris!) so I will endeavour to paint this up in the coming week. The figures are by Redoubt and (hopefully) they will look the business when painted.

Talking of Sunday, we played a game based on the Prussian attacks on Napoleons right flank at Waterloo (well it was the anniversary on Saturday!) and Paul took loads of photos, so either myself or Paul will post an AAR soon. We used my Napoleonic figures which was nice as they have been sitting in their display cabinet at home for far too long. Hopefully it wont take us as long to post the pictures!

New Terrain Pieces

While I was helping out with picking up some stuff from the wholesalers I came across these two pieces in the aquarium section.
Now being a wargamer I immediately saw their wargaming potential! I have it in mind to use them as jungle terrain for my Maharatta project, although I am sure John will think of a few more scenarios in which they can be utilised.

I have pictured them with a couple of my Maharatta figures (Redoubt) to give an idea of the scale.

As you can see they are fairly substantial and require no further work!

I really like them and I will keep an eye out for any others next time I am there. Especially considering I paid £4.50 for the two.

I have also posted a couple of pics of my first complete Maharatta regular battalion. This project is a slow burner (as I am a slow painter lol). However I am chipping away and I have another 16 regulars primed and ready to go and these will complete the Red turban battalion.

In addition to these I have about 20 almost complete sepoys sitting in my painting box. Why can't I concentrate on one thing at a time?! In the next couple of weeks I hope to get these progressed but, as John has mentioned in his post preceeding mine, I have been a little diverted by the Vauban fortifications and a recent purchase of some Great Northern War figures from Musketeer Miniatures.

I have almost completed the first regiment (Uppland). This period has been one which I have wanted to do for a long time and I have been waiting for the right figures to be produced. Now that Bill at Musketeer Miniatures has started to expand his range I have given in to temptation.

I will post some pics of these later tonight hopefully.