The Armored Cav platoon vehicles

Just so we undestand what I'm trying to find infantry to fill, here are the vehicles of the armored cavalry (motorized) task force.

Vehicles are a mix of Rebel Miniatures, Rafm and Matchbox. The GZG mid-techers still looking like a good choice?

Light Scout cars. Rebel Miniatures on left, Matchbox with spare gun fitted.

Medium APC - RAFM "Imp" 6X6 wheeled with dual cannon/tube launchers

Matchbox Stryker given a primer coat of gray.

If one is good, two are better, right?

The Stryker is large - much larger than the Imp. But it's sci-fi so it's okay. A combo APC/FSV needs to be bigger.

I'd forgotten that the rear hatch actually can be dropped.

Getting that old 15mm itch again...

...and I need to scratch it!

I've got a bunch of stuff sort of done, but I think it's time to get my mid-tech wheeled 'armored cav' force painted up and ready for the tabletop. I think I'll find the time to pull everything out and rough out the organization, then I can tackle starting the painting.

Vehicles I've got in spades - I suspect they'll mostly be mounted in Matchbox vehicles. Where I think I'll come up short are suitable infantry figures. I've got loads of RAFM troops in combat armor, but I think I want something a little less bulky. Something like BDU and body armor with small arms and maybe a couple of heavier support weapons.  Guess I'll have to start perusing the available 15mm infantry. If anyone has any suggestions, throw 'em my way!

If you didn't laugh, you'd cry...

I've got a good sized collection of 25-28mm Sikhs from Foundry and Old Glory. About 10 years ago, I painted most everything up and based it for Volley and Bayonet. I put on the Battle of Ferozeshah about once every year at local conventions. It's a fun game and it's visually impressive.

A few years ago, I realized that all the Sikh infantry had been painted with white cross brace straps across their chests. While it looked good and it match the British uniform style...it was also wrong. Those straps should have been black for the winter uniform and white for the summer uniform (and these guys were not painted for summer!). But, I told myself, it doesn't really matter.It's a minor thing and the period is so obscure it's not likely to be noticed.


Then came today.

I sat down to paint those new figures I got from Studio Miniatures. It had been a while and I wanted to check the color of the horizontal piping across the uniform jacket. So I pulled out my old Opsrey book on the Sikh Army and thumbed through the pages. Ten minutes later, I got a shock.

Somehow, I'd used the wrong plate as the basis for the Sikh infantry. I'd painted all those years ago. I'd been painting the line infantry with red jackets and white trousers.

My typical paint choices for the Sikh infantry.

But there in the Osprey were the plates for the Sikh regulars - in blue trousers!

A bit more prototypical uniform colors.

So what had I done? I'd painted up my entire Sikh Army as if they were wearing the uniform of the elite "French Legion" (also known as the "Guard Brigade".Imagine you've got a big collection of French Napoleonics and you just discovered you had painted every single solider as if he were a member of the Imperial Guard!

All I can say is...D'oh!

So I caught it early enough with these figure to correct the painting before I based the figures. What it means for the games is that I'll end up with two distinct groups of figures - those painted historically and those that are...not. I'm not planning on repainting anything at this time (getting the figures off their V&B bases would be a horrible chore - I used Woodlands Scenic Flexpaste to attach them and that stuff is tenacious!) So they'll soldier on in their incorrect uniforms for the foreseeable future.

Account locked out of the miniatures page....

Title says it all - locked from the miniatures page and without even a "so long and thanks for all the fish" from the site management. It's not like I even post that much to the thing. Must have gored someone's ox in the 2014 Tango...tango.

So, so long TMP - it was fun while it lasted.

Unboxing the new Studio Miniatures 28mm Sikh War figures

Okay, I had time to open all the boxes from Studio Miniatures and look at most of the figures except the artillery crews. (We'll cover them in the next week or so).  What follows are my initial impressions  and images of the figures. I'll be adding more detailed reviews of the figures to the Parade Ground page in the future.

My Kickstarter return was four 'battalions' of miniatures - two each of British regulars and Sikh Khalsa infantry. The British battalions are 20 figures while the Sikh battalions are 24 figures. Each includes command and colour bearers along with infantry in 'march attack' (with fixed bayonets) pose.

In addition to the four battalions there were a number of 'stretch goals' that resulted in additional figures being included with the release. This included addition Sikh and British officers both on foot and mounted as well as a British RSM, a Sikh 'water bearer' an artillery piece - 9 pounder for the Brits, 12 pounder for the Sikhs and four artillery crew for the same, and a figure of "Flashman" from the popular series of novels by George McDonald Fraiser.

The British figures

The British figures arrived well packed in white cardboard boxes. The box contained two layers of foam that keeps the figures secure and intact.

Command Figures

We'll start start with one of the stretch goal figures - the mounted British commander. Cleanly cast - both horse and rider with good detailing. The only minor quibble is  that the rider does not fit the horse 'out of the box'

Not quite fitting his mount

However, a quick squeeze with my spreader tool (a model railroad tool) has him firmly astride his mount.

All squared up and ready to go

In what will become a recurring theme,  this mounted officer is a bit bigger than a comparable mounted officer from Old Glory's Sikh War command pack.

The Studio Miniatures horse is behind this Old Glory and rider. Even so, you can see the SM figure is larger than the OG.

The British foot officer is also cleanly cast with nice detail. If I have any regrets its that the figure is not different or better animated than other British officer figures already available. But he will fit well into the line of advancing infantry with whom he is assigned.

 

The British Drummer. A nice figure - but those are some hefty drum sticks!

 

 

British Color bearer

 Infantry figure

The infantry consist of one pose, so this will be quick. The figure represents the 'flank company' and is nicely detailed.

Again these figures are on the large side, as you can see in this comparison image of the various figures to Old Glory regular infantry.

Studio Miniatures (unpainted) officer (on left) infantry and standard bearer (on right) with Old Glory infantry and bearer.

The Sikh Figures

The Sikh figures pretty much mirror the British figures. Both in character and size. One nice thing was the I received two (2) Sikh flags with one of the infantry battalions, so my Sikh troops will have colors.

Command Figures

The command figures turned out pretty good.

A Sikh officer with the Paag headgear battalion

Officer with the 'top knot' turban battalion

standard bearer

Sikh drummer

Sikh bugler

Infantry figure

Marching to action with bayonet fixed

 

 

  There were only two minor issues with the figures. Both were easily corrected.

One (1) figure had a bent bayonet

 

One (1) figure had flash between the legs

 As with the British, when the Studio Miniatures Sikh War troops are compared to Old Glory or Foundry figures directly, we can see a distinct difference in size.

The SM officer on the left towers over this Foundry Sikh NCO figure.

Foundry standard bearer on the left with SM figure on the right.

 

Studio Miniatures Kickstarter delivers!

In this week's post I received my long awaiting 28mm Sikh War figures from Studio Miniatures.  This was the result of a Kickstarter I contributed funding too in late summer 2013. And what a parcel it was!

 

 

The parcel posted from the UK to me here in Ohio. Postage marked as 22 pounds!

Opening the envelope revealed the contents....lots of boxes and two clamshell packs.

Emptying out the envelope yielded the following...

One clamshell opened during transit and the contents were loose in the envelope. This must have happened late in the process and all the figures survived intact. (Hooray!) The KS personality figures from the stretch goals and the gun crews were in the clamshells, the 'battalions' of Sikh and British are in the white boxes.

Escapees from the packaging, but no casualties - not even the RSM with that long bayonet.

The infantry was well packed in each box

Some of the stretch goals included artillery crews for each two battalions ordered as part of the Kickstarter. The crews were in this clamshell.

The figures look great. Sharp detail and cleanly cast. Studio Miniatures has scored with the initial releases for their Sikh War line. Below are some images of more of the bonus figures.

 

 

 

Sikh General and water bearer

 

 

 

The British RSM

Mounted Sikh Officer

Projects, projects, projects...

I'm eargerly awaiting receipt of my 28mm Sikh Wars figures from Studio Miniatures. Earlier in 2013 I funded their kickstarter and it succeeded well beyond the initial scope of the projects. The many additional add ons caused shipping to be delayed, but the images I've seen so far are looking good!

Once I get the figures in hand, I can start completing the units I will need to field the troops used at the Battle of Sobraon. It was an ugly battle featuring a strongly entrenched gun line with flanks secured on a river. (Imagine if you dumped the central redoubt from Borodino into the middle of the Confederate lines at Antietam  and you get a rough idea of what the British faced.)