I'm back with more non-Maiwand-specific conversions, 2 more, both connected to the prior conversion of General "Bobs" Roberts.
During the Second Afghan War, Roberts, whose entire military career up to that point was spent in the Indian Army, took pride in employing 2 Sikh, 2 Gurkha and 2 Pathan ORDERLIES. Having provided myself with a decent "Bobs Bahadur," I decided to make myself a couple of his Indian Army orderlies as well.
To do this I used a pair of Wargames Foundry figures -- an Afghan regular artillery crewman standing with his hand outstretched to hold a ramrod and a British officer wearing a poshteen, standing with binoculars in one hand -- and HEADS from 2 other Wargames Foundry figures -- a Sikh mountain gunner and a Gurkha rifleman.
I also used a pair of AMMUNITION POUCHES cut from that and another Gurkha rifleman, a SHEATHED KUKRI cut from the same, a larger POUCH scrounged from somewhere, and a pair of BAYONETS, used as FROGS HOLDING BAYONETS.
Last but not least, I used a pair of relatively short MUSKETS from the Empress Miniatures Zulu War Accessories range to serve as SNIDER-ENFIELDS.
Below is a drawing of Roberts' pair of Gurkha orderlies from 5th Gurkha Rifles...
....and a somewhat well-known drawing of Roberts' two Sikh orderlies, who I had always read hailed from 3rd Sikhs of the Punjab Frontier Force, with BLACK facings and ORGANGE turban fringe...
...but curiously enough, in a COLOR version of the same illustration below, which I first came across on the web in the past day or two, they appear to possibly hail from 4th Punjab Infantry, whom I believe wore GREEN fringe on their turbans and facings on their uniforms...
So now I have do try to do some more research and find out if this is in fact the original coloring and whether I should have my own Sikh orderly painted up with his turban fringe as hailing from 3rd or 4th Sikhs!
If anyone out there in the blog-visiting world has an answer or even a more educated guess than mine, please do me a favor and leave a COMMENT letting me know -- thanks in advance!
Finally, here's a pic showing General Roberts in his tent, with his 2 Gurkha, 2 Sikh, and 2 Pathan orderlies standing watch outside...
WOW! - impressive attention to detail! Your conversions work well.
ReplyDeleteFrank
http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com/
Many thanks, Frankt! I just visited your blog(s) and was very impressed myself! Cool to see someone doing 18th Century colonial warfare in India for a change.
ReplyDeleteThe British and Indian governments, relieved at the success of the battle, now required the enormous expense of the Afghan War to be brought to an end. Over the following 6 months a new Ameer was found in Abdurrahman and preparations made to withdraw the army to India. In the spring of 1880 Major General Stewart would march from Kandahar and take Ghuznee and the combined forces would withdraw by the Khyber route. Kandahar would be created as a separate state and a British/Indian garrison retained.
ReplyDeleteHowever the British and Indian armies still had three hard battles left to fight, with the outbreak of serious trouble in Southern Afghanistan.