We've moved!

Just did some quick math. This blog has been open for almost a year now and I've created a grand total of FIVE posts. Clearly maintaining this blog as a distinct entity is not working out. So we moved!

The Tulwar and Bayonet Blog has migrated over to Skill Level Zero. All five of the previous posts have been folded into the site's content. There may be some teething pains, so I will leave this site up for the foreesable future. You can find us here

http://skilllevelzero.blogspot.com/

Thanks for visiting us here in the past!

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.

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.