Wednesday, January 1, 2014

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.

 

Saturday, December 28, 2013

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

Sunday, December 8, 2013

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.)


Thursday, August 22, 2013

Welcome to Tulwar and Bayonet!

Tulwar and Bayonet is a blog devoted to my hobby of playing tabletop miniatures games of the historical battles from the Anglo-Sikh Wars of the mid-19th Century.

I got started down this path in the 1990's when I was reading up on the colonial wars of Queen Victoria. The Sikh war was interesting as it was one of the few times that the British (or rather the East India Company) actually stood to lose battles that could indeed cost them the war.As it turns out, the Honorable East India Company won every battle, but the casualty counts were high enough to shock the British people and government.

Its a colorful period with redcoats, (on both sides) lots of artillery, cavalry and even camels and elephants. I plan to document my efforts at gaming this little know conflict covering both the rules I use for the games as well as the various figure manufacturers that make up my miniature armies.