Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames
The Mutineers
You can stick your cartridge where the sun doesn't shine
Army for In the Heart of India
This really was a fun army to build. It all started a couple of years ago, when I read Saul David's book on the Indian Mutiny. Unfortunately this coincided with Claymore 2005, when I raised money by selling some unloved lead at the bring n' buy. Well, armed with this cash I went over to the Old Glory stall, then to Dixons and to Dave Thomas' patch - and bought enough to fill a plastic bag to bursting point.
Well, it took me the best part of 18 months to get round to it, but I've finally finished the army - or at least the Mutineer part of it. I still have around 100 British still to paint. In fact I polished off the mutineers in about 6 weeks - a marathon "paint in" which was the only way to break the back of the project.
The mainstay of the army are the Sepoys - four mutinous regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry - each of 20 figures. To make them interesting I mixed Foundry, Dixon and Old Glory figures, and troops in uniforms with those in looser Indian costume.
To bulk out the infantry I added a unit of 20 troops supplied by the local ruler - barkandaze (or musketeers), whose largely uniformed appearance doesn't quite make up for their lack of training. Two other units finished off the infantry - a unit of 20 Ghazis (sword-wielding Muslim fanatics) and then 30 urban insurgents - badmash (bandits, or bad men), the sweepings of the bazaars. The last two units are made up exclusively from Old Glory figures.
Then came the cavalry. I only raised two 10-man units, but these look pretty nice. The figures are mainly Old Glory, with a few Foundry riders thrown in.
To finish off the little army I added a few guns, and a couple of staff groups - one of which is mounted on a Foundry elephant.
All in all it was a fun army to paint, and an extremely colourful one to field. Now I'm looking forward to doing the British, although I'll have to take a break from painting Mutiny figures for a few weeks- just to keep what little of my sanity remains!
The Army: (with apologies to the "Carry On" team)
- Leader: (The Khazi of Calibar) on his elephant
- Deputy: Bungit In, mounted with his standard bearer
- 1st Bengal Native Infantry (20 figures)
- 13th Bengal Native Infantry (20 figures)
- 48th Bengal Native Infantry (20 figures)
- 53rd Bengal Native Infantry (20 figures)
- The Khazi’s Foot (Barkandazes) (20 figures)
- The Badmash Mob of Jaksi (30 figures)
- Burpa Ghazi Fanatics (20 figures)
- 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry (10 figures)
- 7th Bengal Light Cavalry (10 figures)
- The Khazi’s Artillery (3 guns, a 12-pdr. with elephant limber, and 2 9-pdrs. towed by oxen)
The British (still under construction)
