Friday 22 April 2022

"You've had the Cowboys..."

 .".. now try the Indians". That was apparently the advertising slogan for a London building firm with South Asian proprietors some years ago - and good for them, I'm certain it worked a treat ( only bested by a plasterer I once used, whose business card said  'for surfaces rendered' ). But I digress.

'Time and Space' for hobby activities has been in short supply recently, but I hope to get a bit more time now, and I want to  try to get back to some painting. I thought I'd give these chaps  a go: 

 

I think my 'D-Day Dodgers' Italian Campaign's allied forces need to reflect the multinational nature of the real thing, and I know that Indian troops made up a significant part of the British Imperial army in Italy, so I reckon these are a must.   I picked up this set at SELWG Last year, and it's about time they came out of the box.  


No less than 56 figures on 4 sprues, which is probably more than I will need!  A nice variety of poses, armed with rifles, revolvers, Stens and Brens.  Here's a  slightly blurry close-up: 


The guy at the top centre looks rather splendid, that bandolier-style belt almost looks like the '12 apostles' of a 17th-Century musketeer. It'll be interesting to see how he turns out. 

It will be good to have a go at these - on thinking about it, I reckon these will be the first figures I have painted representing people of a non-white ethnic group ( which really only shows how little painting I've done! ).  In keeping with the existing British and German figures in the collection, they will be based singly, which should allow them to be used for pretty much any WW2 period  rules. 

Finally a  couple of little resonances, which gave me the 'nudge' to look at these. Firstly, I have been employed by an Indian company for the past few years,  which employment looks likely to end in the next few months. It occurs that these chaps may be a little memory-jogger for my time with my 'offshore' colleagues.  And lastly, a  reminder of  contemporary realities - the maker of these figures is of course Strelets, and they were made in Ukraine.

Given that, I feel I'd better make as good a job of them as I can.  I'll post again soon, I hope, to show how they turn out. Meanwhile keep well, and safe, everyone.


*** UPDATE ***  many thanks to the most excellent blogger  Nundanket  ( in fact, I should of course say 'Nun Danket' to you ),  who pointed out that the incongruous 17th Century-looking figure is indeed a quirky bonus feature from Strelets - a  different 'Streltsi' figure is included in every sprue of their range. See this page from Plastic Soldier Review for more details. Has anyone actually built up a 16th/17th Century Russian force from these? It could be fun, but you might have to buy quite a strange selection of other figures!  

 

11 comments:

  1. Splendid figures and I’m sure you’ll do them proud. There really were an amazing mixture of allied units in the Italian campaign and it’s nice to see some of them represented in your force.

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    1. Thanks JBM, I will do my best with them! The polyglot nature of the forces is all part of the appeal..

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  2. Weren’t Strelets the company that put random figures from other periods in boxes? The central figure may indeed be a 17th C Eastern musketeer. It looks like he’s carrying a big axe/musket rest across his back too.

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    1. Ooh eck- is that really a thing?

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    2. Thanks , I think you are right! Have had another look at the actual figures and he's not from WW2. Interesting idea, but not sure what to do with him!

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  3. I look forward to seeing this box of figures painted up.
    Btw the 17th century looking figure is one, the company is named after that type of Russian soldier depicted in plastic.

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    1. Thanks Alan, looks like you are right, he is a Streltsy, and that big poleaxe is very distinctive. So, buy a few boxes of their figures and you have a unit from Ivan the Terrible's army!

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  4. I have a box of these in Plastic mountain for a Megablitz division (Middle East). I confess a weakness for the old Atlantic Indians despite the inaccurate uniform and weird poses.
    Neil

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    1. Thanks Neil, I've seen the Atlantic figures online now, they do look pretty quirky, all those plumes! These Strelets ones will do nicely, I think. Each sprue has 8 rifles, 2 stens, 1 bren, 1 officer with revolver, and 1 radioman. Not a bad mix, if maybe rather over-provided with radios. I may need to acquire the matching heavy weapons set for some mortars etc, but this looks like easily enough for a battalion in 'Rapid Fire', for example.

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    2. David, your only problem is the eccentric mix of ethnicities; my understanding of the Indian army was that most battalions were formed from a specific ethnic group, such as Rajputs or Punjabis. I have seen Sikh companies within another ethnic battalion as well as Sikh battalions. Each had their own turban style:

      http://www.militarysunhelmets.com

      Apart from the Sikhs, most wore steel helmets in action (some with a scarf wrapped around it which no one does in miniature). So to be totally accurate, you should be mixing up the heads or replacing with steel helmets if you want to be 100% accurate. It's not a problem when battalions are 2-3 figures, but is when they are 18! In some ways the Atlantic are better having only about 3 different turban styles it is possible to do head transplants onto better CW bodies.

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    3. Thanks again Neil,that sun helmets site is a c!assic! You have hit upon a question which was in the back of my mind, and further research may be needed.The figures have a mix of turbans and tin hats , so units will probably have to be made up of one or the other, with a few head swaps required. I think I will be happy with that, for the moment.

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