Monty's North West Frontier - Update on p. 5 - 9th Lancers (25.10.2020)

[Monty]

Greetings gentlemen,

it's been a while since I started a threat here in the LAF but currently I have a project running which I found appropriate to be presented here: The North West Frontier

Actually it's all about the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War which was fought between 1878 and 1880. Actually I cannot recall what really drove myself into this project and towards this theatre of war but somehow my friend Michael (aka. Admiral Benbow) gave me the determining poke. When I found my penchant for historical wargaming I started with Napoleonics but sooner or later I put put my feelers for other interesting topics. Thus the different utterly nice ranges about British colonials in the 1880s caught my attention. Namely the Mahdist Revolt of 1881 and the following years. Without any doubt I was influenced by Basil Dearden's epic movie Khartoum but soon I realised that too many of my club fellows had fallen to this conflict before. Actually it seemed that we had enough Camel Corps and Naval Brigade troops in our collection to revive El-Teb nearly 1:1...

This was the very moment Admiral Benbow entered the stage. He and I chatted about the colonial progress of the late 19th century and inevitably reached the Great Game. The more we digged into this hobby horse of his the more it caught my interest. Finally I was fascinated by the mixed bags of troops the British brought into Afghanistan during the 1870s and 1880s. Needless to say that certain pieces of cineastic goodness (The Northwest Frontier, The far Pavilions &c.) fueled my interest...

Anyway finally I ended up with plans to muster troops in uncertain number to recreate this conflict...

Here I want to present my humble collection and deliver some side notes about books and other sources. I hope you'll enjoy this look onto my workbench and into my bookshelf.

Cheers
Stefan

[Monty]

To get into a theme it's always helpful for me to start painting some figures. Thus I wanted to have a rather generic unit for the NWF. In those days - back in 2014 actually - there weren't too many ranges usable for the 2nd Afghan War. Most of the figures didn't were the iconic puttees or didn't have the correct headgear. After some conversation with Ethan (aka. Mad Guru) who is a tremendously well-read and utterly nice fellow I decided to give Michael Perry's British Infantry in Indian Service Dress a go. As usual for Michael's work the figures are a feast for the eyes concerning the details and the anatomic accuracy. And luckily they wore the correct dress for at least a couple of British units during the certain conflict.

Here I went for a 12 men unit since I've been aiming at skirmish level games. Nevertheless I bought four packs of the chaps to form two units. More on the remaining dozen later. For the colour scheme I relied on advice of painting expert Mark Hargreaves (aks. Over open Sights) who gave me kind and preceless hints. Mostly I went for Vallejo Model Colors and a scheme based on Green Brown.

Now after two-and-a-half years I'm still satisfied with those fellows. They were my very first figures for this theatre of war and they hopefully will serve well for Her Majesty.

Cheers
Stefan

[Cadence]

  way cool !

[Captain Blood]

They look great Stefan 

[Monty]

They look great Stefan 

Many thanks, Richard. Just my humble start. More to come... 

[Mad Guru]

Very nice indeed!  Can't wait to see more of your Second Afghan War collection!  Very kind of you to mention me, Stefan -- I remember your message, I think via email, and very happy to hear my reply was of some use.

[Andrei1975]

They look great!

[Monty]

Well... To go deeper into the NWF theme I started to discover some sources. As we all stroll around the internet four hours and hours a good start are online sources. Thus let me mention a blog dedicated to the battle of Maiwand and a priceless source of inspiration:
Maiwand Day by Ethan "Mad Guru"

Actually I stumpled over Michael Davis' blog first but I wasn't able to find it years after it was so helpful for me. A shame! Please add the link in a reply if possible! --- see Edit below ---

Another good start are of course the Osprey books we all appreciate for their coulor plates which are so helpful for us painters:

Unfortunately there's no Osprey book about the 2nd Afghan War but all those four books cover the 1880s more or less. Thus they prooved utterly helpful for my issue.

But to go deeper into the political and military background and to get an idea of the NWF 140 years ago I needed more literature:

Michael Barthorp is an expert of the colonial history of the Indian subcontinent and especially of the events in 1878 - 1880. His work is kind of standard reference and I cannot recommend it enough.
Likewise the book by Leigh Maxwell is a good read and covers the events to lead to the historic defeat at Maiwand very detailed and based on a lot of primary sources.
Since the late 18th century was a time when photography became more and more widespread, there a many pictures taken during those years in India. The third book on the pictures bears a lot of these photos and give some interesting views. Unfortunately the book is a bit oldish and the reproduction quality is not as good as it could be nowadays. But for £5 it was a real bargain.

In case that you're interested in terrain building then let me mention another collection of photagraphs. It's called "From Kashmir to Kabul" and provides excellent reproductions of contemporary pictures. Since I gave my copy to a friend I only have a internet picture of the cover to show:

If that's not enough now I can recommend to have a look at certain portals for public domain sources. Especially archive.org and Project Gutenberg keep publishing digitalisations of works that lost copyright due to the author's death more than 70 years ago. For us these sites are bearing a lot of first person accounts on the ongoings of the war.

Some examples:
Howard Hensman, The Afghan War of 1879–80, 1881: Direct link
Peter S. Lumsden and George R. Elsmie, Lumsden of the Guides, 1899: Direct link
Hippisley Cunliffe Marsh, A Ride Through Islam, 1877: Direct link
C.E. Yate, Northern Afghanistan, 1888: Direct link
J. Percy Groves, The 66th Berkshire Regiment, 1887: Direct link
Walter Ashe, Personal Records of the Kandahar Campaign by Officers Engaged Therein, 1881: Direct Link
Joshua Duke, Recollections of the Kabul Campaign, 1879 & 1880, 1883: Direct Link
J.A.S. Colquhoun, With the Kurram Field Force, 1878–79, 1881: Direct Link
Charles Gray Robertson, Kurum, Kabul and Kandahar, 1881: Direct Link
Frederik S. Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar, Forty-One Years in India, 1897: Direct Link

Most books are provided in various formats making them readable on the computer in good pdf quality or on ebook readers as epub. Some are difficult to read on ebook readers because the digitalisation seems to be rather simple. Thus the footnotes got mixed up with the actual text which makes it difficult to follow from time to time.

Anyway last but not least a source for pictures: Phototheca Afghanica

It provides a lot of pictures from the 19th and early 20th century. Just take the time to stroll around a bit. Especially the album with the pictures of the Royal Engineers Museum is worth a look.

Well... Then that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this look behind my research for the project and maybe find an idea to go deeper into NWF.

Cheers
Stefan


- - - - - - - - - - E D I T - - - - - - - - - -

Mad Guru thankfully delivered the name of the blog I wasn't able to recall. It's "Horse and Musket" by Michael "Reggie" Davis. Excellent that this source is rediscovered! I only found my email-conversion with Michael but wasn't able to remember his alias and the blog: Link to Horse and Musket and a direct link to his 2nd Afghan War section

Many thanks, Ethan!

[Mad Guru]

Stefan,

The link to my own site aside, THANK YOU for providing a valuable service for those of us interested in late 19th Century NWF in general and the Second Afghan War in particular, by putting all the above links together in one place!

I'm happy to be of a little more service by providing you a LINK to the blog of my friend Michael "Reggie" Davis, who I far too seldomly play tabletop wargames with -- but every time we manage to get together it's always a great game and a lot of fun for everyone involved, be they victorious or defeated:

http://horseandmusket2.blogspot.com

Michael has beautiful colonial armies, but they're only one small part of his vast, historically wide-ranging collection, that covers almost everything from WOR to Early WWII, with emphasis on various Horse-&-Musket armies.

[Monty]

Many thanks, Ethan!

Indeed I remembered a lot of Michael's great contributions on his blog but wasn't able to recall the name...   
I added the link to my post above.

[Keith]

Great start so far - will be following closely.

[JBaumal]

Monty, That's a great start sir! Those figs look awesome. There's nothing like jumping into a new period with both feet. There are loads of good people here willing to share their research with you. The 2nd Afghan War is one of my favorite periods. I too find inspiration from Mad Guru and his amazing blog and have nothing more I can add to that other than pics of some of my games, terrain, and figs on my blog.

I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this project and more painted figs!

[DintheDin]

Really a feast for the eyes!
I wish you good luck for your project, I'll be following this thread!
Thanks for sharing!

[smirnoff]

Excellent

[Hammers]

Michael Barthorp's 'The North West Frontier' is indeed a treasure, but, my good, the lack of a good editor at it's conception hits you straight in the face.