Search 4 28mm WW1 Mesopotamia Cavalry Figures (not wrongly posted)

[Yarkshire Gamer]

Hi,

I have cross posted this here as there may be some late colonial stuff that may be suitable, it's not something I game so any help appreciated.

A plea for advice, tips.

Some of you may have seen my Mesopotamia collection and the games we do each year down at Yarkshire Gamer.

I am trying to increase the numbers of Cavalry for our games but I am struggling to come up with figures. So far for the British I am using Great War Miniatures with a Woodbine Design Company head swap and for the Turkish the East Ablaze range from Minifigs. But have no source for Indian Cavalry.

I am aware of the Brigade Games Range but there are no UK distributors of those figures.

My question is are there any ranges from outside WW1 which from a distance would work, late colonial ? 2nd Afgan ? Early WW2 ? I am happy to hold my hands up and say I am not familiar enough with the uniforms to decide myself.

Although I am alright painting, my modelling skills are very limited so would prefer something I can just paint.

Any suggestions welcome.

Regards Ken
TMP link

[Atheling]

Hi Ken,

i'm no expert regarding your question but if you're looking for ideas for Mesopotamian Cavalry mini's and perhaps considering some conversions then I can heartily recommend Mark Hargreaves, Over Open Sights blog:

http://over-open-sights.blogspot.com/

If I'm not mistaken the pic he has of the British Cavalry on the header for his blog was taken by me at Vapnartak a few years ago. you might even remember the game?

Mark has completed a couple of books on painting and converting WWI miniatures published by Caliver with links on this page of his blog:

http://over-open-sights.blogspot.com/p/published-pa.html

Everything is of very high quality but explained in laymans terms. They really are great books.

Hope this is of some help and Marks work is of some inspiration?

[Yarkshire Gamer]

Cheers mate,

It was Marks stuff I looked at first and where my Great War Miniatures with Woodbine heads came from.

Regards Ken

[Atheling]

Cheers mate,

It was Marks stuff I looked at first and where my Great War Miniatures with Woodbine heads came from.

Regards Ken

Do you have his books Ken?

[Mad Guru]

Ken,

It's a question of how much uniform/equipment/weapon difference you will accept.  Perry has "Bengal Cavalry" troopers and a command pack in both Sikh and Muslim turbans, as seen here:





LINK:

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/index.php?cPath=23_35_49&page=3&osCsid=333f32o6o4fuo3p4etchfggsq4

Old Glory make similar Bengal Lancers, albeit in slightly smaller size.  The photo is pretty awful but the figures less so.  Some love them, others hate them, I think they're okay:



LINK:

https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=235

Artizan Designs also make Sikh & Muslim Bengal Cavalry, but only their Sikhs have lances:



Artisan "Punjabi" Cav:



LINK:

http://www.artizandesigns.com/list.php?man=23&cat=160&page=3

There are probably a couple of other companies with c.1878-1900 Indian cavalry, such as Bicorne.

Best would probably be if Empress extends their "Jazz Age Imperialism" range to include Indian Cavalry.  That may actually be the next item on the list for that range.  Might be worth you getting in touch to check with them, at least if you like the sculpts in the range.  Here's a LINK to check out what's there now.  Not sure if you know the range but I think their c.1919 Highlanders & Indian artillery are  excellent.  Here's a LINK:

https://www.empressminiatures.com/jazz-age-imperialism-14-c.asp

[Yarkshire Gamer]

Do you have his books Ken?

Hi, no I don't personally own them but one of my friends and regular gaming chums has a copy which I have looked through. A brilliant book and if I was starting out in the period I would definitely get. I  have most of the figs I'm going to get now  so it might be a bit late 

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

[Yarkshire Gamer]

Cheers Mad Guru, those are the very ranges I was thinking about, are you knowledgeable about the uniform differences ? As I said initially it's not really my field but visually they look pretty acceptable.

As for the Jazz Age Imperialism range, I am very familiar with the figures, I used the Highlanders from that range to make up a Black Watch battalion, great figs, Indian and British Cavalry in that range would be nice.

[Mad Guru]

IMHO the one striking difference is in the equipment pattern.  c.1872-1902 the differences in Anglo-Indian cavalry equipment are relatively subtle; then the 1903 BANDOLIER pattern is introduced, which gave every Trooper a set of buttoned leather ammo pounces worn over one shoulder.  The cavalry pattern held 90 rounds.

Here's a pic:



In just about every period photo I've seen of Indian cavalry in WWI, they are wearing such a bandolier, as seen here:



The good thing is they look very much like somewhat "standard" ammo pouches, so if you're up for a bit of conversion work, I think chances are you can find some 28mm spare pouches to buy and glue onto c.1880-1900 cavalry figures.  Then it depend on how many cavalry you need.  I have converted a 12-figure unit of Perry Bengal Lancers into sword-armed Bengal cavalry, and converted the turbans on a unit of Perry Muslim Bombay Inf, adding Kullahs and scribing turban folds into what were sculpted as smooth khaki cloth turban covers.  I think adding ammo pouches would be halfway between those two conversion jobs, more challenging than sourcing spare swords, cutting cast-on hilts off scabbards & gluing on the spares, less difficult than adding kullahs & cutting in turban folds.  I would would do the "source & add spare ammo pouches" conversion job on one unit, but probably not more than that. But of course that's entirely up to you!

[Poiter50]

Are the Perry WW2 Yeomanry not suited?

[Mad Guru]

I believe those figures do wear the proper bandoliers, but they're in shirtsleeves.  I don't know if any Indian cavalry ever wore shirtsleeves in WWI Mesopotamia, though certainly possible.  Then you could just do a head-swap for Perry Sikh or Muslim figures -- I don't know but I think they make spare Sikh heads for their WWII British range, which would obviously match perfectly, same sculptor, same range.  But no lancers, just sword-armed charging cav, or cav skirmishing with carbines.

[carlos marighela]

The Perry Yeomanry packs seem to be in collared, khaki shirts as opposed to greybacks or tunics. Not to difficult to modify but then you need to do the head swaps as well. I reckon Brigade Games are your best bet for off the shelf jobs.

[Mad Guru]

Carlos wins the best advice prize!  Bespoke WWI Indian cavalry:



LINK:

http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/BG-WIEB90-Indian-Cavalry-Lancers-3_p_653.html

[Yarkshire Gamer]

Thanks guys but as per my original post there are no UK distributors of that range and getting figs direct from the states is very expensive.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

[Atheling]

Thanks guys but as per my original post there are no UK distributors of that range and getting figs direct from the states is very expensive.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

Northstar used to get some Brigade Games mini's in but I haven't seen any in stock for a few years now. Perhaps take a punt and email Nick to see if he plans on getting any stock in?  I know it's a bit of a long shot.

[Plynkes]

Yeah, I've got some of those. I think I got them from North Star. It was cool back when you could get your WWI Brigade needs from Nick.


I have bought directly from Brigade in the past, but like Yarkshire Gamer, I'd rather not.