Foundry NWF Bengal lancers

[giorgio]

Dear all, which is the difference between NWF018 and NWF019? Pictures are identical. Do they include bamboo lances?
Do you know when Gurkha command will be available again?
Thanks in advance

[Shikari Sahib]

Cross your fingers...somebody could answer
Ciao
😊

[guitarheroandy]

Dear all, which is the difference between NWF018 and NWF019? Pictures are identical. Do they include bamboo lances?
Do you know when Gurkha command will be available again?
Thanks in advance

From what I remember, Foundry packs do not include weapons. You'd need to buy separate wire spears or weapons pack WP015 (bamboo spears) to create their lances...

[Jack Jones]

Dear all, which is the difference between NWF018 and NWF019? Pictures are identical. Do they include bamboo lances?
Do you know when Gurkha command will be available again?
Thanks in advance

It looks to me as if they have the wrong image for NW019 (looking at the code in the bottom r/h corner of each image). I would speculate that the difference will be Muslim and Sikh troops. It may be worth contacting WF to make sure though.

Lances are separate, these ones I reckon:

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/weapon-and-shield-packs/products/wp015-long-bamboo-spears

Cheers
JJ

[giorgio]

Thank you all. Jack Jones I wrote them but no reply

[majorsmith]

Pretty sure the ghurka command are available again as the mould was redone a few weeks ago, most foundry packs come with spears and you can buy them separately also

[Mad Guru]

I have multiple units of Wargames Foundry Bengal Lancers, as well as a copy of the old Wargames Foundry "Victoriana" catalogue from the '90s, which includes illustrations of every figure in their NWF range, and I've never known of any Foundry "Sikh" Bengal lancer figures in that range, unlike the more modern Perry Miniatures Egypt/Sudan range which does include separate packs of Muslim and Sikh Bengal Lancers.  All the old Foundry Bengal Lancers I've seen have turbans wrapped around kullahs, the pointed skull-cap which many Indian Muslims wrap their turbans around.

I don't know if the current WF packs NW018 and NW019 include a mix of the exact same figures or if each has 3 figures in one of the two different lancer poses,  which are "lance upright" and "charging".

The original old Foundry catalogue has 4 different mounted Bengal Lancer figures:

NWCav25 Officer; NWCav26 Trumpeter; NWCav27 Trooper, lance upright; NWFCav28 Trooper charging, lance.

The current Foundry site has 3 different packs, the Command pack, plus the 2 trooper packs, which in the photos appear to include 1 x "lance upright" and 2 x "charging, lance" figures.  It's been years since I ordered them from Foundry, so as I said, I don't know if the images showing 2 charging and 1 lance upright figure in each pack are accurate OR if they just send any 3 castings of those 2 different sculpts, or if -- as we might hope -- each pack always contains 3 x the same particular pose.

[Jack Jones]

Yes … figures with upright lances is probably more likely.

[giorgio]

Thank you all, Foundry has promised to look into it and provide me an answer, as I have I will post here if someone else is interested. Mad Guru aas Always your answer is THE answer

[Mad Guru]

Thanks, Giorgio, that's very nice of you to say.  If I may be so bold as to ask -- is there any particular reason you don't want to use Perry Miniatures Sikh Bengal Lancers from their Egypt & Sudan range?  They are very nice, though it's true they're bigger than the old Wargames Foundry versions.

[Plynkes]

I hope nobody minds if I use this thread to ask a quick related question, sorry if it is a bit of a hijack and diversion. Just wanted to pick the Guru's brains on something. You mentioned the Perry lancers, who represent the 9th Bengal Cavalry (Hodson's Horse) in the second Suakin expedition in 1885. I'm slightly curious as to how that and other similar units came to be designated as 'Bengal.'

After the Mutiny, all the regular cavalry regiments from the Bengal Presidency were disbanded, and their place in the new Indian Army was taken by the various (formerly) irregular cavalry formations (some of whom, including the one in question, were raised specifically to fight the mutineers). The Bengal Presidency was no longer a thing, so why was a unit that was formed almost entirely from recruits from the Punjab given the name 'Bengal?' Is it as simple as that they were replacing units that previously had that designation and were from that army? Just seems a bit odd. Especially as they didn't start calling them the 9th Bengal until 1861, long after the demise of the presidencies. it's like raising a regiment in Kent and calling it the King's Shropshire Light Infantry or something.

Anyway, was just wondering what your thoughts on that might be, Guru.

[Umra Khan]

The Bengal Cavalry remains an Army until 1903 , when after the Kitchner reform became Indian Cavalry until 1922 altough retaining their unit name eg 1st Skinner's Horse.
Punjab Frontier Force never include Bengal Lancer Regiments but Guides Cavalry and other cavalry units.
The composition of a Bengal lancer regiments includes different races-class , divided in squadron or troop.

[giorgio]

Mad Guru, Perry lancers are very nice but I have seen comparisons in Fb and they seem too big for my foundry lancers...expecially the horses

[Umra Khan]

For example the 11th Bengal Lancers, Prince of Wales Own was composed of 1 squadron of Punjabi Muslims,  1 of Sikhs and 1 of Dogras.
They retain their Bengal Lancers title until 1922

[Plynkes]

Thanks Umra. But it doesn't really answer my question. I'm curious to know why they were called 'Bengal' cavalry when 1) They weren't from Bengal, and 2) the army they were part of was no longer the army of the Bengal Presidency (which would have been the reason to call them that in the first place).