1860s British Expeditionary Force (Update 8/3: cavalry finished)

[EnclavedMicrostate]

After a lot of indecision, I finally committed to starting a blog at last to document my various projects, and at the moment the one I feel I ought to push through on is my British expeditionary force for a hypothetical campaign in Japan some time in the 1860s. My main idea was that it would be a force intervening to support the imperial army in the event that the Shogunate proved more resilient than expected in 1868, but I can also conceive of an earlier scenario, say a situation in 1864 where Chōshū doesn't alienate the entire rest of Japan by burning down Kyōto and a broader coalition rallies against the Europeans.

That being said, I think I bit off a bit more than I could reasonably chew when I first began, and the project somewhat bloated beyond the sort of small sidequest I had intended it to be. Hence the blogging in the hopes it will get me to finish these and get them out of my lead pile, in time to be replaced by yet more things.

The original plan was to take a page out of the 1860 expedition to Peking in terms of organisation. I would do 9 units of infantry (6 British (including Marines) and 3 Indian), 2-4 of cavalry (again, a mix of British and Indian), and some artillery and supporting figures. Then I hit on the idea of doing a Shimonoseki scenario (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=139525.0), which meant suddenly doing naval brigades; I also found out about the presence of Baluchi troops in Yokohama in 1864, which meant a fourth Indian regiment, and I decided I wanted more variety in my cavalry, and ooh these siege guns look nice... let's just say things got out of hand to an extent.

Anyway, here is the blog post:

https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in.html

And as a teaser, the first (and so far only) fully-complete element of the force, the Indian infantry:

[Ray Rivers]

Good luck on your project!

So far... so good! 

[OSHIROmodels]

Great stuff 

I started something similar quite a few years back but with most projects I start, it's all sitting there on a shelf. Looking forward to seeing you continue 

[EnclavedMicrostate]

Well, that's the naval infantry out of the way, having finished the, er, three remaining officers:

https://cohortsofthedamned.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-anglo-indian-intervention-force-in_16.html

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looking good!

[carlos marighela]

Fabulous looking collection!

Historically speaking the British Army and Royal Navy didn't buy the Gatling until the very end of the decade but a little historical latitude is due such a magnificent force.

[EnclavedMicrostate]

Indeed – as noted, I had got the Gatling for my Nagaoka forces and done up the crew for fun, but it is technically the wrong model...

[carlos marighela]

It's not even a question of the model, there were no Gatlings of any type in British service in 1864.  They had been examined two years earlier and rejected as unreliable.

Still, why not, it's not a huge stretch to add one.

[EnclavedMicrostate]

I suspect I've not been clear enough – I got it for use with the Japanese domain of Nagaoka in 1868 (who did have two Gatlings, but of a somewhat different type), but did up some RN crew because it came with them. The Gatling won't be an actual part of the 1864/8 British force as such.

[carlos marighela]

Yeah, my apologies, I misconstrued,  not your fault. Lovely looking mob anyway, look forward to seeing the Japanese. Are you doing the French or some Americans as well?

[Sunjester]

A excellent job!

[EnclavedMicrostate]

I've got a plan for the French but I don't intend to enact it yet. No plans for Americans.

I'll post more images of the Japanese at some point once I've given them all a bit of a touch-up, but those will be over on the Far East board.d

[juergen c. olk]

Yes,I have everything but Japanese...

[CapnJim]

I'm a bit late to this party, but your units all look good so far.  Looking forward to seeing more...

[JBaumal]

Beautiful minis! Well done.