Sikh's infanty uniforms & painting them! help!

[adlerhobby]

Ok I have the Tanga skirmish book and have bought german and British troops and Im looking for uniform info so I can paint these forces up, I have found a good amount of info on the germans but can seem to lock down anything for the Sikh troops. Im particularly interested to know about the turbans and what color they should of or could have been as well as any suggestions for vallejo colors for painting uniforms and skin tones  

[Plynkes]

I think that is a misprint or a research error. The Palamcottah Light Infantry were numbered the 63rd, and the 98th Infantry was a separate regiment. Both were in the 27th (Bangalore) Brigade of Force 'B' and were at Tanga. The 2nd Loyal North Lancs and the 101st Grenadiers were the other two units in the Brigade.

I have a couple of photos of the 98th from the time which I can dig out for you, but I don't think I have any of the Palamcottah Light Infantry.

[adlerhobby]

I think that is a misprint or a research error. The Palamcottah Light Infantry were numbered the 63rd, and the 98th Infantry was a separate regiment. Both were in the 27th (Bangalore) Brigade of Force 'B' and were at Tanga. The 2nd Loyal North Lancs and the 101st Grenadiers were the other two units in the Brigade.

I have a couple of photos of the 98th from the time which I can dig out for you, but I don't think I have any of the Palamcottah Light Infantry.

You maybe right Im planning the "battle of the bees". I have Sikh troops  (Indians with turbans) Id like to paint them correctly! the skirmish book isn't lining up well with the battle reports Im finding on line 

[Plynkes]

As promised, pics of the 98th:




Looks to me like these fellows are wearing 'shirt sleeve order' and shorts.





Couldn't find any pics of the Palamcottah Light Infantry, I'm afraid.
 
You mention Sikhs in your post. If you want to use Sikh figures then the Palamcottah LI are out, I'm afraid. They were from Madras in south-eastern India and unlike many Madras regiments did not recruit from outside the area. They had Madrasi muslims and Christians, Tamils and Parayans in their ranks, but no Sikhs.

The 98th were a Hyderabad regiment. Though from Central India, they did recruit in the Punjab, the Punjabi Ahir company in the top picture being an example. Don't know the exact make-up of their companies, but it is possible that those two beardy officers in the last picture are Sikhs.

It was the 98th that got famously scattered by bees, so you'd probably want to use them rather than the Palamcottah LI for the "Battle of the Bees" scenario, though they were both present at that part of the battle.

As far as painting goes, khaki uniforms, mid to light brown skin (neither Punjabis nor people from Hyderabad are particularly dark-skinned), brown leather equipment, easy as pie really. Sorry, don't have any Vallejo colours to give you. I've never used that brand.

[Plynkes]

I have some photos of Tanga that folks planning to run the scenarios from the book might find useful for terrain-building ideas, or at least interesting. I may as well post them here in this thread. It's as good a place as any.



The railway line on the outskirts of town:





A local beehive, cause of all the trouble:


And actual ones from 1914:



Scenes of the town itself:










Now, I'm not an expert on architecture, but I reckon most of those buildings in the above pictures would have been around in 1914, and I don't imagine the streets would have looked all that different (though probably a bit less shabby under German rule).

A Tanga Mosque



And finally some local Swahili girls

[adlerhobby]

THANK YOU!
Im just going by my mini packaging and the Skirmish books details with the names. your post sure clears things up The figures are from brigade so Im hoping Im close enought , any thoughts on turban color?

[Plynkes]

By the time of the Great War the days of gaily-coloured turbans in action had sadly passed (though the Somali Scouts in the East African campaign seem to have fashioned their turbans from whatever material they had to hand, including stripey tea-towels).

So generally the same khaki as the rest of the uniform, though occasionally you see pictures where they are a contrasting lighter or darker shade. So you could do that if you want to break up the monochrome look a little bit.



Wonderful. Photobucket seems to be broke. Hopefully it will be back up again by morning.

[6milPhil]

Wonderful. Photobucket seems to be broke. Hopefully it will be back up again by morning.

Aye, and I was interested to see these. Oh well. 

[adlerhobby]

we started painting and this thread was very helpfull ,,,just saying LOL

[adlerhobby]

Hey Guys & Girls
Im painting beards and wondering whats the best way to handle it and some pictures of anyones stuff would be fun!

[Westfalia Chris]

I usually paint them a black grey (VMC Black Grey or German Grey) as a solid base, then slightly wash this using pure, flat black. Depending on the "age" I want the figure to be and whether it's a character or a rank-and-file trooper, I may highlight this using the base grey and, possibly another layer with some skintone mixed in. The most suitable pic I could find (cannot really take pics right now due to a lack of light) would be this one: