Sudan: Indian Brigade

So another retro post for a BP Sudan brigade I finished last year, the Indian Brigade.

I was amazed when getting into this period just how many nations fought in it, all up it included Sudan Madhists, Sudanese, Egyptian, Turks, British, Australians, and Indian.

Several Indian battalions of infantry and a regiment of horse were sent over for the first campaign(s), including: the 17th Bengal and 28th Bombay Native Infantry, the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, and the 9th Bengal Cavalry, along with their baggage and artillery.

All these units saw action in the Suakim region in 1885, at the battle of Hashin and Torfrik. So when completing this collection, I couldn’t go past representing each regiment.

5th Ludhiana Sikhs

These figures are from Hat Industrie’s Set 8203 Colonial Wars Indian Infantry, an excellent set in much the same style and size as Newline Design’s metal Sudan range.

I’ve include a Standard sized battalion as a firing line and these skirmishes as a Small unit, all from one ~$20 box.

17th Bengal Native Infantry

17th battalion firing line.

28th Bombay Native Infantry28th battalion firing line.

The Bengal and Bombay infantry battalions are from the Esci Set 232 Colonial India British Infantry, long since OOP. The scaling isn’t that great compared to the size of modern sculpts/manufacturers as the brigade shots below show. Also apparently the records show that these units showed up in ‘Indian khaki’ so pretty sure the blue trousers are anachronistic- meh, they look cool anyhow.

There are several head conversions for the ‘leaders’ of these battalions, using the bodies of British commanders and musicians, and the heads of spare Indian troops.

While the conversions are a bit tricky – using a drill bit to prepare the receiving body and scalpel to trim away the body to get the donated head – I really like the end result and fact that there are now unique figures in the collection.

While this may seem to be a lot of effort to go to for a bunch of mass produced plastics, its nothing compared to the insanity of creating individual pugarees from plumbing tape for 20mm colonials, I’ll show you in future posts.

9th Bengal Cavalry

Couldn’t resist these guys. They’re from HaT’s Set 8289 Colonial Bengal Lancers, another excellent set from this manufacturer. So I’ve completed a Standard cavalry unit for the brigade.

And also a Squadron of skirmishers as a Small unit for scouting duties. These guys are from Strelets version of the HaT offereing, Set 057 Bengal Lancers.

Artillery

These ‘mountain guns’ or Screw Guns came from Spencer Smiths’ C12 Colonial mountain gun and Indian army crew. The gun is fantastic and the figures are from a very old Jacklex range that SS is still producing.

Baggage

Pretty sure these are from Spencer Smith as well, along with I think some hacked up Napoleonic gun carriages. Clearly they’re carrying too much gear… oh well

Command

A mix of Jacklex, HaT, and Strelets have formed the two command stands for this brigade.

The Brigade Itself

Putting it all together we have an almost complete brigade which just looks fantastic. The BP unit sizes and ruleset allows for the kind of sweeping dramatic scenes we expect from this period. Including the forming of brigade squares.

Combined with the way the rules actually play, its no wonder I love this ruleset and scale.