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Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Indian Army Maxim Machine gun

"Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not." - Hilaire Belloc in the words of the figure "Blood" in his poem "The Modern Traveler".

After our first game of The Men Who Would be Kings, it became apparent to me that it was time to paint the Indian Army Maxim Gun based on the devastating performance of the Imperial Russian machine gun. Not only did the Russian Maxim perform historically, it was extremely effective due to its high rate of fire of causing casualties amongst infantry that had cover bonuses from Hard Terrain. Yikes!


My Indian Army Maxim machine gun is another blister pack from Copplestone Castings' Back of Beyond Range. In fact, the pack comes with two machine guns: one Sikh and one Indian Muslim. When purchasing, since I live in the USA, my go to for Copplestone is either eBay or Brigade Miniatures (no Lon Weiss did not pay me to write that!). If you are in the States, Brigade Miniatures has inexpensive and fast shipping - I highly recommend the store.


The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented by Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884; the weapon became the first automatic firearm in production by Vickers, which used .303 British ammunition and a recoil-operating firing system, and required water cooling. 


The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian Martin Gilbert, and was heavily used by colonial powers during the "Scramble for Africa". Afterwards, Maxim guns also saw extensive usage by different armies during the Russo-Japanese War, the First and Second World Wars, and are used by insurgent groups in contemporary conflicts.

In the rules The Men Who Would be Kings it is recommended that crew serve weapons have a crew of four, one of which is an officer. This officer needs a cane to get around due to an earlier battle wound and can't keep up with the Infantry at 6" (Imperial Inches of course); but he has no trouble moving at the 4" move speed for machine guns.



"No matter how many people you kill, using a machine gun in battle is not a war crime because it does not cause unnecessary suffering; it simply performs its job horrifyingly well." - Sebastian Junger, American Journalist.

16 comments:

  1. Fantastic paint job and base Neil, inspired job on your Indian army figures...

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    1. Thanks Phil. I really have enjoyed researching the British Indian army.
      Neil

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  2. Excellent figures Neil, I hope its as good as its Russian counterpart in your last post?

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    1. Me too as I’m playing the British Indian army next!
      Neil

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  3. Nice addition to the forces. I agree with you about Brigade Games, top notch outfit.

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    1. Brigade Games 9 out of 10 times is my go to.
      Neil

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  4. Excellent work on these very fine sculpts. The basing on the MG stand makes for a very defensible position.

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    1. Jon,
      Thanks. One thing I have been concentrating on this year are bases and terrain. Thanks again.
      Neil

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  5. Great looking Maxim gun and crew. Love the green tops for the turbans. I will have to take a closer look at Brigade Games.

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    1. Brigade Games is a great store and have some of their own ranges. Fast shipping and Lon Weiss is a great guy.
      Neil

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  6. That gun and crew look superb and appropriately terrifying Neil.
    Regards, James

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    1. James,
      They certainly look like they mean business! Interestingly in doing my research the British Indian Army was hesitant to deploy Maxims whereas the British Army in the Sudan had no such qualms. Of course, when you break a British square it changes your perspective.
      Neil

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  7. Lovely looking additions to the British cause Neil - the Copplestone figures are splendid and also relatively cost effective. Brigade Games are pretty good - I have some of their RCW as well as WWI in E Africa figures. Even in the far corners of the earth, if you buy a minimum of US$125 of figures, Lon will ship it to you for only $15 postage - thats a pretty good deal!

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