How do you Paint those Turbans?

Whenever I paint a new period or a new type of figure (in this case both!), I usually paint a test figure to work out the colors and how I want the unit to look. Since I was working on a Sikh cavalry squadron of the 3rd Regiment of Bombay Light Cavalry for The Men Who Would be Kings. I thought to myself, "Self, while you document the colors in your handy dandy notebook, why not use the camera on your phone to capture the steps of how you painted the figure?" At the time I was doing this, I was also working on a unit of French Marines for the French and Indian War, so that allowed the paint to dry before moving on to the next step.

For the unit I am painting I purchased two packs of Artizan Designs NW0110 Sikh Cavalry and one pack of NWF0109 Sikh Cavalry Command. They can be purchased in the United States at Brigade Games or direct from Artizan Designs in the UK. Above is a figure from pack NW0110. I don't know if it is me, but lately it appears that the 2nd Afghan Range from Artizan has more flash, mold lines and pock marks than they used to. I don't know if there is an issue with the molds or the casting process (and they are good figures!) but it took a lot of filing and prep time to get figures and horses ready for painting.

I have only a few simple cardinal rules for myself when I paint and what I pass on to others. One of them is ALWAYS USE A PRIMER! I won't get into the debate on which color primer is the best, but paint sticks to paint. Most of the time I use black primer because black can hide a multitude of painting sins - but I also use white, brown and grey. The black primer I use is just US $1.19 a can - you don't need the fancy hobby store primer if you want to save money.

Here are my rules when I paint a figure:

1. Always use a primer.

2. Paint the figure for gaming distance; i.e., what will the figure look like at a distance while you are gaming? My eyes are getting older and this works perfectly fine for me - every figure does not need to be a miniature work of art.

3. It's your army. You bought it. Paint it how you want. If you want to use 3 color blending that's cool; if you just want to use one color with no shading that's fine too. Paint to your comfort level. To be honest, sometimes I'm lazy and sometimes I want to do it fast and that determines often how I paint.

4. If you make a mistake, don't worry about it - just paint it over.

I like to paint the face first and I always look at photographs of what people look like. Fortunately I have a friend who is Sikh - but I promised I wouldn't say his name! He laughs when I call him my male model but he doesn't want his name out. All paints are Vallejo unless otherwise noted. For the base of the skin I used Dark Flesh.

Next I used a slightly watered down GW Ratskin Flesh (or whatever they are calling the color now. It's the one that used to be Dwarf Flesh but I can't keep up with the names anymore)>

Next I made my own wash of watered down Dark Brown.

I then went back and highlighted the high points of the face and other parts of the skin with Dark Flesh again. I probably spend more time on the faces than other parts of the figure because for me, it sets the tone and "personality" of the figure as I paint. I usually don't do eyes these days and just let the shading do the trick (Gaming Distance).

One of the challenges I have with cavalry is do I glue the figure to the horse and paint them together or do I paint them separately or glue the figure on the horse later in the process? This time I waited to glue the figure later since I had a turban with stripes to paint and I think it would have been harder to paint if he was glued to the horse. I used GW Golden Yellow or whatever GW calls it now (which is actually darker than the picture) with two coats on one side and Sky Blue on the other. I discovered by accident that Sky Blue is an excellent base color to use for dark colors that you don't want to look to dark; e.g. Dark Green looking black at gaming distance.

Make some black vertical stripes wide enough to allow two stripes inside the black later on. I used Flat Black for this. Don't worry if it isn't perfect; you can always paint over if you are off a little or remember, it doesn't look perfect in the field.

Here is the side. The figure is not glued to the horse; I'm just using the horse as a stand to allow the figure to dry.

I have no idea what the back of a turban looks like as all the pictures are always from the front. So this is what mine looks like.

I'm showing the turban a lot from different angles because it is the turban that is going to draw the eye to the figure/unit when gaming.

One more view of the steely eyed cavalryman charging right at you!

Inside the black parts of the turban, paint Flat White.

Now you can see how I cheat. I painted a smaller vertical stripe inside the white with Dark Blue. Then I went back and painted a Flat White stripe in the middle and one on each side of the Dark Blue. I find this easier than trying to paint dark stripes and white is easier to fix.

See how it now looks?

I used Dark Green over the Sky Blue and you can see already how the Sky Blue is highlighting and making the Dark Green look brighter.

The base I usually use for khaki uniforms is Yellow Ochre. Great for WW II German tanks too.

For the blanket roll and puttees I use, again, a lighter color as a bash - the good ole Dark Blue. I also painted the cummerbund (I now there is another name and I need to look it up) Flat Red. The saddle cloth, which is hard to see in this picture, was painted Luftwaffe Grey. Unfortunately you can see some of the pock marks on the horse in this picture from the casting process and I was out of green stuff to fill holes.

I have now painted the blanket roll and puttees Prussian Blue which is a really dark blue but lightened by the Dark Blue under it. The leather on the figure has been painted Leather Brown and the horse is Flat Brown. The second coat on the uniform is MSP Desert Tan.

I started mixing and matching other browns to break up the monotony of all of the brown. For the horse I made a wash of Chocolate Brown and then highlighted with Flat Brown. The harness is also Flat brown and the metal is Brass except for the bit, stirrups and the spurs which are Silver. I added, every so carefully, some highlights of Flat Green to the Dark Green on the Turban. I left the boots black. I have seen photos of black boots and brown boots, but I thought this figure had enough brown. The figure is still not glued to the horse. The sword is Silver. I also gently added some Light Grey highlights to the beard and mustache and the horses hair. I also used the same color to border the saddle clothe.

And this is why he is not glued to the horse yet. I learned the hard way to have the figure on the horse and then make sure the attachments are where you want them, then glue the figure!

I trimmed off the basket handle off the scabbard since his sword is already drawn. The pouch on the back is Flat Black.

Here is the carbine. You have probably notice that neither the scabbard or the carbine is primed. Dang it! Forgot to do that before I glued them on with super glue. The figure is now glued.

Well . . . I carefully primed the scabbard and carbine. When I painted them, I painted the scabbard and the carbine stock Mahogany Brown and the carbine holder (?) Leather Brown. Time to put it on the base. I use white glue and this is a 40mm round Litko base.

 

Tah Dah! All done. Some basing material and I think it will serve the British Raj quite nicely. 

Independence Day: The Original Brexit

  

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

My (Semi) Historical Late 19th Century Indian Army (Part Two)

Yeah I know - it's been awhile. The good news is that the last of the big move is kinda, sorta over so it's time to get back to the serious business of miniatures, painting and gaming!

I'm a big Dave Mersey fan (and a fan of the Osprey 64 page rule books - more on that later!) and my choice for gaming Colonial conflicts from approximately 1850 to 1914 is The Men Who Would be Kings. Based on the popular Knight Rampant, I love the approach that allows me to tailor the scenarios and forces in a realistic manner without getting bogged down in too many charts and mechanics. In addition, it's fun, fast playing, and allows me to have a "Hollywood" type of game!

As I started building my Indian Army, I did not have a particular table of organization (TO&E) or conflict in mind; I was picking units that I thought looked cool. As the force slowly took shape, I started focusing on the Northwest Uprising of 1897 - 1898 and still decided to pick units that looked cool! So don't expect to see the actual Indian Army forces organized by the historical TO&E when the uprising starts. As I mentioned in my last outing, here's what's up:

1. Picking units because they look cool!

2. A controversy of color.

3. Turbans!

Jacob's Rifles

Okay, this unit is outside of the period that I am aiming for - but WHO CARES! Who doesn't want a unit of green turbans and red pants to break up the monotony of khaki? My next unit for the British Indian Army, using the rules The Men Who Would be Kings are the 130th King George's Own Baluchis (Jacob's Rifles) which was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army raised in June 1858 as the 1st Belooch Rifles; re-designated as 1st Regiment Jacob's Rifles in September. It was designated as 130th Jacob's Baluchis in 1903 becoming the 5th Battalion (King George's Own) 10th Baluch Regiment (Jacob's Rifles) in 1922. In 1947, it was allotted to Pakistani Army, where it continues to exist as 12th Battalion of The Baloch Regiment.

The figures are from Perry Miniatures listed as Jacob's Rifles in their "Victoria's Little Wars" section. The nice thing about this particular figure range is that the Jacob's Rifles figures can be painted as numerous other Indian Regiments. Though my painting interpretation dates from the 2nd Afghan War, there are several primary sources that have stated that the unit continued to wear their green turbans and red pants in the field in the 1890's - and of course there are primary sources that say they didn't! Mine do.

"Sarvatra!" (Everywhere!)

Turbans!!! Most infantry units by the late 19th Century were wearing Khaki turbans. Not so the 1st Madras Pioneers which were also expected to fight as infantry. When I saw primary source photo's and illustrations, to include modern artwork, I knew I had to give the turbans a go. The nice thing about painting turbans you don't have to worry about getting all of the lines exactly straight because you are dealing with folds of fabric and they wouldn't look straight anyway. 

Since I had some extra command figures I did an elephant flag too in order for them to represent the fictional 2nd (Thundering Herd) Regiment of the fictional Princely state of Chaimbellistan. I fudged the flag a bit when gluing,  but I am proud (humble, aren't I?) of the elephant I painted! 

The figures are Perry Miniatures and are from packs VLW 32 Bombay Infantry Command, 2nd Afghan War, VLW 33 Bombay Infantry advancing, 2nd Afghan War, and the mounted officer is from VL 1W3 Jacob's Rifles Command.

To make them look more like an engineering unit, I added mainly leftover hard plastic axes from the Gripping Beast Viking Hirdmen box and some odds and ends I've collected over the years. Save those bits!

"Good job lads! You have built another fine bridge!" When the 1st Madras Pioneers are performing engineering tasks on the tabletop, I will add the little vignette of tools and materials next to the unit.

"Ran Vir Jai Sada!"

Speaking of turbans, 99.99% of the Indian cavalry were still wearing their colorful turbans in the 1890's. These nice figures from Artizan Designs are painted as the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry which has a long and distinguished history. I decided to model them as D Squadron which was composed of Jat Sikhs. I based them using the alternative basing method of 3, 2, 1 with a total of 8 figures for a Regular Cavalry unit.

Take that you bandits!

The motto of the regiment is ‘रण वीर जय सदा’ (Ran Vir Jai Sada); which translates to "The gallant warrior, ever victorious".

Next in Part 3:

1.The Great Indian Army GW Contrast Paint Field Study.

2. Lancers rule!

3. Conversions.