Monday, 3 March 2025

From RichardM: Unusual Soldiers of the Queen (330 points)

The Sudan adventure continues this week with a number of the more unusual British and Empire units.

Firstly we have a few batteries of Gatling guns with their Naval crews.



Keeping with the naval theme, I have then done the Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) battalion with their grey serge uniforms and white helmets and webbing.




And for even more naval action there is a battalion from the Naval Brigade in their sailor uniforms with the straw boater.  I bought these as a battalion when ordering from Pendraken, but from my reading so far it appears as though they were actually used to man the Gatling and Maxim guns and were not fielded as a formed battalion.  In any case, they look good, are different and are always seen in 28mm Sudan armies as a formed unit - so I am having them.



Next up is a unit of dismounted Camel Regiment troops to go with the mounted camels (a few who are accompanying them for flavour - but painted earlier) that I put up as one of my early entries.  These are a smaller unit to match the number of figures in the mounted regiment.




Lastly we have a regiment of Indian Lancers.  Both the 9th and 13th Bengal Lancers served in the Sudan campaign.  However, as I could not find much description of their field uniform I have loosely followed a picture in Mike Snook's Go Strong Into the Desert.  If anyone is interested in the 1885 campaign this is a wonderful book.  





For points, I reckon they work out as:

Gatling guns - 3 per gun and 3 crew so 6 * 6 = 36
RMLI - 60 foot figures = 60
Naval Brigade - 60 foot figures = 60
Dismounted Camel Regiment - 42 foot figures = 42
Bengal Lancers - 44 mounted = 132

Total = 330 points


From Millsy:

Crikey, a second POINTS BOMB in one week. There should be some sort of limiting factor to prevent Minion burn out!

Yet another gorgeous collection of Sudanese goodness mate. The blue is really striking and the sheer number of cavalry just bumps the wow factor even higher.

Loving the RMLI too which you don't often see, and Naval Brigade in sennet hats are iconic. The battery of Gatling guns is something else too. Do you have any Gardner guns as well?

330 brilliant points on your tally!

Cheers,
Millsy

28 comments:

  1. Wowsers! The 10mm really allow you to field big, impressive units. Top notch painting.

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  2. Excellent, this project of yours just keeps getting better and better Richard

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  3. Superb - love the Naval Brigade and Hodkins Horse

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    1. Thanks Dave - the varied units always appeal to me.

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  4. Cracking work Richard, are you adding SouthAustralia and NSW contingents?

    Cheers
    Matt

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  5. Wow, what an army you're building!

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  6. Really superb. The little flashes of colour on the desert background make for attractive photos.

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    1. Thanks a lot. The camera phone makes it hard though - it seems to have two different ‘warmths’ to the photo depending on where I start the shot.

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  7. This is going to be a fantastic army.

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    1. Hope so Tom. I still have a lot of the Mahdists to paint and a few more British units.

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  8. Another great addition to an already impressive army, well done!

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  9. "In any case, the look good" - damn right! This whole project has been a lot of fun to see. Great work.

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  10. Lovely work! Can’t do Sudan without the Naval Brigade and can’t do colonial Brit’s without Bengal Lancers,

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    1. They certainly add ‘flavour’ to the forces - thanks Peter

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  11. Simply wonderful again. This project is really fun to follow. Well done.

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  12. Nice work, Richard! Excellent color on the wee scale. I love the lancers and those formation of them look ready and sizable to ruin someone's day!

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