Indian!!

The title of this post popped into my head from the wonderful TV series Goodness Gracious Me where in a series of sketches, an Indian father insists to his son that everything from Christianity to the British Royal Family are Indian......

https://youtu.be/8tw7LIykvBw

Many Indian Army formations and units fought in the desert in WW2, the first and most celebrated was Fourth Indian Division. For the period I am interested in at present, the three infantry brigades comprised a British and two Indian battalions, with lots of variations and substitution of entirely British brigades.

I have previously mentioned how, as a callow youth I encountered the Atlantic Indian Brigade plastics in the Toytub in Edinburgh, but passed up the opportunity to buy them, a decision regretted for many years. Had I bought them, I suspect I may have been disappointed.....

The pictures that follow are from the excellent Plastic Soldier Review website:

https://plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx

It was the lurid (and inaccurate) box art which hooked me:

Unfortunately, as the PSR review makes clear, the accuracy, weaponry and animation leaves something to be desired....

What they do have are wonderful turbans!

For many years, that was all that was available aside from transplanting Indian heads onto British bodies or painting British figures with darker skin (most wore helmets in battle aside from Sikhs) or use metal - most ranges just have Sikhs though.

Strelets raised the bar by releasing a set:

The figures are mostly considerably more accurate with less silly poses, although as PSR remarks there are problems with some weapons...

Some figures are simply fantastic such as the radio operator. Like the Atlantic set, they suffer from a mix of turban types that would be unlikely to be seen in the same unit; the Indian Army was organised along regional / tribal lines, each with their own distinctive pagri as this C19th illustration depicts:

The only exception were Sikhs, who often formed companies in other battalions.

I was guided by the above and photos in The Tiger Strikes and the Tiger Kills (HMSO publications about the Indian army in WW2).

So I decided a little "Frankensteining" (or is it "Frakensteening"?) was in order and there followed an agony of lopping of heads, pins and sore thumbs.....

Glueing turned into a nightmare as some heads insisted on rising above the pin, despite lots of insertion and pressure. Gaps were filled with liquid green stuff and a coat of diluted PVA, some fettling and a spray undercoat / primer later we have:

Maharattas (note some figures have steel helmets on back or belt - I felt removing them would result in more problems to correct so used Pagri heads for them while the majority has steel helmet)

Punjabi -note two slight variations in turban

Atlantic do a nice Punjabi head, so I may convert another unit

Rajputs and Rajputana Rifles

Sikhs

There are lots of other useable figures from the Strelets box and a few from the Atlantic (with some more heads) and these will be used for the Indian Motor Brigade or squadrons of the CIH as well as possibly another Indian division.

Also, deciding I had not endured enough, I made the decision to increase the number of tank models - I'm finding 1 model per 30 tanks is a good ratio, allowing DAK to have a mix of types. Unable to find the other Hasegawa Stuart and after lots of deliberation, I dug out what had intended to be the HQ vehicles for each of the brigades.....

Fortunately, despite the Mirage model having rubber tracks, it also comes with 3D printed versions and the other two have moulded tracks / wheels. Sadly two do have lots of PE brass bits including side skirts.... as these are "proper" serious models....

I'm working on the idea that short weekends allow for more of this type of thing and some Contrast Paint  work and longer leave is best for the Soldier King project as it takes longer. I do however keep thinking I need to get more of the Italian Wars flats done.....