More Golconda Stuff

Golconda Rising Miniatures - Hindu irregular warriors. Click pix to enlarge the view.

Blue Willow left a comment asking what paint colors I used for the flesh on these Hindu warriors. So rather than burying the response in the comments, I will tell you which paints I used:

Reaper Master Series (in an eye dropper bottle) tanned flesh triad, although I only used two of the colors:

09043 Tanned Shadow
09044 Tanned Skin

I found that these two colors were sufficient to give me the look that I desired. I did not use #09045 Tanned Highlights. All figures were painted over a coating of Armoury Grey Primer.

I should add that the fellow on the left was covered in Reaper Pro Paints "Shield Brown". I don't have the stock number at hand, but I understand that this series is going out of production and that all future paint selections will be in the smaller eye dropper bottle. I used Shiild Brown as my first sample and wasn't entirely pleased with the result, so I tried the Tanned Flesh triad, which I liked much more.

The archer has been moderately modified with the addition of a piece of wire to simulate the bow string. This little addition makes a world of difference in the final result, so I strongly recommend adding wire bow strings to these figures.

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I am starting to give some thought about building armies for the SYW in India, using the Golconda Rising figures as the cornerstone figures for the project. Nic at Eureka Miniatures informs me that the Mysorean (on the French side) and the Bengali (on the British side) sepoys will be ready soon, so that has me thinking about the size and composition of the armies that I would field on the tabletop.

Given that I know very little about this period, I will probably use the army lists in Tod Kershner's "Age of Reason" rules, but I will double the size of the AOR units (from 16 to 32 figure for native units and from 12 to 24 or 30 figures in European infantry units). Kershner basically recommends using an infantry force with 60% native levies armed with bows, swords or matchlocks; 20% trained native sepoys and 20% European (French or British) infantry. I plan to use Minden and RSM95 figures for my British and French battalions.

At the moment, I have no idea of which figures to use for the native cavalry. I will probably just sit back and wait to see what Golconda does with cavalry. I might be able to use some of the RSM Ottoman cavalry for India.

Foundry has some nice nellies (elephants) to use for army command stands, although at $45.00 a copy, they don't come cheap. Perhaps Old Glory or some other company produces an elephant at a more affordable price. Any suggestions?

Uxbridge: "Good God Sir, I believe that you have initiated an official project"

Wellsley: "Good God, sir I believe that I have!"

OK, I'm going to try loading the modified pictures into my blog, this time using Safari instead of Fire Fox. For some reason, this seems to make a difference. So click on the picture above and take a closer look at the Golconda figures that I painted over the weekend. I used the Osprey book about the Moghul armies as my painting guide. The two officer figures on the right appear to have been copied from this book, so I guess that the Osprey serves as a decent painting guide.

The following two pix apparently are not the modified versions with the exposure and other factors modified. I give up, I'm going to bed.

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Golconda Figures & Minden SYW

I'm having problems with the iPhoto application on our new iMac. I downloaded the pictures and made adjustments to them, then sent them to the library, but now I can not find the modified pix. All I can find are the unmodified, which turned out cruddy since they are not modified. If anyone has any suggestions or advise on the new iPhotos then I'd appreciate your help.

At any rate, here are some crappy pix of the Golconda minitures that I painted over the weekend and a picture of some Minden Hungarians (too dark). It's not worth posting the other pix until I can figure out where they went on my computer. I am really sick about this, as the pictures were very nice.

By the way, I enjoyed painting the Golconda figures. My apologies for the bad piccies.



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Some New Purchases From Eureka USA

Eureka 18th Century Camp Tent set - 9 pieces (click pix to enlarge)

Last Tuesday I placed an order with Eureka USA for a set of 18th Century tents, modelled in resin by Herb Gundt and based on actual dimensions of the tents used in Prussian camps. The tents are not listed on the Eureka web page, but if you ask Rob (in the USA) or Nic (at the Mother Ship in Australia), they will take care of your order.

I also purchased two sets of the Golconda Rising miniatures for Hindu troops in India. I've seen these on the Great White Zulu's "Golconda Rising" blog and had to see them for myself.


A Minden Miniatures Prussian officer (on the left) compared to two Golconda figures (centre and right). As you can see, both ranges have a comparable height, heft and body proportions.

I have provided some sample pictures of this fine range of figures and placed a Minden figure in each picture for comparative purposes. As you can see, both ranges are compatitable in size and body proportions. This is a big plus in favor of the Golconda figures, as far as I'm concerned. I strongly favor realistic looking figures and these beauties definitely fill the bill.

I can definitely see building some large armies for the SYW in India, knowing that I can augment the Golconda figures with selected French and British infantry from the RSM and Minden figure ranges.

Now I only need to find a painting guide of some sort so that I can paint the samples and post the pictures on this blog. By the way, Eureka USA sells the 8 figures as a set for now, so you get one of each with each purchase. This is not particularly handy if you intend to build up armies and need, say, 60 Hindus firing. You will want to purchase similar figures in bulk quantities rather than in sets. Rob indicated that this is a temporary arrangement until they can set things up administratively. So I would imagine that going forward, the figures will be available in some other manner that is more conducive to army building.

I am very impressed with these figures and will have to start collecting information so that I can determine how many figures will be needed to create an army, how to paint them, and how to organize them. My initial thought is a BAR India variant sometime in the future (we are probably looking at a 2012-13 timeframe here, as my 2011 schedule is full of AWI and SYW figures).

Another comparison of Golconda figures (the three on the left) with two Minden figures (on the right)

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