Discontinued Museum Miniatures Indian Range

 Discontinued Museum Miniatures Indian Range

As Dave at Museum rolls out his new Z Ranges the replaced ranges are being retired and are no longer available, not even to special order. His range of Indians had many very nice sculpts and if you are missing any figures you will need to hope that they turn up on EBay for sale. I got a bag of 26 Indian Archers a while ago and I finally got my finger out and painted them up. They are generic filler for a lot of my armies and whilst discontinued are very well worth the effort of painting. 

I decided to paint them as eight Irr Bw elements which meant I had two castings left over which made up an odd Ps element. I have another 66 Tin Soldier Indian Archers to paint up in due course too. 

15mm "Chinese" Off EBay - Part 11

More Chinese Off EBay - Part 11

Continuing to paint up the bulk purchase I got off Ken Bell I realised that some of the figures are the now discontinued 15mm Essex TA Code mounted range.

There were six OK painted riders Code TA2 Heavy Cavalry with Lance and Shield, these come on unarmoured horses but if you put them on armoured horses they become code TA2A Extra Heavy Cavalry with Lance and Shield. A quick look through the bag of mounted lead me to finding that there were six odd armoured horses which do not match the Essex website pictures. The riders were not fully painted so I completed them before painting up the six odd mounts. This allowed me to create two off elements of cavalry which can be used as Guard elements in my Sui or Tang army plus any other similar looking cavalry in other armies. I have another 24 TA2A still to paint up but they will be painted in a different colour scheme. Plus loads more TA3/TA3A code cavalry

Essex TA2A Extra Heavy Cavalry with Lance & Shield

Next are twelve TA4 Chinese Light Cavalry with Javelin and Shield. These are used as Light Horse elements and I already have twelve elements of these so this means I can probably field more than enough for all permutations.

Essex TA4 Chinese Light Cavalry with Javelin & Shield

The last batch of Essex mounted for this blog entry are twelve TA5 Chinese Light Cavalry Horse Archers. These are used as Light Horse elements and again I already have twelve elements of these so this means I can probably field more than enough for all permutations.

Essex TA5 Chinese Horse Archers

Last up are eight odd Chariot Miniatures TIB3 Tibetan Nomad Cavalry with Bow. It took me a while to ID these figures but they are a perfect fit with the small Tibetan command I completed earlier this year.

Chariot TIB3 Tibetan Nomad Cavalry with bow

15mm "Chinese" Off EBay - Part 10

Missing Yuan Chinese - Part 10

As my ongoing Chinese Project continues I turned to the Yuan Chinese. This is in fact not a Chinese Dynasty by was actually ruled by the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan and his successors. The painted army, along with the purchase from Ken Bell off EBay and a few new additions allowed me to create otherwise unique elements that do not appear in any other of my planned armies.

First up is Kublai Khan who comes in two options, the first being the traditional mounted cavalry element and the option to put him on a war elephant.

The Khan figure is Museum Miniatures Mongol General Code MG01

https://www.museumminiatures.co.uk/mongol-general.html I had three of these from the EBay purchase so one ended up being cut down to fit the Howdah. His two supporting cavalry are of an unknown make - possibly Kennington, though I have added my own shields from my spares bag.

The flags are all of my own creation based on Mongol or Yuan flags.

The option to mount Kublai Khan on an elephant was originally a problem as there are not many elephant models produced specifically with the Chinese in mind but I ended up using a Museum Miniatures Elephant with Naphtha Throwers Code IE18 

https://www.museumminiatures.co.uk/elephant-naptha.html

It means I have the Naphtha crews left over to make into something else one day. 

The Yuan Chinese list has the option to use two Cavalry supported by light infantry, to be honest this combination is a poor troop type, they cant rear support each other they lose 25% of their speed due to the infantry being slower and the rear support only counts against Kn X and Cavalry whereas two deep Cavalry mitigate against everything except Elephants or Artillery. The only slight plus is that they get a 2 AP discount as they are Regulars. I cant see me using them but the figures were painted and spare. They are all Essex Miniatures but I am unsure of their codes.

If the front rank it destroyed in close combat both elements are destroyed but if it is destroyed by shooting only the front rank dies so I needed to create rear rank swop out elements just in case.

15mm "Chinese" off EBay - Part 9

 Filling in Gaps in the Chinese - Part 9

I got a huge batch of Mongol Chinese earlier this year they were a mix of one Essex TA codes and Kennington Miniatures from SHQ. 

First up are 12 left over Essex TA6 Tang Chinese Heavy Infantry. I have more than enough spearmen and Regular Auxilia so decided to turn them into Irr Ax S/O. The codes are still searchable on the Essex website but dont appear otherwise.

Essex TA6 Tang Chinese Heavy Spearmen painted up as Irr Ax S/O

The Kennington/SHQ castings painted up really well despite some of the riders coming in two parts at the waist. I only have enough castings to make nine elements but can add other ranges in as necessary.

Kennington/SHQ Mongol Light Horse

Playing Around With Bits For The Far East.

15mm Misc Bits For Use With Chinese Armies

I had some left over bits from my Paddy Fields blog back in August 2019.

https://drewjarman.blogspot.com/2019/08/creating-paddy-bunds-in-15mm.html

I finally decided that I could make something out of them. So I made nine Temporary Fortifications on 40mm x 20mm bases. I might sell them or keep them no idea just yet. I used some of the liquid water effect in the ditch in front of the palisade but it didnt really show that well.

Finally I got some Fish Pond decorations in resin. They were not that nice out of the packet but after a quick Dark Brown Wash and basing up they have turned out nicely to use as bridges when roads cross a river on the table top. I have another six to do in due course but again it really depends in I think its worth the effort. I can always sell them on of course.