The No1 (Baalti) Mountain Battery

As I said in the earlier post about the Action at  Tikkabad, I had to 'borrow' a mountain gun battery from my Darkest Africa collection for the first game of our campaign in Rhanzlistan. In the meantime, my order from Ironclad had arrived and was swiftly cleaned up, assembled and undercoated. I had  acquired a mountain gun kit from Ironclad and some mules from Tiger Miniatures earlier in the year, intending to make my own battery mule train at a fraction of the cost of the splendid Brigade Games one! You'll be the best judge of that though I expect.

The two figures escorting the battery's mule train are Copplestone Miniatures. They are spare Gurkha bodies,the heads went on the matching gun crew for the Gurkhas, while the heads are the ones removed from the Indian machine gun crew. A neat swap and nothing wasted! The mules cost £3, the gun £5.50 and the figures about £3 I suppose, a grand outlay of £11.50 or so. Now, I know the gun is much too early for our 1920's setting, but I justify its inclusion on the basis that new kit takes longer to reach remote areas. It suits us anyway, so let's not worry too much about it.
Now, the reason I chose the Ironclad set over the more suitable Brigade Games set was not just price, but rather the 'look' of the crew with their splendidly large turbans!

There they are in their full sartorial glory! For the khaki drill uniforms and turbans I used Foundry Buff Leather shade, highlighted with the same company's Base Sand Shade. It works for me and there they are ready for their baptism at the next game, Incident at Jakzi...