I Couldn’t Resist Indus

I recently stumbled across Indus Miniatures – and when they announced a 20% off ‘Thanks Giving‘ Sale I couldn’t resist getting a few – even though they are aimed at the Indian 18th Century to Mutiny era rather than the later NWF (North-West Frontier). Still the quality of the greens looks nice in these pics, and some of the figs are designed to be fairly generic – for example the Irregular Cavalry or Pindari are described as “meant to represent the Irregular troops serving in India for the Princes, Mughals, Europeans, Sikhs etc. They can be used from 1700 till 1850’s. They probably can be used for other time frames as they are quite generic“.

Indus Indian Irregular Cavalry or Pindari with Bows, although the right-hand arrow looks a bit long?

Indus Indian Irregular Cavalry or Pindari with Spear

I figure the Irregular Cavalry (Pindari) above will be quite suitable for some generic lowland tribal non-Pathan or Afghan cavalry for NWF action and suitable for use for either side? So I picked up a unit of 12 figures (6 with spears, 3 with bows, and 3 command), and at the same time a small unit of Indian Hindu Militia Infantry – these are a little less generic – but I figured a small unit of 10 figures (9 of the below plus a leader) might pass off for some wild Mullah’s elite bodyguard or such like in the 1870-1890 NWF era? Anyway they’ll make a nice alternative to my Foundry & Castaway Pathans & Afghans the I am doing for my main NWF action!

Indus Indian Hindu Militia Infantry – the extra arm on the right is from the separate leader figure

The Hindu Militia also includes a couple of archers (one standing, one kneeling), and there are small ranges of Early Indian Sepoys & Peons (3 matchlock figs & a leader), Indian Rajputs (currently just a couple of leader types at present), and some Marathas (6 very nice cavalry figs, and 6 musket & sword armed infantry) – but alas I don’t think any of these can be ‘squeezed’ into the NWF era…

On The Workbench

However there are some very nice looking Silahposh (Bodyguard) figures in progress (see above) – “Indian Princes had “picked men” that they used for their bodyguard. These men were usually fully armored with sword, shield and firearm. These can be used from 1600’s till 1780“. Unfortunately these are way to early for my NWF – especially the hand guns – but they look lovely. Also on the Indus workbench is some new artillery – that might work for NWF at a pinch – they look pretty nice eitherway… According to Ashok there’s a lot of new items planned for addition to the range over 2012 and it will include elephants & camels among other things (I’m hoping maybe a nice Elephant mounted Jingal) – so keep an eye on them.