Above is a pic of Lt. Colonel James Galbraith, Regimental Colour in hand, alongside Bobbie the regimental dog and some of the other "Last Eleven" survivors of the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment, making their last stand in one of the walled gardens just South of Khig village, a few miles West of the Afghan town of Maiwand.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

1st Bombay Grenadiers Officer's silver helmet badge












While googling around for all things "1st Bombay Grenadiers" I happened across this on BOSLEYS Military Auctioneers website. It was up for auction back on September 14th, 2005. If it were up for auction right now I think I'd have to bid. Maybe I'll get a mounted Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson figure -- regimental C.O. at Maiwand -- and put a tiny version of this badge on the front of his foreign service helmet.

4 comments:

  1. I don't know about in the 1880s, but in the 20th Century, after they had been renamed the 101st Grenadiers, the Sepoys wore a small grenade badge on the front of their turbans. But I think it was just the grenade, without the scroll and crown.

    Plynkes

    ReplyDelete
  2. Will you paint that grenade badge onto the turbans of your 1903 Somaliland grenadiers, or model it with a touch of Greenstuff or something similar?

    If I'd known of the existence of the Copplestone WWI Muslim Indian Infantry figs before I started converting turbans for my 1st Bombay Grenadiers, I might have just bought enough of them and lopped the heads off to swap onto the Perry Bengal/Bombay figures, since the turbans on the WWI figs look very similar to that worn in the Osprey illustration of a Grenadier in 1880. But that would have cost a lot more, and I would have ended up with 20 headless WWI Indian army bodies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Greenstuff possibly. I'm not sure if they wore it in the field (the references I have only show them in their parade uniforms), but I may well include it anyway.

    Pictures of their turbans in the first two decades of the 20th Century look much more like how you've modelled yours than like the one in that Osprey plate you posted. Tall and tight, rather than short and wide.

    I would use the Perry figures the same as you, but I want mine to have Martinis, so I will be going down the headswap route.

    My Grenadiers will be based on those Copplestone ones you mentioned. They are too short though, so I shall lop off the kullah, extend the height of the turban with Green Stuff and then pop the kullah back on.

    This will then be put on a Foundry Darkest Africa Sikh. The Sikh head won't be wasted though as it will be going on another body for another project, and the headless WWI Indian bodies will also be used for something else. So a minimum of waste.

    Sorry, I have gone on a bit, haven't I. I really should be talking about my stuff on MY blog, this comments section is for talking about your blog.

    Anyway, keep up the good work, I find this site a great tonic for whenever inspiration levels are dropping. Always picks them up again.

    Plynkes
    (Not able to sign in for some reason, hence my posting as 'Anonymous')

    ReplyDelete
  4. Plynkes,

    Days ago I tried leaving a comment in reply to yours above but it never posted. For some reason this blog of mine has an intermittent "bug" when it comes to posting comments via my computer. Basically I just said it was great to hear that on occasion in some small way I have encouraged your inspiration levels! Reading about that made me smile!

    I know the Foundry Darkest Africa Sikhs you refer to. I have a handful and hope to get enough more for a 20-figure basic unit. Of course there's no perfectly matching native officer (since they're heftier than the regular Foundry Sikhs) but maybe I'll try a head-swap conversion of some sort with one of those excellent Darkest Africa British or Belgian officers, or find a Copplestone officer to serve the purpose out of the box, or after head-swapping with one of the Foundry Sikhs.

    I relate to your desire to have your Sikhs carrying the proper rifles! I have a nice pack of 4 "Yeti Hunters" from West Wind's Gothic Horror "Yeti" range, which are nice looking Gurkhas wearing poshteens. But the three with rifles all carry SMLEs, which doesn't work well circa 1880! I've been meaning to get around to replacing the rifles with some spares that will pass muster as Snider-Enfields, but it's a huge conversion job to do it well. Still, it would be great to have some special Gurkhas to serve as scouts without carrying anachronistic weaponry. Maybe I'll start the conversion process some day soon.

    Great to hear you will be using up all the "excess" bodies and heads. I myself never seem to throw away a single bit of such stuff!

    All right, hope this comment doesn't get lost in the "ethernet"...

    ReplyDelete