Kali Yuga: The Age of Conflict

Since I’ve gotten my figures in hand, and fall prey to the Rule of Cool, I’ve gone to hunt down more additions to the army. To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, “I’m a very patient person as long as I get what I want”.

As I wanted to see more examples of 28mm figures with maces I came across a Flickr photo album from 2016. Despite my want of the armored resin figures from Blitzkrieg minis I think that the unarmored metal might be good.

What I saw appears to be the same line of SgtMjr minis that I uncovered while researching the Maidenguard. This may have been before the figures were split as the photos show Maidenguard with swords which Newline offers and a large swathe of what 1st Corps sell. The macemen between the green and yellow elephant look great to put onto a table. Since its a slight modification I might just sculpt the armor on myself.

The Newline ones are outfitted with what are more like the Persian meel than gada maces but it’s interesting to look at the history of Indian warfare and consider traditions of dynamic strength training.

The Iron Sheikh animates after clicking it.

Future additions beyond this will up the fantasy level dramatically.

It’s a slow grow army build as I make my way through other stuff. Since previous reporting on the Maidenguard it appears that perhaps Thistle&Rose have sold their molds of Indians to Gripping Beast. I only speculate as recently the Kickstarter for GB to feature the Indians has been going strong. Given that the photos of the minis were of the same line I found earlier I assume this is the case.

In other news, I took the plunge and bought some units from 1st Corps to start building and actual army beyond Lord Boobs and Maidenguard I had. I now have man order of the following:

• two Levy of archers
• One group of spear Warriors
• One group of mounted Warriors (possible to split for Hearthguard)

I also have an officer that came from the light chariot pack that I have a special plan for. Since he was on a chariot I might as well use him on another one.

I am very excited about the proposition of how to paint this army. It’s likely not going to be fancy as there’s little in the way of fabric to distinguish the army. I might keep to the historical color scheme of using an off-white like homespun. I feel this would be cutting close to the Joseon Koreans and I will debate this in the future. For now, I will set these things aside and keep playing with collecting.

“What is one man’s garbage is another’s treasure” couldn’t be any more true at the moment. A local man was selling his printed FDM wares at my FLGS and I found just the right piece to start into scratchbuilding the bladed chariot from Baahubali. Apparently he had done some resin work and the hitch for the coach he was making was too warped to use properly so he had a separate free pile. Aside from that there was a small break where the cross beam would be for the horses. Seeing this I knew exactly what I needed and took it from him gratefully. I got home, hit it with my heat gun and straightened the spar out before cleaning up a little of the resin I didn’t need in order to start the build process for the mobile death machine.

I can think of two Hannibal quotes that work for this progress at the moment

I will either find a way or make one – like him I will be working with elephants soon

I love it when a plan comes together – no stogie for me but the sentiment is the same

Going over the files for the tigers it looks like I should keep searching for other models. The aesthetic just doesn’t work between the figures. I think that the Kickstarter figure of Princess Kaata on jaguar from the Titanforge Amazons army is the best concept art outside of the zeotrope image I pulled.

I’ll keep digging and try to find more fitting models for the Perry figs. With all the stuff from Wargames Atlantic that’s in the wild I could’ve gone that route for the Hearthguard unit. The fact that they have water buffalo gives me hope that they could pull off something akin to my crazy thought.

My patience and a small donation to a creator has paid off. I have been given files for tiger mounts to be used by my Sikhs. If all of them are unarmored it will be blissful to imagine fielding my Perry sculpts on the table.

Yes, yes it’s all off script for even gaming in the gaps but I take my artistic license through creative measures (the paperwork for my real artistic license is being processed).

Before I start work on these I’ll finish my Amazons. I’m still on the lookout for files to have a proper Kali statue. If anyone knows/has some please reach out to me.

We can only imagine the furry faced Gerry from on high speaking the words “Get on with it!” as in a certain legendary work of comedy, or atleast he does when he’s done with his beer and football after the UHH, when giving his ‘gentle nudges’ to various community members to work on their projects. In that vein I will give spring and summer a miss and go straight for this addition to the project.

Pbbbbttttt!!!!

And now the mature part of the post…

I admit historical inaccuracy in my force. The timeline does not work according to fact and I withdraw my thought of absolutely gaming in the gaps. As such I will let loose and go further in my embrace of the ludicrous. What Hollywood did for imperial Romans and ancient Egyptians I will dive headlong into the insanity which is Bollywood. I turn to the spectacle entitled “Baahubali” and bring in over the top visuals for reference.

As much as I love to be more serious I did watch this Indian fantasy which has moved me toward being less so. The prime quality cheese with a high end production value has made me decide I need to go further afield in my vision.

In the vein of continuous tinkering with the idea mine and coming up with unique and interesting things I have stayed with the Harryhousen motif as I do the last model of the Arabian Knights (really, for real, it WILL actually be finished). So I did a bit of a switch with the statuary previously shown of Kali and took another cue from ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ to use the snake woman as a monster addition if desired. The model has already been printed and is being shipped.

So I decided to look again over the army build that I’ve planned for some Indians that will use Blitzkrieg minis. Well, they updated their ranges and have more figures available. Apparently I’ve only looked at the Classical Indians and they have true Medieval Indians to work with. Needless to say I sat and did a plan for the cost of a build and the disturbance to my constitution nearly touched cloth (a fancy way of saying I almost pooped myself).

It seems I may do a double build of this and will still grab a carved Kali to differentiate the armies. This matter also seems to be an issue I have for another army build for the future.

In looking ahead to Future Me it seems as though Mr. Soule might have been onto something as far as the path to better painting could be in the process of practice in repetition.

As a side note, as of the writing of this post, I’ve found a 3D sculptor who has done tiger mounts for their range on Myminifactory and have asked about getting some done up in running poses. I could have some updates to something along those fantastic lines I talked about.

Happy day! Have A Nice Day would be better suited for the moment as they are the manufacturer of the model I found to use as my saddhu (Human Monk 1). I picked it up from the booth run by Badger Miniatures in February but decided to sit on the progress as I work on another project for the moment.

I’ve received my selection of Maiden Guard that I ordered from 1st Corps and Thistle&Rose and plan to multi-base lord Boobs on Dropapu with a command group of ladies. The eight other troops will be on foot separately.

I have also settled on my list of figures for this army to purchase in 2024. My rate of work should be realistic and it will give me more time to think about any other bits and pieces I might want to add to the army. The Shunga empire under the rulership of lord Ramasanjit Jayant Manish Boobs will be manifest in a mighty mass of minis. Now I just need to throw out a line for someone to sculpt the Kali statue. I’ll hold out on that for the moment to replenish my wallet. The cyclops taught me that valuable lesson dearly.

Seeing the success of the work with Craiyon I turned to it once more to make banner work easy that will become waterslide transfers. I have also gone on a bit of a rummage about the internet for fabric patterns that I find interesting and inspire my painting. At the moment I’m not so much of a fan of paisley but I’m working out my apprehension about ornate freehand patterns.

The military might of lord Boobs is ever-growing. The downside to doing research is finding a metric butt ton of worthless information that doesn’t hash out to too terribly much. In this case I have found disparate things that will be of worth in future.

Tigers bound like horses. Well, in a way they do as we can see a general manner of muscle movement as was shown like zoetrope images. Here we can break down the action in frames that a tiger model can be built upon.

With this information I’ll see if I can get some decent 3D sculpting done for a tiger riding unit. This is a fantastic army after all.

There are no 28mm Sikh cavalry miniatures which I have found that aren’t wearing British influenced uniforms. The closest that I can get to medieval/traditional garb for Indians is that of Tribal Afghans from the Perry’s for their range Victoria’s Little Wars. I think a little bit of sculpting will make this all come together as only a few details would need to be changed.

I’m already set to build units for the upcoming army and developments will occur in due time. Whether or not those things pan out, I have no idea right now but with the Arabian Knights as my guide I think the experience to preplan in depth is good.