British Colonials

This will be a bit quicker post as it's getting later and I want to get this on here.  SO...

At the Kansas City 'Recruits' gaming convention that is held every year in Lee's Summit, MO, they have a silent auction.  It's a great place for gamers and hobbyist to sell some of the excess stuff, projects they've given up on, or just things they are no longer using and want to make room or make a little money to put towards the next project.  Also perfect to grab some choice stuff to add to your own collection, usually at a pretty good price.

At one of the silent auctions I bought  small box full of stuff and in it was some slightly primed British Colonial soldiers for circa 1870's to 1880's.  They were wearing puttees, so figuring they are perfect for East Asia and the 2nd Anglo-Afghan war period (1878-1880)... or even for Gaslight SciFi games.

I got them primed up right and started painting.  Many would exclaim that that era should be in Khaki uniform, but as I read up on it, there were still units like the 51st Regiment of Foot and 59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot wearing scarlet frock jackets with their blue trousers and puttees.

51st Foot after the battle of Ali Masjid (Nov 21st ,1878) in red tunics and blue trousers, with puttees.

Print of the battle of Omdurman (Sep. 2, 1898)

Some units weren't quite ready to transition to the Khakis, however, which would be a lesson learned as red is whole lot more visible in the barren landscape than Khaki.  For my purposes, red really looked nice and iconic and although in putties, I can use them for some games in other areas of the world.  Anyway I'm taking artistic license.  Same with the collar and cuff colors.  I went with green, which was for Irish regiments (although they apparently did include Welsh and Scots troops)

So here are a few pics then of my newly finished troop of 25.

Drums were interesting to paint but turned out good.