Sikhing Brilliant Figures

Having a WW2 game planned for late April set in the far east did bring up a couple of interesting developments for us faced with playing. Chum Dan was lucky enough to have his domestic Goddess purchase him a big box of the Warlord/Bolt Action Chindits. This left me with two options; one the unpalatable “play as the Japs” the other not so grim but still not a jolly game of cricket “play as the yanks”. No I couldn’t be doing either of those, so off I wandered to find something more Commonwealth than foreign. I did consider Ghurkas, but the main option for those was TAG and I’m rapidly going off them and their reluctance to respond to the simplest emailed question.

The other week at game’s club one gaming chum had some Japanese from Pulp Figures created by Bob Murch. They were very good and confirmed my suspicions of them being great figures as I’ve admired them form afar for quite a while. So I had a look at his selection and decided on both sets of Sikhs. Now I’ve had a numbers of excuses dressed up as valid reasons not to have bought from Bob before, firstly the desire to spend my quids with a Brit supplier just to keep our national gaming undustry alive, another all the fuss with ordering from aboard combined with the inevitable delay, especially as the first order I made from the US didn’t arrive nor get settled in under three months.

Well I needn’t have worried, Murch is Canadian so is effectively a distant cousin and the order came at incredible speed – I’d also ordered a few bits from British suppliers on the same day and , yes you’ve guessed it, these turned up before the others. Plus the dear man chucked in his one other Sikh figure from his army building set. And what delightfully brilliant figures these are, plenty of charactor, crisp detail and solid. I decided to paint them circa ’43 with a mix of kit which many units had to endure. I also had an eye on them being suitable for playing North Africa and Burma. Of course brill figure demand brill painting, and although theres a little bit of finishing to them, I’ve put a lot of effort into these, I’ve used a palette of around 15 colours and I hope I’ve pulled them off.

Surprisingly enough as a gamer approaching 50 these are my very first 28mm WW2 figures, I typically play in 6mm or with the Slug’s miniatures (he’s a WW2 nut). These where excellent figures to pass that milepost with, rather like losing your virginity to Helen Mirren/Elizabeth Hurley/Kiera Knightly*. Luckily I took photos!

*Delete according to age.

Tags: 28mm, Bob Murch, Burma, Canada, Desert, figures, gaming, interwar, Jungle, miniatures, north africa, Pacific, painting, Pulp Figures, Sikh, Sikh Regiment, VBCW, Very British Civil War, wargaming, ww2, wwii