28mm WWII Indians, and a few Australians, from Warlord

 All,

You've seen all my British forces, so let's go with some "Commonwealth" troops ;)  I was reading up on some of old Joe Legan's batreps from his "Platoon Forward" website and I really got engrossed in having an Indian platoon.  My cliche'd concept was going to be a spoiled, white British officer missed the Fall of France and is absolutely dying to get into the action, couldn't be happier when he receives orders to the Middle East, but gets assigned to command a platoon of Indian soldiers.  He pisses and moans at first, but once they get into action it changes his opinion of them.  They fight the Italians and then the Germans, all the way through Tunisia, then hit up Sicily (need to confirm Indian units saw action in Sicily) and Italy, then get pulled out and sent to the Far East to fight for their homeland (Kohima/Imphal) against the Japanese.  So, nothing to do but buy another box of 8th Army troops and build a platoon of Indians.  Had some spare duded left over and decided to make me a few Australians in bush hats, too.

The whole mess: three HQ types, three platoon weapons teams (2" mortar, Boys ATR, and PIAT team), six guys with submachine guns, four Bren teams, and 18 riflemen.

Our protagonist, the young Leftenant, with Webley in one hand and whistle in the other.

Reverse.

His Platoon Sergeant (left) and batman (right).

Reverse.  

On an admin note, I do wish I had these guys in long pants.  And I know the headgear is not supposed to be white, but I wanted them to stand out, and my apologies to everyone, but if I'm not able to find suitable models in 28mm then these guys are going to have to stand in as Arab Legion troops when I get back to my "Sword of Gideon" fights.

The section leadership, with Tommy Guns.  

I figure these are the Corporal section leaders.

And these are the Lance Corporal assistant section leaders.

Four Bren teams.  I really only needed the three teams, but I wanted to have at least one team prone in the firing position.

The 'regular' Bren gunners, on the run.

The prone Bren team.

Again.

The three assistant gunners.  The 8th Army box doesn't have ammo boxes or anything, so I gave these guys pickaxes to stand out.

Three riflemen kneeling and racking a new round into the chamber.

Three riflemen in solid kneeling firing positions.

Three riflemen standing and racking a round in.

Three riflemen moving up.

Three riflemen firing from the offhand position.

Closeup of a one-off pose, moving up.

Another one-off, rifle leveled.

And another, firing from the offhand position (different body then the pose shown previously).

The 2" mortar team.

Again.

The Boyes anti-tank rifle team. 

And there's the problem, if you want to make the mortar and ATR teams you don't have enough poses to go around for prone Bren teams.

Again.

And the PIAT team.  The PIAT comes from one of the old NWE British infantry sets (long sleeves).  I figured I need it for Italy and India.

Reverse.

My small unit of Aussies, only eleven of them, but the plan is I can field a platoon of Australians where most of them are helmeted, from my 8th Army troops, with these eleven mixed in to make it look more Australian.  Or maybe I'll buy another box and make all of them in bush hats ;)

Two leader types, an officer with Webley and an NCO with Tommy Gun.

Again.

Once more.

A Bren gunner and another Tommy Gunner.

Reverse.

Two diggers popping a squat.

Two more, firing, one while on the move.

A prone Bren team.

I know what you're thinking; "you just complained about not having enough prone guys for Bren teams for the Indians."  Yes, but even with this team I would have still been one short.

Reverse.

So, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out, a pretty cool little project that I'm proud of and really looking forward to getting into the fight.

V/R,
Jack