"Painting 2nd Afghan War Gurkhas" Topic

Gents,
I'm about to get cracking on some of those cool Pontoonier 28mm castings. But find myself wondering….
1. Colour green for the uniform (I use Foundry paints). I see suggestions that at the time of the 2nd AW the uniforms were not the very dark green we later got used to. I reckon Foundry 28C (charmingly called phlegm green) close to some of the illustrations I've seen. But that famous painting of Ali Khel has them pretty dark…
2. Hat band, diced black and red? Or no checked hat band?
3. My figs are sculpted with puttees but some illustrations give them white gaiters.
4. Skin colour. I've met gurkhas and they seem much the same colour as me (European!). How to get this right without entering the 'Victorian spirit' and doing them as some sallow Fu Man Chu types?

Any tips or pointers gratefully reeived,
EC

Skin as per Indian sub-continent. Look at the 'now famous' cool mini or not skin tone article (they use Vallejo paints but I'm sure there's a conversion somewhere to foundry paints.) On the uniform I'm sure there are better informed than me to help :)
Cheers happy painting

The article may be famous Zargon, but forgive me if I need a little more guidance as to where it might be found…

I think this is the item in question…

link

@Eclaireur: funny, when I first saw the title for this thread of yours I thought it would be about the question of whether to paint your Gurkhas uniforms green or khaki! that's the one that often perplexes me, since some Gurkha regiments during the Second Afghan War were already wearing khaki in the field, as opposed to the more inconically appropriate green, of any shade. To be honest, I think your question re: shade of green is probably not answerable in a historically accurate sense -- at least not until photo technology reaches a point where you can scan a b&w image and put it through a program that can definitively tell you what the original colour was when it was taken. Maybe the NSA already can do that but I have yet to find commercially available hardware or software that can. I do hope and pray it comes before I die! But until then, we must rely on contemporary illustrations and descriptions.

When I get home later tonight I'll check my copy of the Carman volume on Indian Army Infantry uniforms and see if there are any quotes regarding "shade of green" from period uniform guides, which there sometimes are. If I find anything informative I'll be back…

After a perusal of "INDIAN ARMY UNIFORMS under the British from the 18th Century to 1947 – Artillery, Engineers and Infantry" by W.Y. Carman, I can add the following…

1st Gurkha Light Infantry :

The odd man out of Gurkha regimental dress as these guys wore red coats from at least 1850 until 1928 -- I had forgotten that but I think it was in the old Osprey "The Gurkha Rifles" book from the Seventies.

2nd Gurkhas:

"Dark Green" with red facings and pipings similar to the 60th Rifles because they had been associated with the I/60th in the Siege of Delhi.

3rd Gurkhas:

"Dark green with black facings and lace" -- but "khaki clothing was issued to the 3rd Gurkhas in 1878… with dark puttees."

4th Gurkhas:

"Rifle green uniforms with black cuffs were ordered in 1859."

5th Gurkhas

"Dark green" (though in 1858 "light green" tunics were worn by British and Native officers but "within a few years officers' dress ettled down to the better known… rifle green tunic." Rifle green worn with khaki puttees at the start of the war, replaced by full khaki dress later in the war.

***Apologies for the TYPO: "ettled" should have been "settled" -- tried to edit and correct it but just missed fixing it before the nightly maintenance down-time kicked in.

Thanks Mad Guru – as always the Guru and not at all unhinged,
seems even less clear than I thought! But I ought to be looking towards 'rifle green' rather than phlegm! And khaki? Well there are enough troops in that colour in the collection already. I am tempted to go for 2nd Gurkhas based on your research because the Rifle Green combination with red distinctions looks very smart.
EC

It's my understanding that the dark green uniform – worn with leggings – was home service/full dress, and the khaki uniform was field dress. Other units are known to have worn their full dress uniforms in the cooler months, and in the depths of winter the khaki clothing was worn under the home service dress. Some units wore combinations of full and field dress in the field (such as full dress tunics and khaki trousers) in all seasons.

Thanks Henry, more useful detail. I guess that image that's out there of the 2nd A Gurkha in a lighter shade of (snotty) green must be the Khaki outfit. But the pattern you mention of dress and khaki clothing sometimes mixed fits with other units fighting out there.
EC

It is not all that great of a picture but this is my depiction of the 2nd Gurkhas. But in wargaming I would call them any Gurkha regiment that I needed.They have the red dicing on their caps.

Nice! You've got the Pontoonier ones too, I see,

Eclaireur – Yes, I bought them about a year ago. I am glad I did as only command sets seem to be available now. I also have some Wargames Foundry Gurkhas which I have had for about ten years or so. For some reason, back then, I painted them in green trousers and khaki jackets. The green I used back then was probably too bright and light of a green color. I need to go back and darken them. I really was pleased with the Pontoonier Gurkhas when I received them. Even their faces look ethnically correct in my opinion.

I just took this photo with my phone. Still not very good. The Pontoonier figure is on the right and older Gurkhas that I have are the two on the left. Pretty sure the two on the left are Foundry figs.

A little better of the Pontoonier Gurkha.

Yep, the hat band is cool. If you got you Pontoonier chaps from Newline he has essentially sold out. I got his last pack of 'advancing' Gurkhas and among the last 'charging'. The firm itself seems not to have produced any new castings for years (says the Newline chap)
EC

Yes… I am kicking myself for not buying a full unit's worth of those advancing and skirmishing Pontoonier Gurkhas back when I first tracked them down at Newline Designs a few years ago. They were originally available only at shows here in the US directly for sale by the guy who ran Pontoonier. Then he stopped selling that way and they basically disappeared, until they became available through Newline in the UK. It drove me a little crazy having to buy figures created by an American company from another company overseas, but I bought enough of their Third Burma War British Infantry to fill the role of the 66th Berkshires at Maiwand. When I did that I also bought a pack of the Gurkha command just to see how they looked in person. I really liked them but never got around to buying the rest of a unit's worth, partially because I already had decent -- though not quite as nice in my opinion -- Gurkhas from Foundry but also because I figured they'd always be available, since I assumed Pontoonier had sold the molds themselves to Newline Designs in the UK. That has turned out to definitely not be the case.

I imagine a new batch of 28mm Gurkhas designed by Mike Owen will become available from Artizan sooner or later as part of their growing Second Afghan War range… but there is of course no way to know how long that will take.

On a much more positive note, nice job on the checkered hat band, Rhingyll! I also see that one of your old Wargames Foundry Gurkhas seems to hail from the 1st Gurkha Light Infantry, as he is dressed in red!

I painted the original Foundry Ghurkas myself but I have to admit that the Pontoonier Gurkhas were not painted by me. I could have never managed the tiny little squares on the hat band. Had them painted by on commission. I think I am reduced now to painting cannons and limbers and animals now.My skills have sufficiently diminished to a point that everything I paint now has a "campaign" look about it. Basically sort of sloppy and rough.I am however improving on my terrain skills so not all is going downhill.