Indian Legion

India was a British colony during World War Two.  Not all Indians were loyal to Britain.

Some Indians living in Germany and some POWs agreed to fight the British as part of the German Army.

They wore German uniforms but wore traditional headgear.

They were a mixture of Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus.

Quick head swaps between various WWII German sets and Atlantic WWII Indian Army gave me a reasonable Indian Legion.  

They often had second line equipment.

There is no evidence they ever used elephants, but there were Indian elephants in captivity in German in WWII and Indians have experience with tame elephants so I enlisted a few with my Indian Legion.

Azid Hind

While on vacation, I found this small Hindu statue.

It's made of brass and cost only a couple bucks.

I got two different ones.

They will end up with my Azid Hind embassy in Berlin.

I am trying to make a unit with an Indian feel to it by using all these little Indian items.

Unusual units are one way to make a larger army but without it all being just alike.

Azad Hind

I try to make unusual WWII German units.  This is part of my Azad Hind unit.

Here is a Toobs Taj Mahal model, I am going to put it in my Azid Hind embassy.

I made the flag from one I downloaded from the Internet.  Printed it on paper and then folded it over a piece of plastic rod.  I carved out the spearpoint.

I took a variety of figures and swapped heads on many to make these troops.  The two on the left is Odemars,  the center figure is Dapol and the woman is from the Airfix / HaT Tarzan set.

The men all have turbans from other sets of colonial Indians.  The peacock is the national bird of India and I use it as a unit mascot.  The peacock is from Preiser and came pre-painted.

Tenting Tonight

One of my many projects has been to construct interiors for all my tentage. Take a bit of sheet styrene and cut it to the same size as the tent interior. I like to use sheet styrene with a pattern of boards so that it looks like planking.






















On the planking floor, glue chairs, tables, supplies, benches, radios, and other military items. This shows a quick table I made out of a couple bits of plastic from the spares box. I also like to glue a vertical panel to the floor and paste a map onto it. This makes a good command tent or artillery fire direction center tent.




















This tent had a radio, so I drilled a hole in the roof and added an antenna and put a flag on the antenna. The base fits inside the tent so that when the tent is on the table the planking is not visible. I have also made medical operating rooms, and various headquarters tents. These make good targets in a wargame, the owner of the tentage is penalized by having to take a moral check or by not being able to shoot artillery for a turn or two while the FDC gets back in operation.

Horses and Elephants

This is a HaT elephant and a HaT WWI towed gun. The Free India Army was on the side of the Germans in WWII and used these guns. There were Indian elephants in the Berlin zoo and several were evacuated to avoid the Allied air raids on the city. Perhaps a couple of them could have found their way into the Free India Army where they could stand in for horses. There was a great shortage of horses in the German Army in WWII and Indian elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years.
















The riders are conversions of both the HaT mahouts and various German horse riders. These are great elephant kits, the bodies are two halves and the head a third piece. They fit together very well and with the separate heads the animals look different.
















As more of my Free India Army I took a Wespe Models wagon and used two large HaT wheels from a pair of French wagons and the horses from a French Napoleonic wagon set and made this kitchen wagon. I figure the Free India Army being at best a second line unit would have gotten older equipment from the Germans and so I gave them all French horses and wagons. Quick, simple conversions that give me a unique unit with a limited combat history, but an interesting look to them.