Siamese in Angkor, wip

Can't resist posing these together.  Will post better and more photos later as my project progresses; these are just teasers.

Khmer Monument

As I still do not have any scenery or building that would be appropriate for Siam (Ayutthaya) at the moment, I have to fall back on an Angkor-Wat inspired piece. This is an aquarium decoration representation of the Angkor Thom Gate that I happen to have in my stash. It won't work for Siamese battles of course but will at least be appropriate for the Siamese campaigns against the Khmer.

Compare the photo above of the real thing and those below where I added some small "forest elephants" and a 1/72 figure to show the scale of the model. Based on the relative size of the human figures, I believe the aquarium decoration to be about 1/144 in scale. Even so, the model still has quite a commanding presence for 1/72 even at half its actual dimension.

So far I have only modified the piece by drybrushing it with a tan/mud color. I will put in still more weathering and highlights later on.

First weathering step done...

Siamese Army and Elephants - minor updates

I will be using some of the rather small first-issue HäT 1/72 Indian elephants as forest elephants for my"tribal troops."  These will carry a mahout and two archers each (and no howdah).

I am resculpting the ears and replacing the tusks with tapered styrene rods. I will also redo the tails on some of them.

For size comparison, see one of these smaller elephants next to one of the proper Hät Indian elephants.












The elephant parasol in progress.... and further below is a command group for the tribal levies.

Siamese Elephants - the first painted stage

Siamese elephants, just now base painted.

I will need to paint in the textile designs for the cloth and, of course, add figures and superstructure...

Siamese Elephants... just getting started

The HäT 1/72 elephants arrived in the mail today. I have 9 total now but I think I will only turn 3 into Siamese war elephants.

I slightly bent the trunks, tusks and tails in hot water and fixed the new shapes with an ice-bath. I drilled the heads and torsos and connected them with thick copper rods instead of the molded pegs. This allowed me to position the heads in a way that is more pleasing to my eyes at least. After some more trimming and applying putty, they are now ready to receive the crew and superstructure. Well, it's a start anyway...

More "Siamese Infantry," Generic Troops

I plan to make lots of "generic" Siamese foot that can, with some allowance, be made to stand for troops from southern/southwestern China (e.g., the Dian people for the Han Dynasty's campaigns to conquer Yunnan) and Southeast Asia (e.g., Siamese, Burmese, Laotian) from the first century A.D. to about middle of the sixteenth century. This is a lazy option that will enable me to bulk out various  miniatures armies quickly.

These troops wear either no armor at all or don a bamboo-type cuirass. I am mainly using 1/72 Caesar Miniatures figures (Philistines, Sea People, Early Arabs) with headswaps and some trimming. This is the first batch...

Dragon Cannons

Here are the Minimi Miniatures Dragon Cannons (L). I tried painting the carriage red to set them apart from the Pirate Cannons (R):

I took the opportunity to weather the Pirate Cannons shown in an earlier post. I think they are beginning to look the part:

Siamese War Elephants

To make a miniature Siamese army is to build some toy war elephants. Even if they did not play a deciding role in most historical battles, war elephants remained the prized symbol of (royal) military might well into the modern age (as seen in the 1866 photograph above) and would similarly feature as the major point of interest for your miniature Siamese army.

The war elephant allowed royalty and generals to engage in battle with each other in Homeric fashion.  The classic arrangement as described in Thai military manuals was to have the high-status warrior sit in the front where we would normally expect the mahout or elephant driver to be. He or she would be helped by two soldiers who could be found further back on the elephant. One would sit on a raised dais that functioned as an open howdah cum armoury where an assortment of pole weapons were kept; the other would be the mahout who directed the elephant's movements from the rear. The difference between this classic arrangement with a 3-man crew and the four-man crew shown in the 1866 photograph above may be the addition of a hand-gunner (possibly the second man from the right in the photo).

The war elephant and its crew was to be protected by an elephant guard of four infantrymen who would take up station near to the side of each elephant leg. This was a practice that can be traced back to c. A.D. 1200 at least, as this artifact shows:

Here are some of the war elephant monuments found in Thailand:

War Elephant monument

Narseuan monument

Not entirely surprisingly, 1/72 or 20mm Siamese war elephants are not available commercially. I will therefore have to make some myself and the current plan is to use the 1/72 HäT Macedonian and Indian elephant sets (both of which feature Asian elephants) as base and build the rest. Should be fun!

 

Those of you who are interested in colonial gaming may even consider this hybrid option, as seen in a 1900 photo:

Siamese Infantry, First Look

I rushed to put some paint on the first twenty of my converted Siamese figures just so I can see whether my experiment is going to work at all. Here's a peek at the two figures that appear to be furthest along in the painting process. 

I shall tweak the color palette a bit and repaint the red/white belt to a scheme that looks a tad more plausible. I apologize for the slight but annoying sheen as the figures have not received their matte varnish coat yet.

These are the helmets that were made with the eyelets, which make them appear a little too tall perhaps. On the positive side, the "brass bands" are just the eyelet flange and do not need to be put in especially. Maybe okay for mass production purposes? They do seem to paint up nicely, as they say.

Siamese Leather Helmets

Suriyothai, queen of Ayutthaya, from the film of the same name

I made the leather helmets featured in these photos (the one just above taken from this blog: http://martinithai.multiply.com/journal) by using the following steps.

(1) Punch out styrene discs of the right size (1/4" or 5/16", depending) using a punch set.

(2) Give the styrene discs a roundish shape with a jeweler's tool for making round shapes. Drill a 1/32" hole in the center using a pin vise (don't drill the hole before rounding it out as it weakens the disc too much and the disc may crack).

(3) Slice the top half of a figure's head. Drill a 1/32" hole *perpendicularly* down the head using  a pin vise.

(4) Glue a length of 1/32" brass rod into the head using crazy glue, keeping the length long (you trim it to size later). Put a small glob of Green Stuff or other putty on the head, apply a little more glue over it and thread the rounded styrene disc (concave-side down) down the brass rod.

(5) To build up the top half of the helmet use either the 1/8" eyelets used for scrapbooking or just apply a small ball of Green Stuff or putty. Mould the putty around the brass rod and contour it with shaping tools such as your wetted fingers, round toothpicks, silicone clay formers and the like.

(6) Once glue/putty is dry snip off the brass rod about 1.5mm from the top of the helmet and quickly sand the tip to shape.

(7) Add leather neck and side flaps with putty. You can also add decorations on the helmet as well as a thin metal ring (if not using the eyelets) at this point.

These eyelets are not exactly the right shape for the helmet tops and only work well with the larger 1/72 figures (not Caesar ones which are close to 1/76). They are somewhat useful though since, if you glue them to the styrene disc (a.k.a. hat brim) with the flanged or widened part facing down, the flange itself resembles the metal ring on the leather hats. Finally, you can fill the open top of the glued-down eyelet with putty and smooth it out while ensuring that the protruding helmet spike remains more or less centered.

Siamese Army (16-17th centuries)

King Naresuan monument, Thailand

I have begun bulding a 1/72 Ayutthaya (Siamese) army for the wars with Burma (Tounghoo Dynasty) in the 16th to 17th century. Naturally this means converting existing lines and finding easy ones to do at that since I will need to make lots.

Below are my first jabs at making basic infantry. Most of the originals (in dark tan plastic) come from the 1/72 HäT Miniatures set of Sea Peoples; the only exception (in blue plastic) is from the Caesar Miniatures Sea Peoples set. HäT's Sea Peoples are not the best sculpts to begin with but are rather versatile and easy to convert. But they are also bigger and taller than the Caesar figures, which have the advantage of finer details and proportions, so I will have to deploy the converted minis in their separate respective units.

I added some leather helmets (see next post for how I made them) and will rely on painting to achieve the rest of the desired results.

Pirate Cannons from Minimi Miniatures

These are very useful one-piece resin castings of "Pirate Cannons" (yes, there is a tiny skull on the gun barrel) from Lewis Davis at Minimi. I cleaned up and painted them in less than 15 mins from start to finish. I have placed a 1/76-1/72 converted Thai figure next to them for scale. 

These cannons will be used for the 16-17th century Siamese army (1/72) that I have just started to build. I also have Minimi's "Dragon Cannons" which I will paint up in the same way soon.