A Temple for the Sadhus

Do sadhus need a temple?  Actually they don’t. Rather they tend to wander at will solitary or in small groups.  They rely on arms for their upkeep, the pious oblige.  In terms of Krishnapur my fictional Indian city they need a focal point to give them a narrative in the game.  On feast days sadhus gather in larger numbers at sacred places  and a temple seemed a likely enough location. 

I’ve made a fair few Indian buildings but I wanted the temple to be something very distinctive.  I spent a couple of hours on the internet looking at images.  My most successful search was of Indian arches and soon I had cut, pasted and managed to produce a template for each of the temple walls.  Normally, I’d make a thin card template, put it onto foam board and cut round it. 

This time I decided to print a colourful paper template and glue it to the foam board and then cut out doors or whatever.  It was very much an experiment.  You can see it here as a work in progress with all my mistakes.  The latter will be covered up with a plaster skim and then painted a creamy linen colour like the roof.

As with all my foam board buildings it’s not the best work you will see.   The concept was very sound but the execution sadly less so. That said it’s OK for game purposes and when all the bits are put together on the table-top it will be fine. 

I’m content so far.  We will see how the finished article turns out.  That's it until next time when I hope to present a full unit of sadhus and the famous Blue Temple of Krishnapur.

 

A Village in India

I spent some time on the internet looking at photos of traditional Indian village houses, the sort of thing poorer farming folk might reside in.  Two things struck me first, the scorched dried out grey colour of the thatch, the Indian sun being particularly relentless.  Second, the rich colour of the daub that makes up the walls of such buildings.

I wanted these buildings for both the Sikh Wars and the Indian Mutiny.  By themselves they will serve as a village and they will also do as part of the poorer quarter of my Indian city.  

With the addition of some more substantial buildings, like a small fort and a few Haveli they would do as a table top representation of the prosperous village of Mudki.  Strangely enough the battle of Mudki was not fought there but it was the nearest settlement to the battle field.

When the British Army arrived at Mudki its camp followers immediately set about an orgy of looting.  This resulted in the local merchants shutting up shop-gasp!  As a consequence the British Quarter Masters couldn't buy much needed supplies.  Both Merchants and QM's then besieged General Gough demanding the camp followers be removed.  Gough ordered the army to clear the town of camp followers.  The army cleared the town of every Indian they could find, merchants and all and reported job done.  Mudki was then deserted and as a result the British Army went hungry into the Battle of Mudki.

The buildings are 10mm from Timecast and sold as part of their Vietnam range.  However, they scale well enough with my 15mm Indian and British troops and look Indian enough for me.  The figures shown here are 15mm Sikh Irregulars (ex Black Hat) from Fighting 15s.

Timecast also do some very useful clutter for a village or for my purposes an Indian Bazaar.  I need to paint it but I've high hopes of it.

That's it for now as I'm in the final stages of making an Indian temple and unlike me it won't glue itself.