' Damn the heat and the flies!
Iron Duke Miniatures
'THEM' RANGE
(Transport, Horses, Equipment, Miscellaneous)
SHOP FOR IDM PRODUCTS AT THE
THEM 1 Set of 4 irregular horses, galloping, rope harness, basic saddle blanket with a draped sheepskin or similar. (£11.00)
Suitable for Basotho, Xhosa, Griquas, Bergenaars, Afghan and Indian Irregulars etc. It is possible to paint the sheepskin as a leather saddle.
THEM 2 Bullock-drawn 'hackery' (open-topped cart). (£20.00).
Supplied with 2 bullocks, a yoke, a cargo (2 earthenware pots, 2 grain sacks and 3 crates) and a matchlock-armed Indian or Afghan driver. See below for notes on assembly.
Click images to reveal. Left: Here we see the kit laid out, ready for assembly. Note that the planking running across the floor of the cart faces upwards, so that the two side panels can be glued along the outside edges of the planks. The hooked struts of the side panels go at the front of the cart, with the hook itself curving outwards. You might wish to consider placing the cargo as shown, with the long artillery chest running diagonally across the top of the two smaller crates, firstly, because it will make gluing the sides to the floor that much easier, by retaining the sides in an upright position while the glue sets, but primarily because it will provide extra solidity against any possibility of your gaming friends causing damage to your model, perhpas by picking it up by the sides and squeezing them in unthinkingly. The base of the T-bar yoke glues neatly into the small hole at the front of the draught pole. Once you have glued the floor of the cart to the top of the axle and undercarriage, you will find that there is now a recess at the rear into which the struts of the tail-gate assembly will slide neatly. Secure the struts to the undercarriage with a small blob of glue. Note that there is a second earthenware jar in the kit, which in this instance has been left out and set aside for other purposes, such as camp scenes etc. Right: To position the driver correctly you will need to seat him to the left-hand side of the pole, looking slightly to his right, such that his right foot is just resting against the draught-pole. For painting purposes note that he is seated on what can be imagined either as some kind of cushion, or perhaps more likely, a crushed down grain sack of the same colour as the sacks in his cargo.
THEM 3 Pair of walking draught bullocks, with cast-on heads, supplied with yoke. (£8.50).
Suitable for transport wagons and artillery limbers in India or Afghanistan, but not Africa.
THEM 4 Set of 4 British Cavalry Horses, galloping, legs gathered. (£11.00).
The horse on the right, which is a great mainstay pose for unit-building, repeats in the set.
Suitable for any conflict 1830-1860.
THEM 5 Set of 4 British Cavalry Horses, galloping, legs stretched. (£11.00).
Suitable for any conflict 1830-1860.
THEM 6 Set of 4 Draught Mules, in harness, at the halt. (£11.00).
Suitable for artillery limbers and wagons in the Cape. Many other uses besides. In the real world mules comes in a range of sizes, but as draught animals with pulling power these are of the same stature as a horse; please don't buy them expecting to get something smaller.
THEM 7 Set of 4 Draught Horses, in harness, at the halt. (£11.00).
Suitable for artillery limbers and wagons in any operational theatre 1830-1860 and much else besides.
THEM 8 Bullock-Drawn Dak-Gharry (Mail Cart) Set. (£25.00).
Consisting of the cart and awnings, an Indian driver and a pair of draught bullocks. Suitable 1800-1920.
During assembly the chassis needs to be positioned so that it protudes sufficiently far to provide a platform beneath the driver's feet. If it doesn't do this, you will probably have the chassis back to front. It's obviously best to test this out before applying glue.
THEM 9 'The Gun Runners'. (£21.00).
Set consists of 2 x Indian/Afghan camel riders, 4 camels, 2 x baggage loads of firearms, 1 other baggage load and 4 cases of ammunition. India & Afghanistan 1800-1900
THEM 10 'The Baggage Train' (Set I). (£20.00).
Camel transport on the march. Set consists of 4 x walking camels, 4 baggage loads and an Indian camp follower. India & Afghanistan 1800-1900
THEM 11 'The Baggage Train' (Set II). (£20.00).
Camel transport at the halt. Set consists of 4 kneeling camels, 4 baggage loads and a seated Indian camp follower. The driver is posed so that he could equally well be wilting in the heat or freezing cold, (during the Retreat from Kabul for example). Suitable India & Afghanistan 1800-1900
THEM 12 British Army and East India Company Finials. (£3.50).
For finishing off your colour parties to perfection. Each code contains 2 pairs of finials and cords (4 items). This pattern of spear point finial was in service up to 1858, including throughout the eighteenth century and during the Napoleonic Wars.
THEM 13 Two sets of Cased Colours. (4 items). (£6.00)
Note that the colour cases are bored out at the bottom to take a pikestaff, but that for the usual reason there are no pikestaffs included in the set; i.e. because soft white metal spears or poles enjoy very poor survivability on the table top, making them more trouble than they are worth. We recommend instead the use of brass rod, available from Empress Miniatures and most good model shops, or if not that then straight lengths of florists wire as the next best alternative.
THEM 15 Set of 3 pack mules at the halt. (£14.00).
Note that by leaving the poles on the third animal at full length the set will lend itself to a rocket battery unit, or otherwise you can cut the poles shorter to replicate tent poles.
THEM 16 Water and Baggage Bullocks. (£25.00).
Set consists of 3 bhistis with water skins, 3 drivers, two bullocks with water skins and two bullocks with a baggage load.
India and Afghanistan 1800-1920
THEM 17 Set of 4 British Regular Cavalry Horses, standing at halt. (£11.00).
Suitable for any theatre 1830-1860.
THEM 18 Set of 4 East India Company (EIC) Irregular Cavalry Horses, standing at halt. (£11.00).
THEM 19 Set of 4 EIC Irregular Cavalry Horses, Galloping, legs gathered. (£11.00).
THEM 20 Set of 4 EIC Irregular Cavalry Horses, Galloping, legs extended. (£11.00).
THEM 21 Set of 8 General Purpose or Officers' Horses (Set I). Pistol holsters and minimal saddlery. (£22.00).
Note that the horses in this set have ample room to seat riders clad in coats and other bulky forms of dress, as there is no rolled blanket or cape at the back of the saddle. Suitable for any theatre 1830-1860.
THEM 22 Set of 8 General Purpose or Officers' Horses (Set II). Pistol holsters and blanket roll saddlery. (£22.00).
Suitable for any theatre 1830-1860
THEM 23 Set of 4 Irregular Horses, sheepskin saddles galloping. (£11.00).
(Expressly tailored to accommodate our Basotho & Xhosa horsemen).
Suitable 1830-1900
THEM 24 Set of 4 Irregular Horses, sheepskin saddles, walking. (£11.00).
Suitable for Basotho/Xhosa/others besides, c. 1830-1900.
THEM 26 Team of 6 British Artillery draught horses at the gallop. (£16.50).
THEM 27 Set of 4 British Regular Cavalry horses, standing, with reins extended for a horseholder. (£12.00). Horses only.
THEM 28 Herd of 8 cattle. (£24.00).
Suitable for Nguni cattle in South Africa.
THEM 29 British Limber. (£9.50)
Simple kit, some assembly required.
Can be used to tow both field artillery and horse artillery pieces. Suitable for both Africa and India and for all of the following: troops: Royal Horse Artillery (RHA); Royal Artillery (RA) field batteries; and all types of horse and field artillery units in the three East India Company armies. The kit contains parts to suit any kind of draught animal: mules, horses, bullocks or oxen. For Indian bullocks use the bottom yoke in the right-hand photo, but for African oxen use the top one (same photo). The centrally positioned draught-pole fitted in the right-hand photograph is the one for bullock or ox draught, regardless of theatre. You can see that the locking pin at the bottom of both yokes fits into the small hole at the end of the draught pole. Before you glue the pole to the underside of the platform, be sure to slip the rope handle of the bucket onto the pole, so that it hangs down roughly centrally beneath the platform. In the EIC artillery arm the centre pole, (i.e. the one that's fitted in the right-hand photo), was also used with horses. Obviously you'll have no use for the T-bar yokes if you're modelling a horse-drawn unit.
In horse drawn units the RHA and RA did not use the centre-pole system, but preferred to have the 'off-wheeler', (an animal selected for its superior strength/pulling power) properly harnessed in. Since 'drivers' in the artillery rode the horses on the left-hand or near-side of each pair, the 'off-side' is the right-hand side, while the 'wheelers' are the pair of horses closest to the limber. That's where the other two poles on the sprue come into play. There are four u-shaped slots along the front rim/underside of the limber's platform, but the ones you'll need to use are on the far right and in the centre, so that the poles end up ideally positioned to run along the flanks of the off-wheeler.
Below on the left is a RHA team in India in 1860. The geographic setting is irrelevant, the more substantive point being that this is a unit of the Queen's Army not an EIC one. If you look closely at the off-wheeler, you will readily identify how the paired poles on the sprue are fitted and which way up they go. Note that the right-hand pole runs outside the wheel rim and joins on the hub of the wheel. As it's impractical to model a method of joining the pole on at the hub, you'll just need to ensure that the end of the pole rests on the wheel hub. Below right is a painting of the RHA by Harry Payne, which offers an even better view. In short, use the centre pole rig for EIC units of any type and for ox-drawn RA at the Cape; but for horse-drawn RHA and RA always use the two pole rig.
One final point is that the rectangular tool box goes on the platform immediately in front of the two square ammo boxes. All well and good, unless you are modelling a unit like the one below, in which gunners were seated on the ammo boxes, in which case leave the tool box off altogether.
Above: the limber kit rigged for Royal Artillery at the Cape
Below: the limber in use with an ox-drawn artillery unit at the Cape. Pairs of oxen are at THEM 30, 31 and 32.
ILLUSTRATIVE
THEM 30 Pair of walking trek-oxen, with yoke. (Africa). (£8.50)
Use with THEM 33 (Cape covered wagon) and the THEM 29 limber in ox-drawn artillery units.
ILLUSTRATIVE
THEM 31 Pair of standing trek-oxen, with yoke. (Africa). (£8.50)
Use with THEM 33 (Cape covered wagon) and the THEM 29 limber in ox-drawn artillery units.
ILLUSTRATIVE
THEM 32 'Cutting free': immobilised span of trek-oxen. (Africa). (£12.50)
Set consists of one standing ox, one dead ox, a European wagon conductor cutting the yoke away and armed African wagon worker; (the yoke and a loose musket are also supplied). Perfect for playing convoy ambush scenarios. This was a constant problem and a positive nightmare in any kind of defile, when the dead-weight of any slain oxen would have to be hauled clear of the road by work parties operating under heavy fire. The image below is illustrative. From a point of view of model-making and game play purposes alike, we think the best course is not to mess with the integrity of a three-pair team, but to demonstrate immobilsation at the relevant point in the game by simply placing the THEM 32 set at the front of the team. As there were ten to twelve pair of oxen in a real life team, suddenly going from three to four pair on the tabletop is of no account!
ILLUSTRATIVE
Above and below: THEM 33 Cape Covered wagon. (£24.00)
With African driver, voorlooper and rearmost yoke. Please note that no oxen are supplied with this code.
For sets with integral oxen see the deal options available at codes THEM 34A to D below.
WAGON & TEAM DEALS
THEM 34A Cape Covered Wagon 'Bundle I'. Consisting of the vehicle kit, the driver, the voorlooper and TWO PAIRS of STANDING oxen with yokes, at a slight saving. (£39.00).
THEM 34B Cape Covered Wagon 'Bundle II'. Consisting of the vehicle kit, the driver, the voorlooper and TWO PAIRS of WALKING oxen with yokes, at a slight saving. (£39.00).
THEM 34C Cape Covered Wagon 'Bundle III'. Consisting of the vehicle kit, the driver, the voorlooper and THREE PAIRS of STANDING oxen with yokes, at a slight saving. (£TBC).
THEM 34D Cape Covered Wagon 'Bundle IV'. Consisting of the vehicle kit, the driver, the voorlooper and THREE PAIRS of WALKING oxen with yokes, at a slight saving. (£TBC).