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.

Italian Auto-Saharan Company

With Italy's conquest of Libya and Cyrenaica from 1911 on and its attempt to transform them into Italian colonies, the need to protect this region's exposed southern desert flanks, where nomadic raiders and restive Senussi could move free from Italian interference, grew increasingly evident. A string of forts was established across the arid landscape and their controlling presence amplified by desert patrols using first camels and, later on, motorized vehicles. Making Italian presence felt even in the deep desert required that the important oasis and caravan town of Kufra be conquered by an expeditionary force in 1931.

The open desert landscape of Cyrenaica and Libya was the roaming ground of the Compagnia Sahariana, which was first formed to impose order within a colonial context. After the move was made from camels to motorized vehicles, these mechanized companies became known as Companie Auto-Avio Sahariane. With the onset of war in the Western Desert, these units became an important resource for countering the British Long Range Desert Group's efforts to turn the southern flanks of the Italian armies through deep penetrating moves across the desert. One company deploying the AS 37, the most important vehicle used, played a role in the failed Italian effort to defend Kufra against the Free French forces (aided by the LRDG) that came up from Chad in 1941. From 1942-43, a new vehicle custom-designed by Viberti for desert patrolling was introduced and placed into service: the AS 42.

Eventually, I would like to build an Autosahariana platoon using a mix of AS 37 and AS 42 vehicles.

I started this project with two AS 42 Saharianas that I built from the Italeri 1/72 kit a few years back. I converted various 1/76 figures to make a crew for them and also replaced 20mm Breda modello 35 with an Ansaldo-Bohler 47/32 gun taken from the Waterloo 1815 Folgore artillery set. The painting is still a little crude and I do need to go back to clean up, weather more and add details.

There will be more to come later, I hope. You see here a MMS 1/76 Fiat AS37 with a 20mm Breda modello 35 on the bed.