Custom made Manipuri Hindu Temple for 14th Army

The Burma Campaign includes the Japanese invasion of India in 1944. So the setting flips from Buddhist Burma to Hindu India. Our Experiment in Ningthoukhong made me realise that to refight Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong, I really needed to supplement my Home made Burmese Pagoda with a Hindu Temple from Manipuri state. Here it is. I designed it and Warbases laser cut it from MDF.

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The model

I did some research on Hindu temples in Manipuri state. Today there are three temples in the town of Ningthoukhong. I don’t know if any of them were around in 1944, but I assume so. Because of the wealth of images available on the web, I used the Shri Shri Radha Madhav temple in Ningthoukhong as my main inspiration for this model.

Based on that I drew up a design for the temple. This is the most complicated kit I’d designed. It has three levels, different front and sides on each level, and two layers for each face to make the walls 3 dimensional. There are 52 pieces. Admitted the main building only has 28 pieces with another 24 being optional embellishments for the pillars.

I then sent the finished design off to Warbases to be cut out.

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Assembly and painting

Being laser cut MDF, the model came flat packed. Ningthoukhong has three temples so I got three models. Makes sense right?

Each kit has two bits of MDF.

It didn’t take me long to glue one together.

Then came the painting. The steps were:

1. Undercoat all over in black.
2. Undercoat in grey but only from the top
3. Dry brush Dark Sand.
4. Dry brush white. Again, and again, and again, until I got sick of it.
5. Paint the colourful trim

I didn’t bother photographing most of that process, however, here are some shots of dry brushing white.

The final step was to paint some trim. I went for red.

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A village in Manipuri state, 1944

Here’s the new temple in a village setting.

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Roof off

This model is for use in Crossfire, so I designed it to allow the roof to come off.

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Other uses

If Burma Campaign 1944 isn’t your thing, then you can also use this model for any Hindu setting. For example, Adam’s Turbans and Tricorns.