Saturday 13 October 2018

Ottoman Forces for Egypt

Flutter number three of the wargames butterfly wings leads me to land on a third project for the week.


Back in July I completed some Janissaries, the second unit of Ottoman Turks from Brigade Games to serve as allies to the British in Egypt. My plan was to add three units of cavalry and three of infantry.

 

But since then our dollar (some unkind elements have been known to refer to it as the “Pacific Peso”) has taken a hammering against the $US, dropping over 13% since I made my initial plans back in March. This, combined with the fact that Brigade don’t offer a post free purchase level,  has disrupted my purchasing plans. What was to be a relatively small investment had ballooned out to $621.

 

Then I remembered that Gripping Beast did some plastic Arab cavalry and infantry. I jumped online and played around with the pack quantities and prices quickly discovering that I could buy two boxes of heavy cavalry, one of light cavalry and one of infantry for a landed cost of $165 and that would create four cavalry and two infantry units. The thought of saving of $456 appealed to me, but what would I be missing out on by using these figures over specifically designed Ottoman Napoleonic figures? On closer examination the answer was not a lot. Reading contemporary descriptions of the Ottoman army it was described largely as a medieval horde. The only significant difference appeared to be the addition of firearms and perhaps a few less shields.

 

Digging through the plastic bits boxes I had lots of muskets left over from the WSS project some years ago. I had some pistols left over from an old ECW project and a friend gave me a bunch more pistol arms left over from his ECW/TYW project. With a bit of kit bashing skill, adding muskets and pistols to the figures would be a relatively simple task. I also had some sets of arms left over from the Napoleonic dragoon sets that with a  little carving and some Green Stuff might enable me to create some figures firing muskets.

 

So the order was placed. Within a week and a bit four boxes of Arab infantry and cavalry were waiting for me on the doorstep, and here are the first efforts: a unit of Malmuk cavalry and a unit of foot.

 









I am pleased with them and some more may follow.

14 comments:

  1. You should be pleased. They look great! Did you check out Caliver Books for either Ottomans or Arabs? They offer free shipping on the figures and prices are competitive.

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    1. Thank you Jonathan. Yes Caliver supplied these and they are my preferred supplier where I can't get free shipping from a manufacturer.

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  2. Nice job Mark - have you altered your basing for these - they look like smaller bases with only four figures on each - a unit of 12 rather than your usual 18?

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    1. My plan was for six figures to a stand, but the figure poses are such that it was not possible so some have five and others four. The advantage is that instead if two units of foot, I will have three.

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  3. As always a great pleasure to admire your paint job and your presentation...gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks Phil. They are a bit of fun these Ottomans.

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  4. Great looking Ottomans and really nice conversions! Cost saving is impressive also ( You'll need it for both your Spanish Armies!)
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. There will be a lot more conversions in a few of the upcoming units. Oddly the Spanish won't be as costly. I will use the Perry figures that have a better economic equation: a lower base cost, they deduct the VAT on overseas orders and the offer post free on £200+ and all that makes quite a difference.

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  5. Very nice Mark...
    What will you be using for the Janissaries ?

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly. I did one unit of Janissaries using the Paul Hicks designed Brigade Games figures. I used these figures because headgear in Egypt is unique. I think I will need to do another unit to give some backbone to the levy.

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  6. Lovely work, and the attachment of the Napoleonic weapons has made all the difference. I especially like the designs on the shields. Did you free-hand those?

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    1. Yes they came out quite well. All the shields are freehand, but I have stuck to pretty simple designs. in dread to think what terrible things I might have said in my attempts at Arabic writing.

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  7. Excellent idea and execution Mark, been eyeing up these guys for a while too (though for ancients rather than Napoleonics!).

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    1. Yes they are great figures. There is a need for a bit of filling on some of the horses, but the good thing is that the light and heavy cavalry are intermixable.

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