Ottoman Turk Nizam-i Cedid

Earlier this year I was presented with an unique opportunity to purchase a very large collection of unpainted Ottoman Turks. The man I purchased them from had bought the army when the figures were first being cast, literally on site from the factory. Freshly minted figures tend to be the best as they do not yet have the excess flash that will inevitably come.

Not possessing any extra time to paint them anytime soon, I decided the price was too good to pass up. So, I ended up with hundreds of Ottomans that I could use for the Seven Years War up through the Napoleonic wars. As fortune would have it, I had enough figures to do a full army for Lasalle along with support. As the sale also included more than enough flags to to do the entire army, everything was setting up quite well. A friend of mine who plays at the games that I blog about was willing to paint them in exchange for painted and unpainted figures.

So first up in a series of posts to include the entire army by unit type as I get them based, is three battalions of Ottoman Nizam-e Cedid from the new model army. Granted, this isn't accurate for the Seven Years War should I use them for Maurice, but there are so many other troops that they wouldn't be needed anyway.

Finding uniform information was quite a feat. Various sites had bits and pieces of the forces but with variations either due to different eras or very likely, a complete lack of standardization. These units were an exception in an experiment to modernize an otherwise outdated army. The two regiments had similar dress with some variation in blue and red being reversed. As to how many battalions per regiment appears to be unknown. For this one, I did three.

Not as flashy and eye catching as French or Russian armies to be sure. They have a minimal level of detail to the uniform. The Old Glory figures are quite well done with clear details and not having unnatural poses. The base of the figures are very wide and so I had to use six figures per stand because quite literally eight would not fit. Others in my group use six, so this will be unnoticeable.

Next up will be the Jannisaries units.