Ottoman Janissary Mehter Band

Last year I purchased this pack of By Fire And Sword Ottoman Janissary Mehter Band for the fun of adding it to the table top. It has no combat value and like many other unique sets I have, it is low on the painting list. Having caught up on some projects, I took a crack at it.

The figures themselves were quite clean and crisp. Very little cleaning up was needed to get these figures ready for priming. The plastic base that comes with the figures is adequate, but wanting all of my figures to maintain a magnetized standard, I opted to ditch that plastic base.

The website has a pretty set painted up and I at first tried to replicate this. One of the figures I received is not shown in that image and so after some research, I finally copied an image of a real Ottoman-Turkish Mehter Band. After reading up on the Ottoman army of this time period, the Sultan was not the only one with such a band. Regional governors were also known to raise such bands for special services. One can easily imagine a variety of costumes were possible in the various parts of the empire as well as transitioning between one governor to the next.

This was my first experience with this brand of figures. They appear to have quite a few figures for those looking for the Siege of Vienna and later. Some of the figures appear to lack enthusiasm on the movement and appear more posed than animated. Such designs are not right or wrong, just a matter of preference. Given the scarcity of figures for such exotic armies, one cannot be too discerning. I look forward to getting this piece on the table for a specific scenario soon.

Ottoman Cavalry: Finally Completed

After a long break from posting and getting through a lot of painting and finishing up of projects, I got these last four Ottoman cavalry units ready for battle. I don't see the need to expand the army out any further.

This last brigade for Lasalle represents the completion of a long term project that is quite unlike any other Napoleonic army. The Ottomans have a lot of gaps in their uniform and organization records which in part plays a role in so few people being brave enough to go down this road. The colors here are quite different yet blend in the rainbow spectrum that is the Ottoman army.

One thing different with this brigade was to get away from white horses, which I've never cared for when painted most of the time. The flags are from Cotton Jim's and is somewhat better than some of their other lines.

More custom made lance pennants here. The black is somewhat odd for the time period but was from an actual Ottoman unit.

And the final unit. As hard as it is to find some detail to add to these units, they are a bit bland. Unlike the Europen nations that have buttons, uniform trim, plumes etc, all you have are various clothing colors. Fine enough for the table top! Now, back to western Europe.

Ottoman Limbers, Miners & Engineers

As I begin finishing up the Ottoman army for Lasalle, there are some odds and ends that needed to be done. One thing that held me up was the limbers for the Ottoman army. Next to nothing seems to be written about this with the exception of noting the Ottomans used European horses or oxen for pulling guns. Not having any oxen on hand, horses would have to work.

Knowing that little nugget of information was useful in determining that the Ottomans likely did not ride the draft animals. Since no one makes any figures to represent Ottoman limber drivers, all I could do was some conversions with the Old Glory artillerymen. The crewmen with the shafts used to lift the trail were modified and green stuff used to model a rope to the horse harness.

I think it worked out well. Museum Miniature horses and some old Minifigs limbers filled out the rest and best of all, these were odds and ends I had laying around already. I kept everything a painted wood/brown color, as I don't think the French reforms in using green were common from what little I have read.

Alternative Armies seems to be the only company making 15mm Ottoman figures suitable for sapper or engineers. The ones in red are miners and the blue are engineers. Oddly enough, I found a nice color plate of their uniform with absolutely no problem. It would appear these figures were designed for the siege of Vienna in the 15-1600's. I'll wager the uniform plate didn't change much and if anyone has contrary information, please let me know.

These figures are closer to true 15's than the Old Glory, but not too wildly different. The details on the figure are clear and no moulding lines cutting across the face or anything silly.

Auxiliary troop information on the Ottomans is hard to find. How they were organized or distributed doesn't seem to be accounted for around the time of the Russo-Turkish War. Given the influence of Russian and French on the Ottoman army, I think it highly likely that they were distributed into units and then collected when the need came.

Ottoman Turk Cavalry

So with moving behind me, I've had time to finish the basing and other details for the two cavalry brigades that are finished. Up first, is there "heavy cavalry brigade" as per Sam Mustafa's list for Lasalle. These are large units in the game and will probably be the most effective in the army.

What I'm using for the Household Cavalry as these two large armored units. There was some decent uniform information on these guys, but conflicting information as to whether the shields were bare metal or painted. As with all Ottoman troop information, you have bitz and pieces to put together.

For the Kapikulu Sipahis units in the brigade, there are numerous uniforms to use for the various regions these units were drawn from and the time period in particular. They are the equivalent to the Jannisaries and considered to be of better quality men. Some appear armored and some not. I went with both styles.

For the other brigade, we have the four regiments of Sipahis. It appears later in the Ottoman Empire's reforms, armor seems to drop off as weapons become more lethal. Various internet searches reveal some regional differences in head gear.

The Old Glory figures for this range are above average for the company. With that said, they did not appear to sculpt lance pennants even though they ought to be present. I used Mircosoft Excel to create the pennants, cut them out and glued them on to all of the lances. After they dried, I used a fine pair of scissors to cut the V shape off the end. Seemed to work well and adds a bit of needed detail.

I'm pleased with the way they turned out and the variance of colors to give the units character. There is one last Sipahis brigade to go and hopefully it will be completed in May.

I also decided to have one more militia unit painted up. This will bring the army up to four units of militia. The only good thing I can see about these guys is that being irregular, they can take advantage of rough terrain and use it as cover.

On uniform plates, it is hard to determine exactly what uniform regional units were given. I suspect it was a hasty affair in many cases and so they were haphazardly dressed in civilian clothes. In any case, the other three units are much more varied and this one is in a uniform found on a uniform plate. Just adds more color to the army.

Ottoman Turk Artillery and Generals

In this installment, we see the Ottoman artillery and generals being shown after I got them properly based. I seemed to have forgotten to take a picture of both batteries, but they're almost identical except for the gun caliber.

I've been made aware of the French mission to assist in modernizing the Ottoman army and the eventual gun carriage color appears to be a green much like the French. Were all the guns this way? Just newer carriages? Or was this just the decree that wasn't obeyed? Doing them a deep brown allowed me to use them for an earlier period.

The Old Glory pack is interesting and each bag seems to have a fortress style carriage with four wheels, similar to deck guns. This was an older pack of Old Glory with 12 guns and crew, so there were two of these such guns. It's impossible to tell the caliber, but given the size of the barrel, it is much more like a siege gun.

Finding Ottoman general dress wasn't a real easy task. Many of the pictures seemingly are just black and white sketches which are of no real help when painting. On these, I repainted them with bright colors and more elegance with gold and red bridles, bronze stirrups etc. I felt the brighter colors made them stand out.

I could only presume the dress style was somewhat unique to the tastes of the officer wearing it. Standardized army uniforms were only in their infancy and there is likely to be regional differences and tastes present.

My only problem with these figures is that there was limited diversity. It would appear the sculptor had a similar problem finding many references and repeated the same design. The detail is there on the figures, just the imagination of the sculptor was limited or maybe under some deadline. With about 5 poses, a variety of colors is almost a requirement.

Ottoman Turk Concript and Militia Units

In this third installment, we have the conscript units for Lasalle. In the army list, it asks for four conscript units as part of the core list. Like the other Old glory figures, the figure bases are wide and only six would fit per stand.

Again, the molded on metal flag was on most of the standards and so I added some details using some flags I already had. Ottoman flags are extremely simple and do not appear to have been designed to be trophies.

The uniforms were taken from various "ortas" from the empire. Some of these units would be from Anatolia, Bulgaria, Bosnia or even from further away provinces and raised to be deployed when needed.

I forgot the name on the Old Glory bags for these varying troop types, but they are quite diverse. This front unit reminds me of the Janissaries.

Now we have the two required militia units of irregular infantry. These would be rounded up from villages and probably just as happy to kill the other militia units in some clan squabble. Being unpaid, their motivation was looting the dead (or the occasional stray traveler).

Really not a lot to go on with how these men might look like so I ended up using mix matched figures and asked they be painted in various colors. I ended up changing some of the colors myself to get the look I wanted.

Being stray militia and classified as irregular, it felt wrong to give them any sort of banner. It would be uncertain whether they would be Muslim or Christian and so it was easier to forget about it. Next up will be the Ottoman artillery.

Ottoman Turk Janissaries

In my second installment of posts listing my Ottoman army as it is based and ready for the table, we have the Janissaries.

The Janissaries, like almost everything else in the Ottoman army, seems to have had no real change in uniform except maybe colors. Many plates on the net show different units all very similar yet somehow different. These figures are by Old Glory.

There seems to be two poses for these troops, firing or charging. The one thing about these figures I did not care for were the cast metal flags. This seems to be an old tradition that should have died with the advent of the home color printer. Ottoman flags are extremely simplistic, but it is more time required to paint something that instead could so easily have had a nice paper flag attached.

If they had white face paint instead of beards, they could be confused for some type of unit of clowns. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Two of the units are in blue with yellow and two with green and yellow. This was changed from a light brown shirts and pants as it all looked a bit drab. Brighter colors are much more pleasing on the table top.

In the next post will be my four conscript units for the basic Lasalle army list.

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.