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Author Topic: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament (even more cavalry 11-Jul-2019)  (Read 7317 times)

Offline Thaddeu

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Hi Everyone!

Inspired by traveller's thread about Ottoman kitbashing, I figure I should start my own thread for my Ottoman Army project. After collecting decent-sized Pike & Shotte armies for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Cossack Hetmanate, I decided I wanted to add Russia and the Ottomans to my collection.

I am starting with Ottomans, because it is easier to convert them from plastics. There will be plenty of purpose-built metal figures as well, especially for commanders and janissaries, but the bulk of the infantry has been converted from Gripping Beast plastic Arabs, and a substantial proportion of the cavalry will be based on their Arab Light Cavalry (with maybe some heavy cav bits as well). The metals will be mostly TAG with some Warlord.

Since Pikeman's Lament is pretty light on specific army list guidance, I am using By Fire And Sword (produced by Polish company Wargamer) to help define my troop types and army selection.

To start, here is a picture of my force as it stands. Individual unit pics to follow.



Or if you're impatient, you can always check out my blog. But this thread will be organized better.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2019, 07:46:22 PM by Thaddeu »

Offline traveller

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2018, 06:42:10 PM »
Wow! looking forward to see more of this  ;D

Offline Forwardmarchstudio

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2018, 06:48:37 PM »
I'm liking those janissaries. 

A long time ago janissaries were the unit that got me interested in painting bright, vibrant colors and complex uniforms.  I painted up a dozen OG 28mm janissaries while sitting in the barracks office on fire watch one day in North Carolina, years ago.  That's where I learned how satisfying it is to layer up blue.  You can break my painting career into two neat halves.  Before the janissaries everything is dark brown, gray and dry-brushed chainmail. On the near side of janissaries everything is Turks, or Napoleonics, or something else bright and colorful (or else really, really tiny, but thats another story).  The janinssaries were basically a gateway drug to Napoleonics.  Which, from what I understand their uniforms and music were adopted by the Europeans, so on a certain level they really were one of the most influential military units in history.

Offline DonFabrizio

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2018, 09:52:17 AM »
lovely work!

Offline Thaddeu

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2018, 04:54:18 PM »
Thanks Everyone!

Forwardmarchstudio, your story is vaguely similar to my own. Before getting into historicals, I only painted Games Workshop Orcs (and Orks), in mostly browns and blacks and metals except for the green skin and occasional warpaint. Historicals were a breath of fresh air after that. However, I doubt I'll ever make the jump to Napoleonics; color is great but actual uniforms are a hassle. I don't mind the occasional unit of janissaries or streltsy or whatever, but whole armies of that would be too much for me. Give me stylish irregulars any day!

And on that note, here are my unstylish irregulars...

The Segban are, with the exception of Peasant Rabble, probably the least capable unit across all By Fire And Sword army lists. Peasant conscripts with low quality weapons, no drill, no discipline, very little motivation and a tendency to revert to banditry. They are basically just GB Arab Infantry with Warlord ECW musket arms, and a few headswaps to mix in those widebrim hats some apparently wore (shade is important when you're a peasant). I painted them a variety of drab colors to make their lowly status apparent.







In Pikeman's Lament terms, I'll be using these as Raw Shot, though given their stats in BF&S I could almost even justify calling them Clubmen.

Btw, it would be tedious to catalog *every* kit I used to complete a given unit, but I think I will call out the bitz I'm most pleased about. Here, two of the wide-brim hat/bearded heads were taken from Warlord's Zulu War English plastic kit, with a bit of greenstuff to make the crown more amorphous.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2018, 05:16:12 PM by Thaddeu »

Offline DonVoss

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2018, 05:23:20 PM »
Great troope....:)

Love the conversions.

Thanx for showing,
Don

Offline vodkafan

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2018, 07:17:15 PM »
Really nice and interesting conversions, hideous blocky sabot base!
I am going to build a wargames army, a big beautiful wargames army, and Mexico is going to pay for it.

2019 Painting Challenge :
figures bought: 500+
figures painted: 57
9 vehicles painted
4 terrain pieces scratchbuilt

Offline Thaddeu

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2018, 09:52:04 PM »
Hah, yeah, the movement tray is an experiment that needs some more work, but it's undeniably handy...

Less pathetic than the Segban, but not so professional as the Janissaries, here are the mainstay of the Ottoman infantry arm: the Azabs. I'm not actually entirely sure what distinguished Azabs from Segban, but they appear to be pretty widely regarded as a slightly higher grade of irregular infantry. I've set them apart from the similarly-modeled Segban by including feathers, some short-sleeved coats, and brighter colors. And of course, their characteristic variety of weapons. A few of these are TAG metals, should be easy to spot if you're looking.













I'll be counting the Azab Musketeers as Shot, the Azab Archers as Raw Shot, and the Spear/Halberd Azabs as either Raw Pike or Clansmen. Eventually I might make or buy additional spear and halberd guys to make one unit of each instead of smooshing them together like this.

No particularly clever bit usage here, though I did cut the big shields out of cardstock instead of buying.

Offline Anderson Collection

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2018, 08:50:58 AM »
Great work on those Ottomans  :-*

Offline Thaddeu

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2018, 04:41:51 PM »
Thanks!

So, these are an interesting bunch. I bought a unit of Wallachian Voynuks from Warlord Games on a whim a while back. As part of their Wars of Religion line, these represent Balkan subject troops loyal to the Ottoman Empire. I believe they are intended to date to the 16th century, I don't know if Wallachia would actually have continued to provide armored halberdiers into the mid-17th century But they sure do look cool!



Pikeman's Lament doesn't have too many options for melee infantry, but there a couple options that work okay here. I think their halberds are long enough to hold cavalry at bay, so taking their armor into account you could easily call them Veteran Pike even if they don't technically have pikes. Alternately, Aggressive Forlorn Hope are the best melee infantry option in the game, and these guys could certainly fit the bill if you don't mind fielding them in sixes.

Offline DintheDin

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2018, 09:25:30 AM »
Hi! You are doing a fine conversion and painting job there! Congrats!
I agree with the classifications you have given to your troops and I'm eager to see them in your next PL game! Cheers!
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. – Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Offline Thaddeu

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2018, 05:01:58 PM »
Thanks, glad you like them! Hard to get friends to come by for a game, but I hope to get a few in this summer.

Meanwhile, here's the grand finale of the infantry portion of the army: the dreaded Janissaries!

Just TAG miniatures here, no conversions.

Pretty much only regular infantry in the Ottoman army, by the 1650s they were no longer the elite professionals they had been in previous centuries. But they were still well-armed and generally had pretty good morale and tolerable discipline, enough to distinguish themselves from the Azabs and Segban at least. I'll be fielding them as Veteran Shot, and once I paint the last two melee janissaries I'll be able to field those ones as Aggressive Forlorn Hope.










Offline Thaddeu

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2018, 05:05:24 PM »
BONUS: before I decided to bite the bullet and buy metal janissaries, I toyed with the idea of converting my own from plastics and greenstuff.

The end result was decent, but hoooo boy was that too much effort for a single non-character model...




Offline Thaddeu

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2018, 01:46:45 PM »
And with this post, the thread is finally caught up with my blog!

Here are the first cavalry, some TAG Sipahis of the Porte. I combined a blister of their regular sipahi with one of their elite sipahi to get this unit, so I sculpted a bit of horse armor to tie them together better.







Definitely Elite Gallopers, possibly Aggressive too.

Offline DintheDin

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Re: Ottomans for Pikeman's Lament
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2018, 03:06:24 PM »

Definitely Elite Gallopers, possibly Aggressive too.

Definitely Elite! Yep! And Aggressive!
TAG makes fine sculpts! An excellent unit!  :-*
Well done! Congrats!