Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: Mustasha Pasha on January 19, 2009, 08:17:10 PM
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Turkish Gunboat
Here are some pictures of the gunboat I’ve built to support my Turkish troops on the rivers of Askaristan as they advance to re-occupy their ancient Central Asian homeland.
(http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/JohnHAllen/FSCN1677.jpg)
TNV Sultan is 9 ½” long by 3” beam and is pretty conventionally constructed from card balsa and pasticard. Some Plastruct left over from a previous project was used for the stairs, ladders and handrails.
(http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/JohnHAllen/FSCN1681.jpg)
The usual household objects have been modified to fit. The smokestack is a pen top, the engine room ventilators are plastic straws and the main mast is a kebab stick.
(http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/JohnHAllen/DSCN1679.jpg)
The limitations of size prevented a representation of any particular river gunboat however I have tried to incorporate the pertinent features. Having the mast for’ard of the bridge is not untypical of small naval auxiliaries in the early 1920s. At present the crew is made up of Mexican infantry only one of which has been painted to look like in any way naval. However they look reasonably Turkish and in the absence of any Turkish naval figures will have to do after they’ve all been repainted. The 6 pdr deck gun and the bridge mounted machine guns are Old Glory models. Finish is Humbrol mid-grey spray.
Not particularly naval I’m afraid but she is only intended to be a floating gun platform for gaming purposes and anything else would look distinctly overscale. Ideally I’d like to replace the ventilators if I could find something suitable.
PS yes I know my cutting mat is a mess and I should never have used it for painting!
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Neat. You know, for some real distinctively Turkish-looking sailors, you could headswap some Turkish infantry heads on to some German sailor bodies (such as the Brigade ones), and end up with something like this...
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/Plynkes/TurkishSailor.jpg)
Not many other people would have anything like them. I keep meaning to do it myself, except the Turkish infantry I bought for the purpose have been seconded back into the Army for my Gallipoli/Palestine project. But now Woodbine make separate Turkish heads I think the project may be back on (though I'm not certain they'll go together perfectly scale-wise).
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Lovely ship!
Agree with Plynkes, German sailors from Brigade Games with some Gripping Beast heads will do the trick.
I've a few spare German sailors so I'll give it ago.
Helen
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My only concern is that the Woodbine fellows are a little smaller than Brigade. I think they look fine on a tabletop together, but with the head of one on the body of another I fear they may look like pin-heads.
I have some Woodbine Brit heads though, I'll line them up later and see how they go size-wise with Brigade figures (I did think Copplestone heads would be too big on Great War Miniatures bodies, but they turned out fine in the end, so you never know). Otherwise may have to look for some smaller sailor bodies from another manufacturer. In fact I think they would fit fine on the Old Glory sailors I have.
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Blue Moon Manufacturing's Captain Joshua & crew with head changes would probably suit as well. For Turkish officers perhaps the Copplestone Naval officers would suit?
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I love this model! Sharp!!!!
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Very nice :)
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They also wore these little pill-box sailor hats, and fezzes for the officers, neither of which ought to pose too many problems when it comes to converting.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2rfsevq.jpg)
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That's a great boat , well made ,
and loads of advice on turkish sailors too.
I really like this place :D
dodge
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Very nice effort! Like the model you built.
On turkish sailors:
In Turkey fez was abolished a little early [if I remember well Kemal Ataturk officially abandoned it in 1923!, but since WW1 it was not anymore in use. Fez was connected to the times of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
The best option is to use german sailors body with appropriate head, see the 1st photo Plynkes provided.
Blue moon's sailors are mostly british] I recommend for landing parties the brigade games sailors and for unarmed ones the Old Glory Naval artillery crews, also with headswaps.
Fez was not abolished however in Egypt or similar countries. I Think Egypt abolished fez around 1953!
In general Turkey [Egypt as well] is well connected with the fez. I remind you that Pulp Figures released the Intanbul constanbulary in Fezzes, so, gamers' licence you may use fezzed sailors.
So, based also to the name of the vessel, all crew and officers will be in fezzes!
Here is a link with uniforms of the Turkish Navy ca 1912-1915!
http://www.diggerhistory2.info/graveyards/pages/equip-uniform/tk-uniforms2.htm
some other little earlier: http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/tevfik.htm
some more: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147089&page=2
[ this one has a lot more interesting photos like Austro Hungarians, Japanese, burmese
germans in turkish service:
http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonialuniforms/ottoman%20fronts%20turkish%20unforms.htm
some turkish sailors:
http://flickr.com/photos/28668804@N00/2422193168
By the way an ideal commander for the vessel would be the sitting figure with hookah!
see the link:
http://www.pulpfigures.com/catcode.php?range=Personalities&code=PHP&number=15&custID=7916691871232448460
In order to enrich your vessel I would recommend the use of some ship's fittings:
Fenders: http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/rope_fenders.html
[rather expensive, but will add more flavour to the model!]
Vents: http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/billing_boats_vents.html
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Did you tell them it grounded on its first voyage....?
The rivers of Askaristan are shallow and rocky..much like its tribesmen!
:D
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Yes, I should have mentioned they only wore fezzes up to a certain point. Still, they are good for the Great War era and before. The sailors' hats worn by the ratings aren't actually fezzes, though (more of a shrunken version of the standard sailor hat), so they may well have continued with those in the 1920s. I'm not sure when they came in. In pictures from the Great War you see them in both those caps and in fezzes.
I also have a photo of an Ottoman officer in a peakless cap. Just like a normal naval officer's hat but with no peak (easy to convert). The idea behind all these hats without peaks and brims was apparently to allow for daily prayers without having to take your hat off (not sure how keen Atatürk would have been on that, fanatical secularist as he was).
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The idea behind all these hats without peaks and brims was apparently to allow for daily prayers without having to take your hat off (not sure how keen Atatürk would have been on that, fanatical secularist as he was).
that's the reason they abolished the fez and officers wore fur hats [surprising enough fez shaped]
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He should have made them switch from fezzes to sombreros then, that would have learned 'em. lol
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He should have made them switch from fezzes to sombreros then, that would have learned 'em. lol
He abolished the fez, introduced the latin alphabet to replace the arabian one, introduced western calendar to replace muslim one, abolished the muslim face cover of the women and handled them equal rights and tried to modernise the country. I don't know whether the new ones have more ideas.
Alas, he forgot to introduce sombreros !!!! maybe this will be the future
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Hi and thanks for all the advice and info on Turkish sailors. As I've just about finished repainting the Mexicans I'll probably stick with them for the time being.
There's a photo on page 27 of the Osprey on Megiddo which shows a Turkish Naval officer with a short-peaked cap similar to what Plynkes mentions. This is very like the Mexican hat (not sombrero!).
To the Emir:
At least the Sultan has seen combat - HMS Viper is still skulking in harbour!!
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Hi and thanks for all the advice and info on Turkish sailors. As I've just about finished repainting the Mexicans I'll probably stick with them for the time being.
There's a photo on page 27 of the Osprey on Megiddo which shows a Turkish Naval officer with a short-peaked cap similar to what Plynkes mentions. This is very like the Mexican hat (not sombrero!).
To the Emir:
At least the Sultan has seen combat - HMS Viper is still skulking in harbour!!
I found an interesting spanish site with lots of photos from balkan wars.
There are a lot of turkish navy photos with sailors and officers plus interesting photos of greek and bulgarian navies, too.
have a look!
http://www.fotosmilitares.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=388
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Oh bravo, "Arg." Some absolutely smashing photos there. Well worth a look. Well done. A real treasure trove.
More Evzones. Why do the Greeks hate their soldiers so much to make them wear those clothes? They look like they were dressed up by their big sister and her friends before being sent to war. Did they actually fight dressed like this?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/Lehto/Balcanes/Fotos/Grecia-Euvzones01.jpg)
And the navy didn't fare much better...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/Lehto/Balcanes/Fotos/Grecia-Marina05.jpg)
This photo was taken from the time when the Greek Navy took up selling ice cream. :)
(Sorry for mocking the Greeks, but you know I don't mean it with any spite. ;))
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and the main mast is a kebab stick.
How fitting !! lol lol
Nice work. All you guys posting scratch-built boats and ships really make me wonder if I could pull something like that off....
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Dear Plynkes,
Jokes accepted! No offence whats=so-ever! I like jokes.
But I will add some remarks, for history's sake:
evzones: is the traditional dress for southern greece and peloponese, in general. In fact is a pleated kilt. girls never wear such dress usually theywear long dresses with aprons.
If someone wears the evzonic dress -fustanella- means to be tall and brave.
Nowdays there is no evzones in the army =apart the presidential guard. The reason is that during the german occupation during WWII, the germans orgabised some batallions of collaborators, hence after the reorganisation of the regular army there is no regiments of evzones.
evzone [literally means "good belted ones" maybe because they carried a whole arsenal in their belts???] were first introduced in regular army around 1830, immediately after independence. supposed to be elite units, sharpshooters, highlanders and light infantry.
navy: those sailors in straw hats- like ice cream sellers- are a direct copy of the british navy uniform of the time. if you see in the website it is in the balkan wars section. In fact during first balkan war, straw hats along with other surplus were distributed among the new recruits to form a new division . they were nicknamed "marines" , but had nothing to do with amphibious elite soldiers. they were ordinary untrained infantry carrying old fashioned rifles and navy cutlasses.
As far as I know after the first Balkan war , there was no further use of them.
In fact as the balkan war started on 05.10.1912 the navy carried the winter uniform which had not the straw hats.
My long late grandmother, living in Mytilene (island of lesvos), was at the age of 12 when the liberation was effcted (08.11.1912) told me that she remembered having seen only a small landing party of sailors in blues and straw hats. The rest were carrying normal navy caps.
kebab masts: yes they are. Note british made! the greek navy bought almost the entire fleet from british shipbuilders.
errors: I have noticed that some photos of the greek army were included in the serbian section. The website says serbian infantry guarding prisoners, but have kepis. the serbian infantry had side caps.
website: the website is a very interesting small site. it has lots of photos of other conflicts, including SCW, paraguay war etc
Worth searching it. As for Spanish, I think it is easy to understand at least the general idea.
It is now time to stop writing, but I'll keep waiting to see the improvement of the the Turkish gunboat and her crew!
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Gentlemen, may I present HMS Adder, currently moored in Askaristan and awaiting her full compliment of crew.
I had two attempts at building her. The first turned out rather short and looked rather top heavy, so I built another longer version. 3mm plasticard was used for the hull and deck, whilst 1.5mm was used for the cabin.
I tried a higher railing, but it didn't look right and somehow no railing made the ship look a little bare, so this smaller than scale one ended up being applied.
The awning was made from the heavy metal foil from wine bottles, it seems to be an integral part of vessels in the middle east.
The overall idea was to build something like the gun boats that sailed the Tigris in WW1- not an ocean going vessel by any means and definately not pretty - but im sure she'll rules the waves on any body of water she steams on.
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss339/s_insch/100_1746.jpg)
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss339/s_insch/100_1748.jpg)
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss339/s_insch/100_1747.jpg)
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Very nice!
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I think both models are excellent and definately capture the look and feel of the period!!And if you're looking for ventilators try herehttp://www.tin-soldier.com/cgi-bin/ustorekeeper.pl they also have good selection of deck guns. I look forward to seeing more of this stuff
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Thanks for the tip. Recently a new model shop opened in the area and offers all the miniature chandlery we needed...after the boats were built of course.
I'm sure you'll see shots of them in action very soon.
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Thanks for the tip. Recently a new model shop opened in the area and offers all the miniature chandlery we needed...after the boats were built of course.
I'm sure you'll see shots of them in action very soon.
Can't wait to see them!
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Always good to hear of a model shop opening too often you hear of good ones closing!