Emir of Bukhara’s Bodyguard – Turkish Company

[Wagstaff]

According to limited sources (Cuprum's Siberia Miniatures has the best breakdown, but only the Turkish unit was feasible for me to attempt) which basically boils down to British scarlet tunics, but with fezzes.

Sourcing of body parts:


Bodies from:

• Hat WWI Early Infantry
• with a couple from Hat WWI Tropical Infantry , and shorts bodged into trousers with boots.

Heads from:

• Waterloo 1815 Anglo-Egyptians
• Strelets Bashi Bazouks

With an officer in Fez from   Strelets Tropical WWI Turks.

Results I like, although constructive criticism is allowed

&

[fred]

These are great!

I’ve no idea if they are historical accurate (or even meant to be) but I like them

[marianas_gamer]

Nice work! If you are getting your information from cuprum or Mark I would trust it.

[Wagstaff]

Thanks for the encouragement!

Gotta love a fez 🙂

[cuprum]

Excellent figurines of the Khan's Guard soldiers. According to my information, two regiments had red uniforms: Shevskiy (Shefskiy, Sherbacha) - "Lion Cubs"; and Turkish. There is no exact description of their uniform. There are only scraps of information from different sources. Considering that there were huge liberties with the observance of the prescribed uniform in Bukhara, it will probably be simply impossible to form an exhaustive idea of ​​their real appearance. One can only speak of a greater or lesser degree of reliability.
So far, based on the data I have, I have created the following reconstruction:





The first is "Lion Cubs", the second is a Turkish regiment. The first figure is an officer, the second is an infantryman, the third is a cavalryman (the regiments were mixed, including half infantry units, half cavalry).

You can safely ignore any errors in the uniform of your figures. In this situation, they are quite acceptable.

[Wagstaff]

Fantastic, many thanks!

Agreed, I think an acceptable degree of divergence 😁

I’ve had some ideas regarding the Turkomen, although no large shaggy hats available without sculpting. Nevertheless, a side quest for 2025!

[cuprum]

I think some of the heads from this set will do just fine.



https://plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=699

Especially since the Khan's guard included "Cossacks" in uniforms created in imitation of the Russian imperial escort in Caucasian-type uniforms.



Turkmen Regiment Servicemen



Regular Infantry Officers



Regular Infantry Soldiers

The Khan's guard had a machine gun team. 12 "Hotchkiss" machine guns, crews - from Afghans.

In total, the regular army (according to the intelligence reports of the Reds before the storming of Bukhara): 8,275 bayonets, 7,580 sabres, 16 machine guns and 23 relatively modern guns (mostly Russian mountain guns of obsolete systems - from the period of the Russo-Turkish War).

https://plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1907

Old muzzle-loading guns of various systems - more than 60. Oddly enough, they worked well during the assault, firing canister shots on the streets of the city. And in general, the Reds noted quite effective artillery fire from the defenders during the assault.

The irregular militia units numbered 27,070 bayonets and sabres, 2 machine guns, and 32 different old guns.

https://plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1306

[cuprum]

For inspiration: the Soviet feature film "The Crash of the Emirate". Alas - without translation...



The scenes of the Khan's army parade (3:05) and the storming of Bukhara (1:16:58) are interesting. Historical accuracy is not great, of course, but in general it conveys the color of the events.

[Wagstaff]

Thanks for your help. I can’t promise to be quick, but do have plans!

And thanks for the inspiration too!

[juergen c. olk]

Great post thanx.

[trev]

Lovely conversions and great information.  Nice posts chaps.

[JBaumal]

I love this thread, what time period and campaign is this for?

[cuprum]

In fact, two campaigns can be played out when the army of the Bukhara Emirate clashed with the Bolshevik army. In 1918 and in 1920.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolesov%27s_Campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukhara_operation_(1920)

[JBaumal]

@cuprum, thank you sir, very interesting!

[Patrice]

Fascinating thread    Thanks everyone.