Any Zanzibar Experts In The House?

[Cacique Caribe]

Would any of these CP Models’ 15mm Arab figures pass for Zanzibari raiders (circa 1870-1910)?

https://cpmodels.co.uk/product-category/15mm-ranges/15mm-pulp-adventure/

Or are there any suitable stand-ins in 15mm that you could point me to?

Thanks

Dan

[FifteensAway]

Think of Zanzibar as an Arab outpost along Africa's easts coast.  Thus, Arab figures should fit the bill.  I'm using a lot of Bluemoon's Egyptians from their DDA range - but mostly as unarmed civilians.

That's about as much of an expert as I am.

[Plynkes]

The mummies not so much, nor the ones with machine guns. I'd stick to the guys with swords or muskets.  But otherwise...


My only quibble would be the face-veils, which are much more of a North African than East African thing. Can't recall ever seeing a depiction of a Zanzibari or Swahili "Arab" wearing one.* You just have to decide if that bothers you or not.



*Though of course someone is going to post just such a picture now, and make me look like an idiot. 

[Cacique Caribe]

Lol.  Mummies might be a bit too much, I think. 

How about these “Armed Natives” from Rebel Minis?

http://www.rebelminis.com/15arna.html

Or how about “Ansar” from Essex Miniatures’ Sudan range?

https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/collections/15mm-colonial-sudan

Any other 15mm figures out there that could be added to a Zanzibari raiding party?

Also, I wonder if the Blue Moon “15mm” could pass as simply taller fellows when mixed with other 15mm, or if the size disparity in weapons would make that impossible.  Thoughts?

Dan
PS.  I bought these porters a while back too:
http://www.rebelminis.com/15pupo.html

[Plynkes]

I can't tell you what to do. Personally I haven't seen anything in 15mm that is a perfect fit for Zanzibaris. There seems to be quite a lot that is close, but nothing bang on the money. All you can do is decide if it's close enough for you.


Speaking for myself, simply using Arabs doesn't really cut it for me. Not if the models are Bedouin or anything like that. I've never seen a depiction of a Zanzibari wearing one of those "Lawrence of Arabia" style head-cloths. They just don't seem to have worn them down there. Ansar figures are better in many ways, the skull caps and their style of headdress are much closer to East African fashions, but they tended to wear a jibbah and trousers, whereas Zanzibaris wore long robes. Unless you can find something designed to be Zanzibari, you're just going to have to decide which of these problems is the easiest to ignore. So by all means use Arabian Arabs or Ansar, but just realise they aren't quite right.


Other members, such as FifteensAway will have a much better grasp of what is available out there in the scale. 15 mil ain't really my thing.


One thing to bear in mind when you have picked your figures and are painting them, is that there was quite a bit of intermingling with the locals, and adopting of Arab culture by them too. Often, though dressed in Zanzibar fashions these culturally Arabic fellows would look otherwise just like other black Africans of the region. So you might want to paint at least some of your Arabs with dark African skin tones. Not all of them, but some. I think that's a lot easier to get away with in 15mm than larger scales where you have more detail on the faces.

[Plynkes]

Those Rebel Minis guys aren't too bad. Not bad at all, really. I'd paint them a bit browner if it were me, though. They look like white guys cosplaying. A bit pasty-faced for East Africa. 

[Plynkes]

Another thought is maybe using North West Frontier tribesmen. Again not perfect, but probably as good as you're going to get.  You'd have to ditch any of them wearing sheep and goatskin coats, mind.

[FifteensAway]

I do have a pretty good knowledge of 15 mm and Bluemoon will work with Essex and other medium to larger 15 mm figures like Irregular and Museum Miniatures but will tower over Peter Pig 15 mm.  Their African tribal figures are really tall even within their DDA range.  For unarmed civilians there are two sources, Bluemoon and Irregular's Colonials range which are large but a bit smaller than Bluemoon.

For knowledge of Zanzibari and most all things colonial, I yield to the superior knowledge of Plynkes.  His responses above give me cause for pause since a bunch of my 15 mm civilians have the face coverings for the females.  Again, as he says, it is a matter of accepting compromise.  Perhaps easier for me because, while history is the inspiration, a fictionalized setting is my goal - just without the fantastical or weird elements so often tossed into the gaming mix.  Unless - maybe - I do a little bit of a lost world game but without dinosaurs and cavemen; that's too much of a stretch for me.  Not for others, obviously!

Knowing you, Dan, I suspect you are going in the direction of something a bit more fantastical, maybe?  Or are you now leaning into history?

[Plynkes]

As far as I can tell, Muslim women covering their faces in Africa is a 21st Century phenomenon. Even head scarves don't really seem to have been a massive part of the various cultures. When I visited Egypt in the 1990s, before all the recent, um, bother, I never saw a single person completely covered in the Arabian or Afghan way, and I didn't see all that many even covering their heads at all.

Hell, you see photos of Muslim women in the horn of Africa in colonial times not even bothering to cover their boobs! Until recently, the idea was that women should dress modestly by the standards of their culture, rather than some universal Islamic standard like we seem to have today. And some places didn't consider knockers flapping about in the wind to be particularly immodest.


The North African tradtion of wearing veils was a Berber thing, and generally restricted to men.  It wasn't anything to do with modesty or Islam either, it was thought to ward off curses and magic. Though no doubt it was pretty handy in a place where the wind is blowing sand everywhere, too.

But hey, if they otherwise fit the bill, I don't see anything wrong with using those veiled figures, Fifteens. Sometimes close enough has to do.

[OB]

Try these.

https://shop.eastridingminiatures.co.uk/colonials-45-c.asp

[Hupp n at em]

Given what you've said Plynkes, would using Ansar heads on Arab bodies be the best kitbash to roughly approximate Zanzibari fashion?

[Plynkes]

Maybe worth it if you are a proper stickler, and if you have the skills and don't mind the wastage, but I think most would just find the nearest thing they like and use that. It's not exactly the crime of the century.

But I think those figures in the link posted by OB may well be what we're looking for. The Baluchis look real nice, and I think two of those figures might be the coastal Arabs. Both of which troop types fit perfectly in a force from that location. Just add some armed porter-style (as opposed to the sort in European uniforms) askari with muskets and you have a nifty Arab force. We may well have found a winner.

[OB]

I seem to remember reading that the ERM figures are a scaled down version of the 25mm Wargames Foundry ones.  How and why I don't know.

Plynkes is quite right they are coastal Arabs.  I have some of these figures and they are really nice, especially the Baluchis, and very affordable.

[Plynkes]

I seem to remember reading that the ERM figures are a scaled down version of the 25mm Wargames Foundry ones.  How and why I don't know.

Definitely seem to be at the very least "inspired by."  That one Baluchi pointing his sword looks very much like a Foundry one that I have in my collection.

[Cacique Caribe]

I typically don’t order figures without photos, so I’m sending ERM an email with a couple of questions about their 15mm Arabs and Baluchi.  Hope to hear back from them soon.

Dan
PS.  Or is the photo on the top of their Colonial page the entirety of the poses?
https://shop.eastridingminiatures.co.uk/colonials-45-c.asp