Diablo Jon does Darkest Africa - now with my first Swahili buildings

[Diablo Jon]

Awesome project

Thanks

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[Diablo Jon]

I quite agree. And I would say that I think going with the black turban was the way to go… artistically speaking at the very least.

Thanks 👍

[Diablo Jon]

What kind of machine gun is that? Looks like a 50 cal.

 Very early maxim gun made by Northstar

[Tom Dulski]

oh interesting, thanks

[Hammers]

That's some ölovely painting there, Dylan.

[Diablo Jon]

In 2023 I embarked on a  new Napoleonic project which I've enjoyed but having finished painting up a bunch of Bavarians I decided I needed a little break from painting Napoleonic uniforms and paint something a little simpler. As it happens Northstar ran a January sale where they discounted Mark Copplestone’s Darkest Africa range among others. It was to good an offer to miss so I grabbed a few more miniatures for my never ending sub Saharan African colonial project. Among those miniatures were some Zanzibar Regulars which with a simple uniform and practically no equipment seemed like a stress free paint job to take a break from lace, button holes and endless straps. At some point I plan to do a whole post on the Sultan of Zanzibar’s “new” army, but briefly in 1877 the British helped the Sultan create and train a small uniformed army to help him gain better control of his mainland subjects and suppress the slave trade. Unlike the Sultans previous irregular soldiers these men were uniformed and armed with breechloading rifles. Like all Copplestone miniatures these were a joy to paint (so much so I started on another unit) but now I need to be disciplined and get back to the pile of Napoleonic miniatures.

[Dr Mathias]

Good to see an update

I did a Zanzibar regulars group myself, so neat to see them show up.

[Diablo Jon]

Good to see an update

I did a Zanzibar regulars group myself, so neat to see them show up.

Thanks they are great miniatures and nice counterpart to my Arab/Swahili army both as allies and enemies.

[Tom Dulski]

WOW you even have the teeth painted on that one guy.

[Diablo Jon]

WOW you even have the teeth painted on that one guy.

What can I say they were there to be painted 😁 in fairness 9  out of 10 times I try something like this it goes pear shaped 😆

[CapnJim]

Those are some nice-looking figures there.  Great job! 

[Diablo Jon]

Yet another unit for my never finished Darkest Africa project. I’ll admit this unit is something of an enigma first off I have found no written evidence of this unit during my research into the Sultan of Zanzibar’s army in the 19th century. I only found out about this unit from Peter Abbot’s book on Colonial Armies in Africa where he states there is photographic evidence of such a unit but adds no more information. However internet searches did turn up several black and white photos and one colour picture of lancers in Zanzibar.











After finding these photos I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have some lancers in miniature. First off there is no evidence these soldiers ever fought a battle, if they ever did, the most likely candidate is the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896 (famous as the shortest war in history). This war was the result of a power struggle between the increasingly influential British and the Zanzibari elite over who would chose the next Sultan following the death of Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini. Khalid bin Barghash declared himself sultan with the backing of the Zanzibaris, but against the wishes of the British who wanted to chose their own Sultan, he received the full backing of the previous Sultan’s palace guard which included infantry, artillery and most likely the lancer bodyguard. By contrast the British trained Zanzibar Regular army sided with the British. The war/battle itself pitted the palace guard and their artillery against a British naval squadron with predictably one sided results.

Despite the lack of evidence of actual combat I still figured they’d make and interesting unit for my TMWWBKs Zanzibar armies especially as cavalry are non existent in my Darkest Africa armies. They could support my British trained Zanzibar regulars, could form part of the palace guard in some 1896 what if scenarios. The could even possibly find a place in my early Zanzibar armies as Richard Burton mentions Sultan Sayyid Majid bin Said Al-Busaid had a bodyguard clothed in cast of British uniforms as early as the 1850s.

Looking at the photos a few things stood out. First the unit wasn’t overly large probably no bigger than two dozen at most. The unit seems to have divided into two smaller units one on Bays or possible black horses and the other on white or grey horses. The uniforms seemed to be white trousers and a dark blue, or possibly black jacket. Head wear seems to have been an Indian style turban or some sort of Kilmarnock or service cap. The only weapons seem to be a lance and a sword.

Looking around, for suitable miniatures, I thought Wargames Foundry Crimean war Turkish lancers weren’t a bad fit. I had to replace their heads with Fez luckily I found some decent head replacements in the Woodbine designs WW1 separate heads range selecting the Indian Turban and Kilmarnock cap heads. For an officer I took a Perry Miniatures mounted Egyptian officer from their Sudan range and mounted him on a Foundry horse. The paint job is a little speculative as I only only had black and white photos to work with but I think I’m on pretty solid ground with the jackets and trouser colours and I threw in some red because red was a popular colour in Zanzibar Arab flags (The Sultan’s personal flag being the famous plain red flag). Anyway this is what I ended up with and I’m pretty chuffed how the turned out.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great work, lots of character!

[fred]

What an interesting bit of history, and a great unit from it!

[Diablo Jon]

Great work, lots of character!

What an interesting bit of history, and a great unit from it!

Thanks chaps 👍