Operations in the Sudan (4/13/21; Captain pg. 6)

[Plynkes]

It has some great miniatures eye-candy, that's for sure. I enjoy leafing through it, and I don't play Black Powder.

Mind you, I am the sort of person who buys rules and supplements just to read, with no intention of ever playing them. I expect I have more sets of rules that I haven't played than ones that I have.

[marco55]

It has some great miniatures eye-candy, that's for sure. I enjoy leafing through it, and I don't play Black Powder.

Mind you, I am the sort of person who buys rules and supplements just to read, with no intention of ever playing them. I expect I have more sets of rules that I haven't played than ones that I have.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that just reads them also. Real nice photos too.
Mark

[bc99]

I also buy more games than I play just for the reading.

About the Royal Marines, I’ve seen the Perry painting guide, as well as some color plates a la Osprey and in some of the plates the Marines have a red stripe down their trouser legs.

Did the Royal Marines in the Sudan have the stripe on the grey uniforms during the campaign?

[Plynkes]

I've seen that too, in a couple of modern illustrations.

Brian Robson, in his book "Fuzzy Wuzzy" has a uniform guide for the Suakin expeditions in the appendices. He makes no mention of the Marines having a red stripe. That's about all I have to go on, really. I don't know if they had them or not.

[Jack Jones]

I did not think there was stripe on the grey serge trousers … but the illustration on this page does show a red stripe 🤔

https://www.britishbattles.com/war-in-egypt-and-sudan/battle-of-tamai/

[bc99]

Wow, well there you go, it does look good doesn't it? I may just have to paint them that way because to me the dash of color, with their white gear, sets them apart a little bit. They'll have to wait though, as I've got the Naval Brigade and then some Perry plastic British to work on first.

Regarding the Naval Brigade, I'll have a group comparison shot of the various Naval Brigade miniatures I've found available: Empress, Copplestone, Perry.

The first few test figures are base coated and hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get some paint onto them.

[bc99]

Here's a view of some Naval Brigade, ready for the brush.



From left to right:

Perry (on washer), Empress (on washer), OG Zulu British?, Perry (on Frostgrave base), Empress, Copplestone, Copplestone.

I really love Copplestone figures, he's probably my favorite sculptor. That being said, they're giant, especially the Sennet Cap fellow. I will probably combine Empress and Perry to finish out the units.

My takes:

Empress: Best looking sword bayonets, some flash straight down the middle, including the face. Spindly weapons. I love some of the poses they've got including a bearded fellow fishing into his ammo bag.

Perry: Great looking faces, nice details, sword bayonets small. Some flash.

OG: I was going to use this guy for RMLI, but I think he's from the Zulu era. Oh well.

Copplestone: Sturdy and robust, I love their faces. No fixed sword bayonet. I'm torn about working them up and into the units.

Over all the Perry and Empress miniatures and weapons scale well together... as do some of the accoutrements. Unfortunately the Copplestone minis seem to outsize everybody.

Now to put some paint on!

[carlos marighela]

Probably the most interesting and almost certainly the most exotic brigading of the Royal Marines during Queen Victoria’s reign was the little known Syrian Expedition of 1840. There were two Royal Marine battalions, each of eight companies who fought alongside around 5,000 Turks (some of which were Ottoman Marines) and around 200 Austro-Hungarian marines from the Imperial squadron serving alongside the Royal Navy. There was an RA field battery of 9 field pieces and 3 howitzers and Royal Engineers in support.

Probably a bit before your period of interest but it’s an interesting campaign, the British Austrians and latterly the French were intervening against Ibrahim Pasha, the ruler of Egypt who had revolted against his Ottoman overlords and had captured most of the Levant. It’s got everything, opposed landings, storming of castles, street fighting in Sidon, skirmishes and pitched battles on Lebanese hillsides and a host of exotic friends and foes including Albanian irregulars, Bashi Bazouks and Lebanese mountain tribes armed by the British. Best of all the Perry Royal Marines from their Carlist War range are perfect. Much of the rest can be found in various ranges from Foundry to Brigade Games.

[Jack Jones]

Wow, well there you go, it does look good doesn't it? I may just have to paint them that way because to me the dash of color, with their white gear, sets them apart a little bit.

I shall check my references for eye witness accounts of the RMLI uniform. I fancy the red stripe too.

[bc99]

Thank you Jones! I’ve been trying to dive into some of my osprey books, as well as a book I purchased quite a while ago from wargames foundry. No mention of a stripe in any of those. I’m interested to see what you find out.

[JBaumal]

Carlos, that sounds like an amazing campaign. Can you recommend any books?

[JBaumal]

Bc99, I’ve painted my Sudan Naval Brigade in mostly the dark blue winter uniform and have primed my Sudan RMLI in dark grey in preparation for the serge grey uniform I’ve seen mentioned in many references.

[bc99]

That’s what I’m going for. Any idea what color the martini slings were ? I’ve started my first Naval Brigade and want to set him as the standard for my whole unit.

[carlos marighela]

Carlos, that sounds like an amazing campaign. Can you recommend any books?

Here are a couple of pieces to get the juices flowing.

https://www.pdavis.nl/Syria.htm

https://rmhistorical.com/files/content/History%20of%20RM%20-%20Blumberg%20%26%20AJD.pdf

There are a number of scholarly tomes on the Oriental Crisis as well as a fairly recent work on Mehmet Ali but for the naval and military side of things it’s hard to go past Sir Charles’ Napier’s own account. Napier led the British forces ashore and also at sea (largely by dint of personality and ignoring his superiors). He’ was a naval officer cut from the same cloth as Nelson, Cochrane and perhaps Hornblower. Saw service in the Napoleonic Wars as well as the Carlist War.

Fortunately his account is freely available courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53498/53498-h/53498-h.htm

If you are inspired enough to want to game it, Brigade Games Napoleonic Ottomans range has Albanians and regular infantry that look suitable for the Egyptians (there was a change of uniform taking place in the Ottoman Empire at the time) and Foundry’s Crimean War Turks in shell jackets would do for the Ottomans. Perfect fodder for Sharpe Practice.

[bc99]

Thank you and very interesting.

Edit: I'm adding these photos of the first member of the Naval Brigade I've painted.





I plan on finishing a full company of the Naval Brigade with these hats, and add at least a half company and possibly full company of Sennett hat Naval Brigade.

Of course I'll have enough officers and petty officers to lead them and have ordered a Gatling gun and Gardner gun to support the sailors.