Picklehaubes in Colonial Wars?

[gunnermax2]

I'm putting together a small German force at the moment for a fictional East African campaign late 1890s to early 1900s to go up against some of the mullahs natives, Brits in khaki and red, (bit VSF I know, but no steam walkers and the like!), a band of USMC in blue with slouch hats and also the Italian Bersagilieri are in the mix somewhere to.

At the moment the Germans consist of a Naval landing party in white with helmets, maxim and pom pom gun with naval crew, some native scouts and bearers with a few Europeans sharpshooters and explorer types thrown in for good measure as well. Although theyre going to be painted authenticly, as you can tell I'm being quite liberal with historical accuracy.

I was contemplating picking up some Great war minis early Germans to add to them, (gun crew, squad of inf and some command models) and apart from the Wind and the Lion, fictious battle scene but great film none the less, I really dont know where and when if at all the Germans would have worn the Pickelhaubes in any colonial conflicts? Im sure for ceremonial purposes there might have been some somewhere, and I might be stereotyping but some of the senior personnel seemed to favour them. Im going to paint them up in the browish khaki as they appeared in the movie and if anyone could shed any light on how accurate this would be then it would be greatly appreciated.

Been 'lurking' on the forum for a while and this is my first post. You guys seem to be an authority on just about anything relevant to colonial gaming, so looking forward to contributing my efforts. Also I'm sure it must have been mentioned before but how do I go about posting photos? Many thanks in advance ,
Max

[Plynkes]

Pickelhaubes would not be accurate at all, I'm afraid. Slouch hats, sun helmets or occasionally peaked caps were the order of the day in tropical climes.  But don't let that stop you, if it's what you want to do.

[Trooper]

You could do a lot worse than have a look at Copplestone's German marines from his darkest Africa range I think.

[Geudens]

Pickelhaubes would not be accurate at all, I'm afraid. Slouch hats, sun helmets or occasionally peaked caps were the order of the day in tropical climes.  But don't let that stop you, if it's what you want to do.

They didn't appear in East-Africa, Plynkes, but did so in Afriboria    ....:

http://www.tsoa.be/pdf/heligoland_herald06.pdf

Rudi

[gunnermax2]

Hmmm, thought as much, oh well. Was also considering the Brigade games WW1 in Africa range which has some great characters but the chaps in the sun helmets just dont really do it for me. Pulp would be ideal but from what photos Ive seen they appear to be a bit on the small side. Ditto with the old glory Boxer range, though the helmets are spot on. Ive acquired the Copplestone German command but didnt grab the marine pack as they all seem to have pretty much the same pose, not really my thing, and hence why Im a big fan of the Great war minis. Different folks - different strokes I guess. Think if you go with the larger games then groups of models in similar pose look cool, but as Im more on a skirmish level I prefer having figures with more variety in animation. Am I missing any other ranges that could be suitable? 

[Plynkes]

Redoubt do Seebataillon in their Boxer Rebellion range. More poses than Copplestone, but from the photos they don't seem to be quite as nicely sculpted - they look okay though. Can't speak for the size of them. Off the top of my head I can't really think of anything else. Tiger Miniatures do German Colonials but I cannot in good conscience recommend them. I think they are hideous figures. If you don't like the Brigade helmeted troops have you looked at the slouch hat ones? The slouch hat really is the archetypal 'classic look' for German colonial troops in this period.

At the moment the Germans consist of a Naval landing party in white with helmets...

I'd be interested to know what figures you've used for those. I want some helmeted German sailors and am considering headswaps, as I thought there weren't any on the market.

[former user]

I haven't heard of Pickelhaube in Africa, but I've seen pictures of Seabatallion cavalry squad with covered Picelhaube in China, in colonial khaki.

so who knows.
Anyway, You can't go wrong in having senior officers wearing it, since there was quite some freedom for higher ranks and nobody would have minded if any of them were mad enough to boil their heads like this.
This could also work with some staff guard, if the commander would be so eccentric to order this headgear.
In every day military life, from my experience the choice of headgear between available types is very much a matter of the independent unit commander, and the CO's tend to not interfere with colleagues.
(this goes from company to battallion level).
this can even be changes in uniform - so go with what You like IMHO

[AKULA]

I'm sure it must have been mentioned before but how do I go about posting photos?

Simplest is to get a photobucket account (its free), and copy and paste the [img]blah blah blah [ /img] into your post.

[gunnermax2]

Not to sure if this is going to work, but Ill try again if not, the head is from the redoudt boxer range and the body is that of the redoudt brit sailors. Not entirely accurate, cant recall the helmets having the eagle emblem on the front but overall not to bad. Apologies for the poor quality of the pic, from a while back, having storage problems at the moment and this chap currently resides in a carry case in the loft.

The actual redoubt germans are tiny and didnt fit in at all. However the  Italians and Civilians are pretty good actually, going to post some more photos on another thread once I get the hang of it.

Shame about the tiger models, Im yet to read a good review of them and they do cover some of the more obscure periods quite fully.

Like the idea of the slouch hats although probably a bit more common in Sudwestafrika but the Von Lettow model from Brigade is tempting.

Going to have to have a little rethink and perhaps some converting. I think if the great war minis didnt have all the equipment then I would definately grab some. They might look good painted in brown but you cant help see them trudging across some flanders field rather than East african port!

Thanks for the heads up with photobucket AKULA!

<a href="http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums/af130/gunnermax2/?action=view&current
[img][<a href="http://s1000.photobucket.com/albums/af130/gunnermax2/?action=view&current/img]

[argsilverson]

Officially the pickelhaube, as Plynkes states, did not exist.
In spite to that, all troopers before going overseas had pickelhaubes.
See:
http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonialuniforms/doa%20early%20schutztruppe.htm

Pickelhaubes would not be accurate at all, I'm afraid. Slouch hats, sun helmets or occasionally peaked caps were the order of the day in tropical climes.  But don't let that stop you, if it's what you want to do.

Indeed, this is the point!

[gunnermax2]

Cheers for the link argsilverson, one of favourite sites, probably should spend more time rading the info as opposed to just looking at the phots! Gotta love those tropical helmets, interesting one in khaki that Id not noticed before.

http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af130/gunnermax2/100_4186.jpg

http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af130/gunnermax2/Untitled.jpg

Think Ive nailed the photo gag now, and hopefully this helps Plynkes

[Plynkes]

If you use the image tags before and after those links the pics will appear in your post.

So typing this...

Code: [Select]

[img]http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af130/gunnermax2/100_4186.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1000.photobucket.com/albums/af130/gunnermax2/Untitled.jpg[/img]
...will result in this:





Look pretty good to me. My plan is to put some sun-helmeted heads on Brigade Great War sailors.

While you're right, the slouch hat does very much say Deutsch-Südwestafrika (in fact they called that kind of hat a Südwester), they were worn in other theatres too. So the odd one or two wouldn't hurt if you want a bit of variety.

[gamer Mac]

Had a look at your photobucket account.
Some lovely figures there.
I like the conversions as well.

[traveller]

Check out the final scene of the movie "The Wind and the Lion". Lots of colonial picklehaube inspiration there (even if it´s fictional...)

[gunnermax2]

Cheers for that Gamermac, Ill be posting the photos on new threads, as Plynkes has shown me the error of my ways! Got the core of the Italians done, just going to redo the trousers on the Bersagilieri.

Are you planning on using the germans in sun helmets for the sailors Plynkes? Shouldnt be too tricky.
 
Also I know North star sell Brigade stuff but they dont seem to do the complete WW1 african range, are there any other distributors in the UK?