King's African Rifles in Light Grey-Blue Uniform?

[gloriousbattle]

I thought it might be fun to take some fairly generic askaris and paint them as KAR in this uniform

http://www.james-opie.co.uk/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_56740/Egyptian~Specials.JPG

However, I can find nothing else on the web to corroborate it, and so am a little uncertain.  Is this just something Britains made up, or is it historical?  Tried googling, but no luck.

Thanks

[Plynkes]

According to the caption they are KAR figures that were given a different paint job to make them represent Egyptians.

Not familiar with that particular uniform, or how well the KAR sculpt matches what they are pretending to be. Looks like a parade outfit, and almost certainly 20th Century by the shorts. Maybe even as late as WWII. If that's what you want to represent, go for it. Not much to game with them other than square bashing though, unfortunately.

[Plynkes]

If you want an alternative colour scheme to khaki, the KAR uniform up until the Great War looked like this:



Blue jersey, khaki shorts, dark blue puttees. Black fez for Nyasaland battalions, red fez for the others. In action a khaki cover with a neck flap was supposed to be worn over the fez, but I don't think it always was. Images (albeit artists impressions) from Somaliland show uncovered fezzes being worn in battle.


I believe sandals were regulation for a while (boots later on), but most pictures show the troops barefoot.


If you are dead set on KAR in grey, until 1904 they wore grey shirts under their jerseys, after which they switched to khaki. You could always turn them out in shirtsleeves order.

[gloriousbattle]

I have a set done up in khaki with red fez (which, of course, looks exactly like most of the other Askari uniforms of many nations), but thought this might be a nice, eye catching look.

Oh well.

[Plynkes]

(which, of course, looks exactly like most of the other Askari uniforms of many nations)

Yes quite, and with fatal consequences in the Cameroons on more than one occasion, what with Tirailleurs and Schutztruppe being mistaken for one another. It can all get rather samey, that's why I suggested the blue uniform as an alternative. But grey, sadly not.

[gloriousbattle]

Yes quite, and with fatal consequences in the Cameroons on more than one occasion, what with Tirailleurs and Schutztruppe being mistaken for one another. It can all get rather samey, that's why I suggested the blue uniform as an alternative. But grey, sadly not.

Well, I will check out the blue uniform then.  Was this simply the older, pre-khaki style, as the redcoat was for British regulars?

[Plynkes]

No, not really. Several of the units that were precursors of the KAR were already in khaki during the late Victorian period, the blue jersey thing came in when they were reorganised under the King's African Rifles name in the early 1900s.


Dark blue jerseys were previously worn (along with red fezzes and white trousers) by Sudanese troops in the service of the British East Africa Company, that's possibly where the look came from.

[Hammers]

In so many of these pictures you see big, fearsome, martial looking native chaps standing next to a white chap who look as if he was more at home behind the counter in a cheese shop.

[Plynkes]

[Dr Mathias]

I'd love to have some miniatures that looked like that- with the reinforced shoulders and puttees. I've thought about converting some, but what a pain that would be to do twenty or more...

[jazbo]

They were painted as Egyptians - in grey uniforms???

[Hammers]

It is too bad neither Owen nor Copplestone manages to pull off that tall very athletic look in their various miniatures. They are very good in mamy respects, but don't *quite* capture what I described in above post.

The one exception is Copplestone's Masai but they are not Askaris.

[Plynkes]

Hammers is a celebrated connoisseur of manly bodies. He certainly knows what he likes when it comes to strapping native lads.

They were painted as Egyptians - in grey uniforms???

I would hazard a guess that it is some kind of fancy-ass dress version of this WWII era uniform (which was khaki)...

But like I said, I don't know much about Egyptian military fashions beyond the Great War, so I may have it wrong.