Masai armed with muskets or early rifles?

[Rob Herrick]

I picked up 30 beautifully painted 28mm Masai at Origins, and I am looking forward to adding them to my colonial collection as opponents for various groups. I need to flesh them out to at least 60+. However, I was wondering if I could quickly make them useable from what I have on hand by adding figures with muskets, of which I have several unpainted?

Hence my question. During the fighting against the Germans, Arab Slavers, British, etc . . . did the Masai use firearms if any were available? Or did they stick with hand to hand weapons?

Thanks!

[chicklewis]

The Masai were noted for their disdain for firearms.  One widely-quoted report states that after massacre-ing an entire caravan of arab traders/slavers, the Moran laid several hundred arab bodies at attention beside a path with their muskets on their shoulders, and just walked away, didn't even deign to capture the guns.  

If yours is an alternate Africa, then by all  means use some fire-arm toting Maasai, but it might not be proper for an historical game.  

Also, the Masai have a definite and distinct (long, storky) body type which Mark Copplestone captured astonishingly well in his sculpts.  If you are talking about other figures which already carry muskets, then their body types will not match your Masai, and should look different enough that you might not want to mix them in.  I certainly would not, but ymmv. 

[Plynkes]

You can have historically-correct firearm-toting Masai facing your Germans. But you have to leap ahead to the Great War.



Check out this thread:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=21284.0

[Rob Herrick]

Plynkes, that was the post that gave me the idea!

Right now, I'm working on a mix of 1879-1890ish, depending on the available figures and my own interests.