Bashi Bazouks in the Sudan

[Chiefster]

Would anyone be able to help me with an enquiry. Would the Bashi Bazouks fight as skirmishes or formed, either mounted or dismounted.
 

[Mike Blake]

Yes...

Hit and run, Butcher and bolt, unless there were helpless women and/or loot to be grabbed, seems to have been their modus operandi?

Whilst on the topic of BBs  I am looking for pictorial inspiration for colour schemes, or rather some ideas on how to paint them individually. A search here turns up quite a few posts onthem but none very recently. Having finally made some in 54mm (conversions of Italeri Mamalukes for mounted, Barzo Barbary Pirates for foot) I am at the painting stage and have run out of steam.

Some gamers have gone for an actual uniform, but somehow that just doesn't seem right to me. I favour a more motley look as better suited (no pun intended) to their unruly nature.

I have the S&S/TVAG Sudan booklets, which include an excellent article on BBs but wondered if there was other research out there, perhaps more recent, which casts light on the appearance and colours of clothing of these intriguing vagabonds?

TIA for any ideas.

[Hobbit]

Mike, if you type Bashi Bazouk inti Google Images you'll get some good images; in particular some of the "Orientalist" paintings are quite inspirational.

[skeptichaggis]

I just got perry miniatures book "go strong into the desert"by colonel snook(real name). Actually I just finished reading it. While the writing is not as good as his"British military blunders"or his two book work on the 1879 Zulu war its pretty good and(as usual) fairly detailed. Best of all is over thirty colour profiles drawn by the Perry's. They include the various British,Egyptian, Sudanese and mahdi units in good detail.
One point made to go with the colour plate of the bashibazok is that these particular guys were unlikely to be composed of "real" bashibazoks. They were man for man more likely to be Egyptian urbanites,ex slaves etc. They were also far more regular in dress than is often supposed.
Brown boots,white baggy pants,white Turkish style tunic,white headergears,conventional issue European cavalry weapons.
Again these are NOT "proper"bashibazok, they have the name but are mainly from the urban Cairo area, and they have a fairly regular clothing style. Hope that helps.

[Mike Blake]

Thanks for the suggestions and info.

I have a mass of Googled pictures, and quite a lot of info, but am still having real problems painting the figures. They either look to 'regular' (ie Zouave-like) or too wild! I have put them aside and will see what happens when I get back around to them.

[Major Weenie]

I posed the very same Bashi-Bazouk question a few years ago,
and members of the LAF were very helpful.

They contributed many images of Bashi-Bazouks, in a wild array of wardrobe.

However, as has already been mentioned in this very thread, Sudan Campaign Bashi-Bazouks were no longer 'real' BB's, but as sort of Egyptian, home grown, frighten the peasants sort of force.  "Go Strong Into The Desert" explains this at some length, AND in the text mentions that by this point Bashi-Bazouks were wearing a sort of Zouave-ish uniform issued by the state.  The book also includes some very helpful water colors of BB's and these seem to indicate that the semi-official uniform was 'mostly white' with red or blue trim.  A less frequent alternative being 'mostly white,' with a blue jacket, and red trim.

My Bashi-Bazouks remain in their original paint scheme, matching the 1820-1850 oil paintings provided by members of the LAF.  They look very nice, and I can't quite bring myself to re-paint them in more historical hues.

[italwars]

i find some interesting suggestions for BB and other unconventional milititary types of the Egyptian Army  in the Sudan together with an idea on how to organize them.see the Castaway miniature painting guide:.i must add that minis for this period produced by the above mentioned manufactured are very nice..i followed closely their suggestion and organised them so...except some skirmishers i tend to use them as a less trained unit not a a flexible one than can act both in close order and as trained or naturally fitted for skirmisf action...

http://www.castawayarts.com.au/includes/free/painting_guide.pdf

[Mike Blake]

Thanks for the latest ideas.

[skeptichaggis]

The"bashibazouk" in the Sudan had a odd reliability. While I'm more into Kitcheners campaign in 1898 I have over a half dozen books on the mid 1880s campaigns. Sometimes they bolted at first sight of danger-sometimes they stood by the European officers and fought till the end. They were petty unreliable though.