Nizam-i-Cedid (1)

 

This is the first unit of Ottoman infantry I painted - a unit of "boustangee" musketeers from the Nizam-i-Cedid army.  This was a corps of infantry trained in more modern, European methods that was developed in the wake of the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-92: the name means "new order".  The aim of Sultan Selim III was to develop a modern army that could hold it's own against its enemies, given that the Janissaries were beginning to show their age as a fighting force.  By 1806 the Nizam-i-Cedid numbered about 25,000 men.  However, Janissaries saw the corps as a rival rather than an ally.  When Selim III was deposed in 1807, the ensuing political strife saw the disbanding of the Nizam-i-Cedid, many units of which were attacked by the "old" army and their soldiers killed by vengeful Janissaries.

All that said, I'm not entirely sure whether what I've painted here is an proper Nizam-i-Cedid unit.  This rather fetching pink and grey uniform is that of the "imperial gardeners" regiment, which was part of the Sultan's household guard.  Accordingly to Flaherty, "they were responsible for the maintenance, policing and defence of some 70 imperial estates as well as the coasts around Constantinople."  This description also seems to include guarding the imperial seraglio.  Flaherty suggests that troops from this regiment, or at least some of them, were recruited into the Nizan-i-Cedid, but it may well be the case that the regiment itself never took the field.  But the uniform is so good I just couldn't resist painting it up!

A note on the paints used, for those who are interested.  The tunics were painted with the Foundry palette 16 "Nipple Pink" and the trousers with palette 31 "Granite". For the soldiers' flesh, I wanted a middle-eastern, rather than European, look and used the Foundry palette 123 "Near Eastern Flesh".  It took me a while to finish this unit.  I ran out of figures a couple of times and then couldn't decide on the flag.  There isn't that much information on flags for regiments other than the Janissaries, but plain green and red ones seemed to be used, so I painted up one of the former.    

36 figures. Painted May 2023 to June 2024.    

Ottoman Artillery (1)

I mentioned that I've been working on Ottomans for my Napoleon in Egypt project.  I finally managed to get my camera out at the weekend, so I'll have a series of posts this week to get up to date.  I thought I'd work backwards and start off with my Ottoman "grand battery". This consists of three of the Perry Miniatures "heavy artillery" packs with large field pieces (catalogue number OT36 - so not the super-massive piece just released. As seems standard now with Perry ranges, the crews come in boxes of 6 figures and the guns are purchased separately.  I extracted a few of the figures and added a standard bearer from the irregular infantry command pack (OT13) to make up a couple of battery command stands.  The guns and crews are based on Renedra plastic 65mm x 90mm bases.  Even with these larger bases, I find the guy with the ramrod in loading crews invariably needs to be based separately, as there just isn't enough space.

The colour schemes for the gunners is taken from Chris Flaherty's "The Napoleonic Ottoman Army".  Published by Caliver, this book is essential if you want to build an Ottoman Army. In broad terms, there was the standard distinction between "heavy" and "light" guns. The type of heavy field gun shown in this unit was called a "kolunburna" and appears to have changed very little over the past century or two. It probably equated to a 19.5 pounder in European money. The crew themselves are a mix of figures in standard Ottoman irregular dress and then a rather fancy yellow uniform which seems to have been used for heavy guns crews and another unit called the "humbaraci", which operated mortars and howitzers.   The flag is taken from an illustration in the Flaherty book.  It may or may not be correct for this type of unit, but who cares - with a brass gun barrel on a red field it does at least look the part.    

I wanted to create a bit of an emplacement, as Ottoman heavy artillery seems to have to have been entrenched during battle, and so used Renedra's plastic gabions. These are relatively easy to put together, but the top is simply a plastic disc so you need to add your own "earth".  I painted the gabions themselves with GW Citadel paints - a base of "Rhinox Hide" then drybrushed highlights of "Gorthor Brown" and "Baneblade Brown".

I have two further guns and crews already painted, and will post those up when I've finished a third.

19 figures and 3 guns. Painted December 2024 to February 2025.