Benno's Figures Forum

Posted by **Marvin** on 18 Dec 2018, 23:33

In a big step outside my usual era of interest, I've been having a go with some of RedBox's extensive 17th Century Turkish Artillery range. :shock:

Very impressive figures, I think.

The wicker gabions came courtesy of an inexpensive resin cast scale model manufacturer called Anyscale Models.

And some close ups of some of the excellently sculpted figures in progress:

The finished artillery crews on my blog - https://suburbanmilitarism.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/ottomania-redbox-turkish-artillery-17th-century/

Close ups of the figures in progress -
https://suburbanmilitarism.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/ottoman-topcu/

Cheers

Marvin

Posted by **Kekso** on 18 Dec 2018, 23:44

Splendid work even without horses :xd:

Posted by **Marvin** on 18 Dec 2018, 23:58

Kekso wrote:Splendid work even without horses

Did the Ottomans do horse artillery...? ;-)

Posted by **Bluefalchion** on 19 Dec 2018, 00:44

Those are really fantastic. I like the colors you chose. Also the faces turned out really well.

Posted by **Wiking** on 19 Dec 2018, 05:32

As Bluefalchion already wrote, the color are really nice chosen. No color is an eye catcher like signal color the red and white. All is in a homogeneous level. Something that is in my opinion not so easy to achieve.

Position of the figure is also good.
Hmm ...
The man with the hammer hit right now ... ?

Oh! shock, the gun own no exit, can`t be loaded. Nor fire.
:mrgreen:

Posted by **FredG** on 19 Dec 2018, 08:15

Wiking wrote:Oh! shock, the gun own no exit, can`t be loaded. Nor fire.

Oh Marvin! How could you? :shock:

Posted by **C M Dodson** on 19 Dec 2018, 08:23

Very nice indeed.

The clothing colours are superb as mentioned.

Well done.

Best wishes,

Chris

Posted by **MABO** on 19 Dec 2018, 08:37

You know, I am a fan of your style of painting. So I really like this post. And I agree with you about the figs. So it is hard for me to understand why RedBox accept the crude figs and especially the horses in other sets.

Posted by **Paul** on 19 Dec 2018, 08:57

Marvin wrote:Did the Ottomans do horse artillery...?

As far as I know, most Ottoman horses and all other horses, were unarmed. I think it´s their lack of an opposing thumb, making Holding even the most Basic weapons, let alone firearms, impossible.

Posted by **Emperor** on 19 Dec 2018, 11:07

Great work Marvin...About the horse, I think they didn't used horsed but use ox to pull guns...One of those artilery operated here some 2 km near my town some 200 years ago... It is said Ottomans rejected modernisation for long time up to XIX century. Janissares were disbanded in 1826...

Posted by **Emperor** on 19 Dec 2018, 11:15

Also one notice, althou there was no standardisation of uniform like at British and French, Ottomans had regulation of which colors could be used by Turks and which color by christians. Ottoman soldiers also had to shave their head, while christains had long hair tied in some sort of ponytail.

Posted by **KenzoSato** on 19 Dec 2018, 18:21

Very good, I like tihis

Posted by **Marvin** on 19 Dec 2018, 19:00

Thanks guys, I did enjoy working with these figures. :-D

Emperor wrote:Also one notice, althou there was no standardisation of uniform like at British and French, Ottomans had regulation of which colors could be used by Turks and which color by christians. Ottoman soldiers also had to shave their head, while christains had long hair tied in some sort of ponytail.

That's really interesting! I was wondering what colours would be acceptable. Do you happen to know which colours were for which religion? Knowing that the Turkish infantry (Janissaries, etc, which I might also attempt to paint) had no standard uniform I thought I'd make the artillery wear something uniform in recognition of their preferential status in the Turkish army.

The colours I chose for these figures incidentally were not just copied from the box cover, they were also based on this image from Claes Ralamb, the Swedish Ambassador to Turkey in the 1650s.

Horses - I know. But cannons? Seriously - what does that hammer man actually do?! :eh:

Posted by **Emperor** on 19 Dec 2018, 22:28

I must find that article I can not just remeber where I saw it...It was few years ago...

Posted by **Paul** on 19 Dec 2018, 22:43

Marvin wrote:Seriously - what does that hammer man actually do?!

Seems a bit of a big hammer but Maybe he is supposed to be hammering in the quoin?

Posted by **Marvin** on 19 Dec 2018, 23:23

Paul wrote:As far as I know, most Ottoman horses and all other horses, were unarmed. I think it´s their lack of an opposing thumb, making Holding even the most Basic weapons, let alone firearms, impossible.

Posted by **Marvin** on 19 Dec 2018, 23:26

Paul wrote:Seems a bit of a big hammer but Maybe he is supposed to be hammering in the quoin?

That sounds possible. I'd read something about its use, but can't remember where or what it was for. Used for some situation where brute force is needed, certainly. I just stuck my hammer men out of the way at the back...

Posted by **Paul** on 20 Dec 2018, 08:38

Here you go, use of a big wooden hammer to tap the quoin from 1min 21 onwards...also at 2min 50. Throughout the film (and the excerpts) there´s a few People wandering around the gun Teams Holding wooden mallets and using them for tapping gun Barrels a bit to the left or right or tapping quoins.
The whole vid (taken from the film 1612) is, as is the whole film, well worth watching...although it´s not for younger viewers

I´ll correct my "Seems a bit of a big hammer but Maybe he is supposed to be hammering in the quoin?" to "yep, it´s a big hammer and he´s definately supposed to hammer the quoin"