Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526, part 13 - More Rumelian and Anatolian Sipahis in 20mm

 

These Sipahis are made mostly from the Italeri boxes of Mongols and Saracens with a few add ons and cuts. 

There are also Zvezda (sand colored) Sipahis and a Agha and new plastic card shields. The lances are plastic broom sticks and many of the heads got new turbans made of Green Stuff. Some Sipahis also got Esci and StreletsR heads. When visiting the Istanbul military museum I got surprised with the amount of beautiful and very large paintings depicting the Mongol army of Genghis Khan not also in Anatolia but also in China which shows the proximity that the nowadays Turkish (the army at least) feels towards the Mongols. In fact the Italeri Mongol box shows horses and figures clad in equipment that is also the Ottoman Medieval and early Modern armies. I was thinking that the Lasso would have to be taken out from the Italeri Mongol horses but while reading more on the subject I found that even the Lasso was also used by the Ottoman Sipahis. So these Mongol figures are good enough for the barded Rumelian (Balcanic mostly) Sipahis. The Green Stuff turban was added because of the muzlim influence and is naturally not placed on the Mongol original figures as the Mongols are whether Shamanists or Buddhists. 

The Rumelian Sipahis. 

One Sihlatar (red  headdress, similar in shape to Janissaries)  was added to both groups of Sipahis. I´m not sure of this but maybe the elite Sihlatar were added to groups of Sipahis in order to influence them in military prowesses and make them more disciplined. In several cinematic researches the Sihlatar are never shown in large groups so maybe, just maybe, they can be portrayed like this. The Agha is the beautiful Zvezda figure. 

The Rumelian group was easy to paint due to the metal barded horses and armour of the cavalrymen. Mostly red and green was used in the details. Painting groups like this in the same colors makes the painting process much easier. Other groups have or will have different colors making a large Ottoman force a very colorful sight. 

The Anatolian Sipahis have both Mongol and Saracen Italeri figures together with a few Zvezda. 

Blue was used for most of the details but the more varied nature of non armored horses and men forces the use of some more colors. 

Next: Angolans for 1987-88 Cuito Canavale. 

Impetus Rules - Mohacs1526, part 6 - The Ottoman Janissaries

The Janissaries from Zvezda are one of the most detailed sets around and the figures are of high quality both due to detail and plastic quality.

Another issue is painting them.

There shouldn´t two Janissaries dressed alike and I tried to do so with the exception of jackets to keep some uniformity as these guys were one of the first standing large unit in the world. Blue was the most usual colour but many other were used. For not to drive (even more) crazy I used the same 6 or 7 colours along the stands, dividing the lot in two groups, one based on blue and another in yellow.

This command stand contain the three figures designed for that; the Sancak Bashi (standard bearer), the Çorbadji (which in fact means Chief soup-maker) and a musician. 

The entire Orta (regiment) but there is no such thing as units in Impetus. In the future I will try to make some rules for my own, with Impetus Baroque as base, but in which I can include Orders of Battle. Then one of these stands will be an Orta and all six will be the probable number of Janissaries Ortas at Mohacs 1526.

The yellow Orta looks better than it is. The Yellow colour was a nightmare to paint. I even checked some sites on how to paint this damn colour. I ended by aplying only one layer of thick yellow being careful for not to pass two times the brush on the same spot. 

From the back you can clearly see from were came the inspiration for the future Spanish and Austrian Grenadiers of 7YW and Napoleonic fame.

Next; a return to Brandywine 1777.

Impetus Rules - Mohacs 1526 in 20mm, part 4 - Azab infantry

 I had these StreletsR figures based and painted for months still without an idea about what to do with them. They would become part of Suleiman's army for sure so I chose to depict Azab close combat infantry, armed with lances, axes and swords.

Well there is no such thing as Azab close combat infantry in Extra Impetus No 3 so if they (ever) fight they will have the status of FP Levantine Infantry. I used plenty broom sticks lances instead of the separate swords provided in the set. 

This set is the Arab Infantry set of StreletsR aimed at the Crusades, 200/300 years before Mohacs battle. The teardrop shields are anachronistic but I like to think that they could still be used mainly by the many Arab forces that integrated the Ottoman army. 

The standards are my own and you can track them in previous Impetus posts. 

Next: Wether more Hungarian CP for Mohacs or the second British Motor Battalion for 1944/45. 

Impetus rules, 20mm - Mohács 1526 - part 2, Household Sipahis in 20mm

Lucky toys Household Sipahis this time.

These Lucky Toys miniatures are just great: well detailed and a very good reconstitution of an Osprey plate of its Ottoman army book.

But only two figures for the cavalry in a box that mixes infantry and cavalry which is a solution that always creates few poses.

 

So all horses and figures were bent slightly into different positions with the help of hot water. 

 

The maces and swords of all cavalrymen were taken out, hands were drilled and a lance was placed.

Also some quivers were made out of Evergreen as only one of the poses had it.

The flags are the ones I made for my self and that you can print from some posts ago. 

Impetus rules, 20mm - Mohacs 1526- part 1, rebased miniatures in 20mm

After a conversation on the phone with my friend JF ( yes, the famous one from Brigada Tripeira and O brigadeiro, the most famous Wargaming sites north of the river Douro, being this one the most famous south of it) he  convinced me  to change my Mohacs 1526 miniatures from DBR to Impetus.

Impetus has some nice big bases that can take lots of figures (up to 14 heavy infantrymen, for instance) and the possibility of creating bases that can be true dioramas. 

Regarding the rules, well... JF say they are great and I believe him! 

Besides you can download the basic version for free from impetus site.

 

The Esci/Italeri Sipahis. 

And the Zvezda/ Miniart Hungarian noble cavalry.

Impetus looks very nice. You can have a nice looking Wargaming table, some very easy and fun mechanics (JF says so), a very supportive site and a lot of well written and investigated supplements.

Lorenzo Sartori, the Impetus and Dadi & Piombo boss is also an enthusiastic and helpful guy. You can contact him and always receive his support. 

DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 8) 20mm Hungarian household cavalry

Now for some Hungarian just out of the varnish spray.

Most of figures are Miniart Burgundians and French with some Zvezda French knights. 

Here is Ludwig II ahead of his household cavalry in that mad charge against the Ottoman center.

Take a good look at him cause he died some minutes later and may be the last time you see the young king.

In order to have balanced armies I'll make a group each time of Ottomans  and  Hungarians. 

The flags are colour photocopies of the ones I showed you in part 6.

Hungarian cavalry is great and easy to paint (as all Gendarme cavalry type) :

- black spraying

- apply some dry brush steel colour 

- and later aluminium colour. This will make the knights armatures shine and look cooler. 

The Zvezda horses are quite short in height and look a bit silly with its horsemen on top. That is strange for probably the best plastic small scale figure manufacturer ever.

On the contrary Miniart horses are tall and slim but all this mixed together makes a pleasant sight.

Truly speaking the ones I would like to have are the DDS XVI century knights but these suckers have vanished from the market as no shop seems to have them on stock. I think it was Suleyman...

DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 7) - 20mm Ottoman and Hungarian flags

The first group are some Ottoman flags for the Suleyman years taken from the web after a research by OB ( no she is not from Brigada Tripeira, she is Galatasaray).

The first is the Ottoman Battle flag; the other ones with the red field are the State flag and the green are generic Ottoman. 

The quality of the printing will not be the best as the phone camera resolution is not a great thing. 

If you want the real stuff send me an email to jpp681@gmail.com and I'll gladly send you the file.

The 1st page of Hungarian flags are suitable for the cavalry and are hand painted with acrylic, hence the scrubby look.  

The isolated flag in the next picture is the Ottoman Solak flag and should be used in a cruciform pole.

The next group of Hungarian flags already include some for the infantry, namely the last two which can be used for the Landsknecht.

After resizing you may print them at your will. Hope they can be useful. 

DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 6) - 20mm, first Sipahis painted

The converted Sipahis from two posts ago already painted.

These ones were conversions from Esci and Italeri with some extra details added.

The blue colours on most of these Ottomans vests were inspired on the Mohács movie I've showed you. There are many more available on the Osprey books and such. Search in the web for George Gush Airfix articles on Renaissance warfare. They are an excelent start for the period and mainly designed for wargaming.

The red flags are loosely based on the red flags of the Silâhtar Sipahis, one of the elite group of the household cavalry.

  

  A few extra were added like the Evergreen bow case...

... and an armoured chest protection    for everybody made out of painted Liquid GreenStuff and a turban from normal GreenStuff for one Sipahi per stand.

DBR- Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 5) - Figures you can use.

These are the existing plastic for the Renaissance period and Ottoman Vs Hungarian (according to PSR site).

Ottoman:

- Orion janissaries.

- Zvezda cavalry.

- Zvezda janissaries.

- Lucky Toys Turks.

My Ottoman army will have all of these less the Janissaries Orion box as I could find two Zvezda janissaries boxes in Izmir, and c'mon, buying Ottoman soldiers in Turkey is really cool (in spite of Zvezda being Russian...). 

Hungarian (most approximate, as there is no Hungarian dedicated box ):

- DDR Landsknecht (2 boxes, one with pikemen and another with Doppelsoldners and arquebusiers).

- DDR knights  (apparently not in production).

All of this figures but the DDR knights will be on my army, and will be replaced by Miniart knights.

BUT, there is always a butt (and some of them are reeeeeally extraordinary...) you can use other boxes from late Middle Ages to make the large variety of different soldiers present at Mohács 1526: 

Non dedicated Ottoman boxes:

- StreletsR Muzlim Foot Warriors, Arab Cavalry and Turcopoles Cavalry for the Azab, Akinji, Balkan and Tartar contingents.

- Esci Muzlim Warriors for some torsos and heads both for Sipahis and artillerymen. 

(This is the IPSBLQHB (initially-pretty-stupid-but-later-quite-helpful-buying) I did at a supermarket for 1€ each. 

- Italeri Saracen Warriors for camels, foot Azab and horses. 

- Italeri Mongol Horde for tartars and Sipahi barded horses.

Non dedicated Hungarian boxes:

- Miniart Burgundian or French Cavalry as they are almost the same. 

- Zvezda 100 YW French Cavalry also have many lancers that fit nicely the Hungarian knights. 

- Zvezda 100 YW French Infantry, specially for the crossbows. 

For the Hungarian infantry I still have to look better both for arquebusiers and spear armed figures probably from Miniart, metal being the last resource.

This Mohács 1526 project will be mostly a job on the cheap side, with many boxes from the stockpile and conversions, and when this happens it's a particularly thrilling thing as what comes out is generally a collection of unique figures. 

DBR - Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 4) - converted Sipahis

One of the  first sources of figures for this Mohács project is a huge stash of Esci Muzlims I found some 10 years ago in a supermarket (???) in Covilhã, a city close to the Spanish border.

There were 15 such boxes, all the same, and at an irresistible 1€ each as I told in the previous post. So I bought them all with that typical eagerness of the pre-crisis era, thinking as usual that one day they could be useful for Alcácer Quibir or to fight the French Foreign Legion or ... whatever. 

Well, we just don't need too many coherent reasons to justify our hobby, do we?

So here it goes he first use of the Esci Muzlim box. After comparing the figures to the ones I could use for Mohács 1526 there is only one figure (better, its torso) and some heads that can be used. What  could I expect if the box was designed for XIX century North Africa?

Worse: there are only 3 such figures per box. But at 15 boxes it makes 45 figures, plus some 21 more from some 7 other boxes previously bought. 

So here you can see what use I gave them:  they turned into armoured mounted Sipahis. 

        

     

These figures were cut by the waist as well as some Italeri Mongols and Saracens who provided legs and horses. 

The bond was achieved with cyanocrilate for soft plastics. 

The scimitar was cut off and replaced with a lance made from the bristle of a plastic broom.

The arms of some were heated with a lighter and placed in different positions for the sake of variety. 

Ottoman army is gathering around his sancak (flag- for you not versed in Turkish, he he ...).

DBR - Battle of Mohács 1526 (part 3) - Shots from the movie

Just for some colour I'll show you some camera shots from the movie on the battle of Mohács 1526.

The Ottomans:

The Janissaries are supposed to sport blue jackets but the period miniatures show them in all sort of colours, mainly blue, red, yellow and some green.

Armoured Sipahis.

Sipahis Rumes (western Sipahis).

Artillery.

The Hungarians:

Heavy cavalry.

Hussars.

Landsknecht:

Hope it continues to help, Big Andy. But nothing's better than watching the movie.