For many of us, it was a fascination with miniature gaming which first drew us to a study of the Ottoman Empire. In this issue gamer and historian Robert Burke gives us the second installment of his three-part overview of historical gaming figure manufacturers.

20mm

I started playing wargames over 25 year ago with 20mm Napoleonic figures and 20mm is still my favorite scale for wargaming. Sadly, over the years, 20mm figures have fallen out of favor and have been replaced largely with l5mm figures. However, the good news is that several companies (especially in England) have started producing 20mm Napoleonic figures again. The bad news is that virtually none of them make 20mm Napoleonic Ottomans yet. There are only three companies that make figures suitable for 20mm Ottomans:

MUSKET MINIATURES (PO Box 335575, Denver, CO 80233).

Musket Miniatures produces a very nice line of 20mm American Civil War figures (I believe that they are advertised as 22mm in height). By accident, I discovered that their Zouave with tassel cap makes a near perfect Nizam-i Jedid (the Nizam-i Jedid wore a fez like cap as part of their dress uniform but often wore a beret in the field). They offer Zouaves in 5 different poses (heads are separate).

Cost: 8 infantry per pack for $3.95.

RSM (available from Dayton Painting Consortium Ltd., 140 Indiana Ave, Dayton, OH 45410).

RSM makes a very nice Janissary figure. It is "on guard" with a musket. Unfortunately, RSM does not know if they will be expanding their line of 20mm Ottomans or not (hint: write and tell them that you want a complete line of 20mm Turks to go with the rest of their 20mm line of Napoleonic figures). They do make 20mm Pathan figures as part of their Colonial line and some of these figures can be used as Ottomans. The Mounted Pathan Chieftain would pass as a Djelli and the Pathan with Jezail might pass as a Greek Derbent.

Cost: 50 cents per infantry or cavalry figure, 75 cents per horse (cavalry are two piece castings).

ULTIMATE MINIATURES PO Box 756, Corcoran, CA 93212 (formerly Scruby's figures).

Jack Scruby used to produce a huge line of 20mm Napoleonic figures. Unfortunately, he never made 20mm Ottomans. However, he did make a 20mm French Mamluk figure. The Mamluk could be used as Suvarileri cavalry by adding a lance or as Djellis. Caveat: The Scruby molds were quite old when Ultimate Miniatures bought them and I don't know what kind of shape the Mamluk mold is in.

Cost: 80 cents per cavalry figure (which includes the horse?).

25mm

DIXON (available from Emperor's Headquarters, 5744 West Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60634, and Johnson Hood, Wargames Inc., Box 278, Triadelphia, WV 26059).

Dixon has a variety of Ottoman, French and British figures available in their 25mm Egyptian Expedition line. Unfortunately, they only have Sipahis, Tartars and Kapikulus for Ottoman cavalry (the Kapikulus are not in the EHQ catalog but are in the Dixon catalog from Wargames Inc.). Neither catalog lists Ottoman artillerymen or guns. There are only a few command figures but the French do have a figure for General Bonaparte in campaign dress. I have not actually seen any of the Ottoman figures but the illustrations in the Dixon catalog look very nice.

Cost: $1.29 for foot and cavalry, $1.49 for officers, standard bearers, drummers and personality figures, $1.89 for horses.

RSM (available from Dayton Painting Consortium Ltd., 140 Indiana Ave, Dayton, OH 45410).

In addition to their 20mm Janissary figure, RSM produces a line of 25mm Ottoman Turks for the 18th century. From the description in their catalog most of these figures should be suitable for the Napoleonic period. The catalog lists 10 infantry, 4 cavalry and one mounted officer.

Cost: 85 cents for infantry or cavalry figure, $1.00 for horses.

Misc. Manufacturers and Figures:

There are some figures from other ranges that can be utilized as Ottomans. Any American Civil War Zouave figure in fez or tassel cap should make a passable Nizami Jedid (New Order infantry).

There are also several manufacturers who produce Renaissance Ottoman figures and some of them, especially the cavalry, may be usable as Napoleonic Ottomans

Essex has a 15mm Renaissance Ottoman range. Redoubt Miniatures (available from Miniatures Service Center, 1525 Bridge, No. 163, Yuba City, CA 95993) has a 25mm range of Renaissance Turks.

Ral Partha has a 25mm Colonial range and Minifigs has both a l5mm and 25mm Colonial range of Dervish figures that might be converted into Ottomans.

Lastly, I would invite anyone who has converted figures from other ranges into Ottomans for the Napoleonic period to write in and share their conversion tricks with us.

SIMTAC 15G Colton Road, East Lyme, CT 06333.

For those of you with more of a sense of humor than a desire for historical accuracy, SIMTAC makes a line of Off-The-Wall armies including Otters dressed in Janissary uniformsÄit's the OTTERman army, get it? Actually the figures are quite nice and come in a range of poses including cavalry. They would make a nice addition to anyone's fantasy army. The 25mm Off-The-Wall blister packs are $6.25 for 3 infantry or $6.95 for two cavalry.

More Armies

So You Want to Buy an Ottoman Army? Part I: 15mm
So You Want to Buy an Ottoman Army? Part II: 20-25mm
So You Want to Buy an Ottoman Army? Part III: 6mm
So You Want to Buy an Ottoman Army? Part IV: Update
More Good Figure Information
Faking it in 6mm