Ottoman Turks

The next unit on the list for the Ottomans was the Deli (or Delli, plural Delier) Light Cavalry and even by the standards of the Ottomans they were extravagant and an environmentalist/conservationist nightmare. The name being derived from the Ottoman Turk for “daring, reckless, madman, crazy”.

Originally raised from the Balkan Volunteers (who may or may not be convert to Islam) they were used as Governors Bodyguards and Border Troops.

Similar to the Hungarian Hussars they had a penchant for wearing animal furs (although they carried on the tradition longer than their Hungarian cousins), depending on the source you believe they did this because either:

1. to inherit the characteristics of the predator;
2. to intimidate the enemy;
3. both of the above.

The models themselves are from Warlord Games and are modelled with impressive animal pelts on the horses. The only issue I had with the sculpts was the heads on some of the pelts, instead of looking like a ferocious predator they reminded me of either a sheep or a big soppy long eared dog!  So, the question was what animal pelts would be available to them?

Considering the options I decided on the tiger, Asiatic lion, Eurasian lynx, European brown bear and the Eurasian wolf.

As for the colours (wargames foundry tri-colour paints) for the tiger I used a ochre base colour, a mid bay brown for the bear, tan for the lion and the lynx and for the wolf a grey base coat.

All the reference photos I used showed white areas around the inner legs and belly this was added using a thinned off white as a glaze and several coats to get the effect I was after. Once the initial colours were laid down an Army Painter soft tone wash was added and then some highlights dry brushed back over. Lastly for the markings for the tiger and the lynx I used a dark musket brown. In the photos these are thicker than I originally wanted but when I initially applied them to a test model with a paint pen, they couldn’t be seen at arm’s length, so were added with a brush so they showed at “table length”.

The one that was most difficult for me was the wolf, the reference photos showed a grey-brown mix to the fur with the undercoat being greyer and the outer hair being brown. The base colours were dry brushed over with bay brown and then a strong tone wash applied and highlighted again. While not really satisfied with the finish I adopted the “good enough” approach as it was only on a couple of horses.

So the finished horses.

Once the horses were done it was time to tackle the riders and the same principles were applied to the various pelts adorning the figures and then it was time to tackle the other issue. As well as the penchant for fur they also had a tendency for nailing wings of birds of prey to their shields and hats (see I said they were a conservationist nightmare!). The Warlord figures didn’t have the winged hats, but they did have the wings on the shields. Reference photos showed that some of the birds of prey had the darker plumage at the top of the wings and lighter towards the tips of the feathers.