"help converting Zamburak/camel gunners 28mm" Topic

Am looking to make some up as am not too keen on the ones avaliable. Getting the camel and rider should be easy enough (ebob one looks great) but not sure about the gun. A pirate swivel gun might be ok but would prefer something with an indian look. The bracket should be easy enough to construct. Any ideas of a good gun in 28mm or other tips?

I could even make a kneeling/firing one too for the unit. Or even maybe a whole unit firing.

where and when were these used?

I'd make the gun out of brass tube and greenstuff. The mounted gunner would require more work.

I know that Bonaparte's Army ran in to them in Egypt and the Holy Land from the Mameluke's and the Ottoman Army's. 1798-1801.

link

I have one Battery each for my Mameluke's and Ottoman Army's.
This is how I have mine done. I used a couple of old 2 or 3 pd gun tubes and glued them, one on each side of the dromedary. then with black thread I laced the guns down to the dromedary.
Its not perfect but it works.

They seem to have been suprisingly well spread. The Mughals, Indians, Afghans (brits came accross them) and especially persians. Using a low caliber musket like the jalpur reference does seem quite practical. The Camel kneels and you have yourself a modile shooting platform and cover. Kind of like ECW dragoons.

The Ottomans seem to have been late to the craze and their attempts with "shooting on the move" with high calber guns seems to have been a failure, perhaps too ambitious.

I read that camels are somewhere between horses and elephants when it comes to loud bangs. Anything more than a musket is a stretch.

Wow. Opening this thread I noticed an anti-virus warning about one of the photos…IP address is blocked. Anyone else see this?

Back on topic.

As suggested by Laptot, brass tubing or rod for a barrel and body putty or green stuff for the stock should work fine.

You do not mention the nationality, as some Zamburak would be uniformed. Regarding the figure representation, I would make half the unit mounted and the other half dismounted.

My Moghuls will have such a unit when I have completed the SYW French.

Cheers,

Didn't know about ebob selling walking and kneeling camels, as well as a Bactrian version, and all quite beautiful. Thanks for mentioning it!

where and when were these used?

The 1st picture is of camel guns seen at Jamrud Fort, 1887. Gush has an Indian camel gun, probably 18th Century. These probably weren't firing mounted. {This site doesn't allow hot linking and this pic doesn't display in the 1st post until after it is visited}.

The 4th or 5th picture looks Persian. See 2 colour pictures, 1 dated 1811

From my reading about Mysore, the gun was camel carried but fired from a tripod. This is how I have done mine. Brass tubing replacing a kneeling figure's jezail barrel with some very fine copper wire wrapped around small sections.

Druzhina
sites of wargaming interest