"British Somaliland 1940 Campaign" Topic

I have seen a number of suitable figures for Italian and British Colonials in 15mm for the East African Campaigns of 40 \ 41. Peter Pig, Command Decision and Tin Soldier have some but there are still big gaps, are you aware of other manufacturers that do Eritreans, Abyssinians, and Somali Dubats, Kenyans, Mounted Askairis etc?

Eureka:

link

That Eureka request has been going for 5 years and is only half fulfilled, I was thinking more of ranges that are available now, but thanks anyway.

I think Battlefront
have some Lybians

I know that Raventhorpe made a specific range for that theater in 20mm, I am not sure if they are still available.

I am looking only at 15mm

Tin Soldier does Abyssinians and Somalis: link They also do 1890s Italian Ascari, which are not quite right for 1940.

Black Hat do Abyssinians as well: link

edit: forgot Irregular: link

Here are some comparison photos I did back in the day.
link

Also some conversions to Dubats and Ascari, but for the 1889 period. But should give you some ideas.

The Eureka East African ranges have got the go-ahead but are still in the planning stage for exactly what is going to be sculpted etc.

Thanks for the replies.
Leadgend, do you know what figures eureka will be doing?
I am interested, i will put a pre order in, hopefully they will start soon

The plan is to have figures for Ascari infantry in both Tarbusc and Bustina, Ascari Cavalry and Somali Dubats.

Ascari Infantry would have poses for Officers, NCOs, Riflemen, LMG gunners, HMG with crew, Mortar with crew, and gun crew.

Ascari Cavalry would have officers, NCO and troopers.

Somali Dubats would have leaders, Riflemen and HMG with crew.

Typically there would be several poses for Riflemen, one for each crew position for weapons crew and one or two for officers etc. The Ascari Infantry would have a mix of headgear.

I could probably convince Nic to do a few Ethiopians as well to round out Eurekas colonial Assyrian range with a few later weapons.

Leadgend,
That sounds fantastic.
I have mailed nic already and will commit to at least a hundred and ywenty twenty figures for my first order.

I agree with your choices for the italiabs colonials, what will you be using for your british KAR etc and italian regulars?

Not to mention the somaliland camel corps

For British just use normal "8th army" figures from your favourite manufacturer. There will be a few things not covered (eg lewis guns were used by some South African units in place of Brens) but it should be close enough for now. Use turbaned Indian such as BF's ones for Sikh units of the Indian divisions, and as "close enough for now" for Sudanese.

The Italians don't seem to have used the steel helmet in East Africa, instead widely using the cork sun helmet.
So Italian ranges with the sun helmet such as the Eureka Bersaglieri range are probably best for the regulars and Blackshirts (just remove the feathers on helmet the for the Grenadiers and Alpini).

The detachments of the Camel Corps that actually fought were motorised infantry. The Battlefront LRDG figures might be good for them.

I have just been made aware of other lines of figures that might supple otherwise hard to find figures.

The sculpting style might not be everyone's cup-of-tea, but they do have Somali Camel troops, BattleAxe:
link
Look under 15mm First Italo–Ethiopian War.
They also have Italians for WWII, but more Eastern Front looking.

Command decision have a decent set of italians in sun helmets also.

The kings african rifles seem not to have worn the fex in the field at this syage and so Australian figures could work.

I think the blood axe figures may be a bit early in period ubfortunately.

Interesting – I have lived and worked in Somaliland, in fact my friend Hamish's dad got a VC with the Sopmaliland Camel Corps in 1941 (only one awarded postumously, for ewho the recipoent later tgurned up alive to recieve it!). The Wilsons are still honorary members of the Isaak clan, Camels and all….

link

Nice IWM photo of RWAFF (Gold Coast (modern day Ghana) brigade) in Somalia/Ethiopia – with looted Italian artifacts… broad brimmed hats, lik those they later wore in Burma (note the local shoes adopted by one "Soja")… I imiagine the Brits and South Africans wore solar helmets, they had them when they turned up in the Western Desert… Also troops deployed to Iraq in 1941 wore them as a matter of course… WW1 "Palestine" Brits might serve better for these units?

Try Camelot Miniatures for some Italians suitable for this period/area. Not sure where they list their miniatures but I know they do them as I painted a set on commission a year or two ago.

Some sources of Askari like King's Africa Rifles:
MiniFigs
link
Egyptian Infantryman (Nafar) VH30, VH31, VH32

Matchlock Figures
link
50C Egyptian Fellah 50C, 51C, 52C

BlueMoon
link
Egyptian

Sudanese

OldGlory15s
link
link

link

link

Essex
link
link

I think the KAR may have transitioned to bush hats by then?

Well me silly, someone's dream has just come true!

TMP link