"Balkans War Figure Options?" Topic

Reading Hooton's book on the Balkans, "Prelude to the First World War" while I am painting the naval forces of the combatants. It has rekindled my interest in the land battles, and I quickly realized why I never jumped in:
28mm: Too big for my taste and for the scope of battles I want.
20mm: I know of Lancer. Range looks nice but not yet complete and in a "tweener" size.
15mm: While I love Irregular, some of the poses and proportions (i.e. heads) seem off. Eureka look decent but there doesn't seem to be any appropriate Ottomans. Anything else?
10mm: Could possibly cobble armies with various proxies from other ranges.

Thoughts? Am I missing anything? Thanks!

Eureka makes Turks in their WWI range. Minifigs also makes Turks.

For 10mm, Pendraken makes Serbs, Russians who will serve as Bulgarians, and Turks.

Try IT Miniatures, they are now sold by Frontline Miniatures: frontlinewargaming.co.uk

Look under, Other 20mm. There are Italians, Serbs and Russians; along with the usual combatants. Look around at others like Germany, as the guns are done well.

There is some 1/72 plastic stuff as well, but I don't know how well it mixes with the IT figs.

Thanks gents, the problem with using Eureka or Minifig Turks is that they have headgear worn during WW1 (Kabalak/Bashlik) and not the Fez commonly worn during the Balkans War…the search continues…

I strngly reccomend Pendraken. The options for good proxies are there.

For Ottonans you can always use Egyptians, and ba ny 1877 infantry in great coat will fit the bill.

Old Glory makes 15mm Egyptians in their Colonial range. They are in a tunic, no pack, and a fez. I used them as Egyptians, Turks, and the KuK Bosnian brigade. Have a look. Very nice sculpts and easy to paint.

As mentioned above, I'd look at colonial Egyptians then. The difference in the cut of the uniform is not going to be noticeable, especially when everything is painted in khaki.

B&B Miniatures have all sorts of odds and sods from WW!/RCW that might work. Good figures too.

in the early balkan wars, i.e. first balkan war the turks wore (dark) blue uniform with red fez, at least the militia units (as also in the Italoturkish war of 1911). In fact I have not seen any image of turks in khaki.
As far as I understand the ottoman army of the period was under reorganisation, and maybe the new khaki uniforms had not enough time to reach to all fronts. Perhaps the khaki was used in the Adrianopole front against the Bulgarians.
Colonial egyptions is a good proxy.

I've seen lots of images of Balkan Wars Turks in Khaki. Khaki was adopted in 1909 for regulars, while blue was for reservists. A Bulgarian book on the subject, "The Balkan War 1912-1913" by Alexander Vachkov also puts the Turks in Khaki.

I am going to guess that the Turks, like most armies in pre- or barely industrial countries (like Russia)practiced what was called a "regimental economy." Basically a pattern and maybe some cloth was sent to the various regiments and the men made their own uniforms. You'd get a wide variety of shades, etc.