"Big Bangs" Topic

I'm making good progress on my Mahdist army: about 80 figures painted & about 40 to go till I get them on the table.

Whilst not exactly "samey", the army could do with some variety. A little more "bang", if you will.

The first "bang" would be in the form of elephant guns. I know Osprey has an illustration of a bodyguard unit called the Kashkashans: elephant rifle armed & red-turbaned.
I could scratch build these, using the Newline Jaidia armed with an added 25-28mm rifle.

I literally can't find any other mentions of them in book or internet. They did exist, right?

The other "bang" would be to add a machine gun. I have read the arsenal at Omdurman was stocked with captured specimens & I have a spare Gardiner. However, I can't find an instance where the Mahdists actually fielded one.

Can I have my "bangs"?

How about a unit armed with those sling-shot lighted grenades, as portrayed in the movie "Khartoum?"

They certainly created a Big Bang in the movie.

Why not an artillery piece? Sounds like you are doing 20mm?
So I don't know if its available in that scale, but in 28mm
the Perry's make a captured Egyptian gun crew loading a Krupp 6pdr. The crew is shackled with an Ansar overseer.
Probably not the most motivated artillery crew but would provide some "boom".

They certainly used captured cannons and machine guns, but skill and sufficient ammunition would probably be lacking. Are you going to add a mounted contingent? I am not aware of any elephant rifle armed bodyguard unit.

The rules I will be using (The Men Who Would Be Kings) allow a gun per 24 points. I have one, using a gun from the HaT Colonial Artillery set & various figures from the Italeri Moslem Warrior set, converted, as slave gunners.

But a Gardiner, instead, would provide that "Bang" I seek. (BTW native ordinance fires at a '3' rather than the British "5').

Disappointing about the Kashkashan….those elephant guns….

cue:

YouTube link

I made slave artillery using Strelets Turkish Artillery, trimming some detail off the gunners and painting what's left with faded colors or white, then adding a slave driver (officer) from some other set. The slave driver doesn't count as a shooting figure and if he dies the crew disperses.