"Archers suitable for TMWWBK" Topic

Looking for archers suitable as Hill Tribesmen for playing The Man Who Would Be King. Buy or trade.

Thanks

Dadster, sorry to bug you without being helpful in your search for figures, but are you referring to tribes from India's North-East Frontier, in places like Nagaland and Assam? I know they used bows and crossbows throughout the 19th Century. On the other hand, I've never heard of any tribal archers on the North-West Frontier, and if you have I'd love to know more about it. Otherwise I'll also be very interested to see if anyone makes North-East Frontier figures. Either way, I wish you luck with your search.

Hello Mad Guru,

No I referring to the movie. Kafiristan, supposed to be a remote area in Afghanistan.

Where Daniel and Peachy brought their 20 Martini Henry's and fought other villages who did not have r

Rifles but were armed with swords, spears and bows. Bows for sure Daniel was hit by an arrow. Also, both main characters wore crimson jacket with blue trousers, old uniforms and def not 2nd Afghan war. Making one wonder if the time period Kipling was going for was the 1860s – 1870s. Trying to mimic the movie.

And so, I am looking for Afghan archers

Hmmmm, than I think a few Mongol archers might fit the bill here.

thanks for the input SgtGuinness. Either that or Gripping Beast or Old Glory Crusades Muslim Archers.

This is a photo of the Gripping Muslim Archers:

Thanks Rhingyll

Maybe the GB archers wouldn't be the most accurate, being Muslim.

Kafiristan, or "The Land of the Infidels," was a region in eastern Afghanistan where the inhabitants had retained their traditional culture and religion and rejected conversion to Islam. In 1896 the ruler of Afghanistan, Amir 'Abd al-Raḥmān Khān (reigned 1880−1901), conquered the area and brought it under Afghan control. The Kafirs became Muslims and in 1906 the region was renamed Nuristan, meaning the "Land of Light," a reference to the enlightenment brought by Islam. Kafiristan was visited by British expeditions and survey missions in the 1870s and 1880s and was the subject of several papers read at sessions of the Royal Geographical Society in London.

From World Digital Library https://www.wdl.org/en/item/12996

Maybe just use different heads?

Oh heck, who's really going to know anyway?!

There are the a Fireforge Steppe Warriors:

link

Then if you wanted them to fight the Muslim invaders they'd be visually different.

Thanks Wesley. Nice idea as well.

I am going to see what I can find at Fall In! THIS WEEK – I will be there as a volunteer and will check out Wally's Basement and the vendor area in my free time.

Thanks!

Dadster, I think Rhingyll hit it on the spot. Mix in some Afghans with jezzails, spears, and swords and you got some units for the movie. Now, what troops to use for the militia they trained?!?!

And what does the featured hobby news article show as I return to this topic!

TMP link

I have a project (still uncompleted) in which I was trying to create the Kafiristan rifles armed with Martini Henrys. The plan is (was) to use set no AFG04 from Empress Miniatures Jazz Age imperialism Line. The figures are armed with Martini Henrys and could possibly be used as is as if modelling the less formal uniforms early in the movie. I did some head conversions and although not all that great were what I was planning on using to get more of the formal look that they wore later in the movie.

Set AFG04

From Artizan Designs 2nd Afghan War:

I'm going to have to watch that movie!

I think I remember it being on TV as a kid but being bored and tuning out or walking away from it.

For reasons of film production efficiency, TMWWBK and 'The Wind and the Lion' were filmed back-to-back in Morocco. Sean Connery was thus able to play two characters in stories set on different continents without having to set foot in a ship or plane.

I think, suitably modified, the Fireforge Steppe Warriors would be a reasonably close match, and the cheapest and easiest option.

I had a look at my deteriorating DVD of the movie last night, and as a result I have to retract my previous suggestion. In fact, I couldn't really pin the look of the Kafiris as depicted in the movie down to any one historical parallel. They're mostly in shirts of standard shirt length and long trousers, with some head-bands, sandals, and in some cases woolly vests. I did notice that some of the shields looked distinctly Abyssinian: the same highly convex shape, and the same style of metallic strip decoration.

The headgear varies, with head-bands and bare heads being common. The extras playing the Kafiris were Berbers, so hair is woolly, reinforcing the Abyssinian effect.

The general impression is something like Boxers with bows or swords/spears and Ethiopian shields. I don't know who makes anything like that, but there might be something in someone's Chinese range.

After pondering the matter further it occurred to me that the closest look to what you seek is likely to be found in ancient or medieval ranges, and more contemplation led me to suspect that it would most likely occur in the late Roman era: any earlier and long trousers weren't in fashion, and any later and tight hose would have superseded them.

Be that as it may, I skimmed all of my WRG 'Armies and Enemies' books, with the result that I merely crystallised my earlier ideas. I could find no closer matches to the simple costume worn by the Kafiris in the film than various regular and tribal archers of the Late Roman and early Dark Ages eras, whether Roman auxiliaries or Germanic or other barbarians (such as Dacians and Sarmations).

Naturally you'll want to avoid figures with long, flowing locks and/or beards, such as are prominent in many ranges of Germanic warriors, but where it's possible to buy individual figures it would still be worth combing (if you'll pardon the pun) through them for figures with acceptable hairstyles. You might even get lucky and find some with curly hair (Moors?).

All these figures will be wearing shoes rather than sandals, but for all I know that might actually be a better representation of the footwear of real Kafiris. You'll probably still want to do some modifications to bring them closer to your desired aesthetic: maybe some head swaps or simple green stuff additions (such as a few of those fleecy vests) .

The cheapest option is Gripping Beast's plastic Dark Age Archers. One of the three variants is wearing puttees that will need to be… puttied (sorry) over, but one big advantage of this set is that the heads are separate, meaning you can substitute whatever more suitable heads you can find.

I hope this helps.

Another.perhaps even better, possibility just occurred to me: Persian archers. These are eastern types in long trousers and shirts, and even have the correct type of bow. You just need to avoid head cloths, so if there are any plastics available with separate heads they might be the best option. I believe Wargames Atlantic will be releasing plastic Persians in the near future, so you might want to check out that company's website.

On Wargame Vault there's a set of colonial rules called 'Ascari', and a scenario book titled 'The Man Who Would Be King' covering the battle in the movie.