In the Bazaar of old Khartoum

The local market place, or bazarr in Khartoum

 

I like to populate my wargame scenics with civilians and vignettes to enhance the appearance of my table top. Civilians are easy to find in my regular 28/30mm figure sizes, but are harder to find in the toy soldier size of 54mm or 1/32 scale. So over the years, whenever I see a figure that looks remotely like something that can be used in the Middle East and Khartoum, I snap it up as quickly as I can.

The civilian population of my Khartoum movie set has grown nicely over the past two years. By my count I now have 22 Arabic figures and 6 European figures that are appropriate for 1880s Khartoum. These are some of the figures that will be on display in my Khartoum! wargame at Historicon 2023.

A nice close up photo of the market stalls.

The majority of the Arabs are made by a toy soldier company called "King & Country" that is located in Hong Kong. The company was established in Hong Kong in 1983 by an expatriate Scot, Andy Neilson. King & Country. I have several European civilians from various sources that can stand in for some of the unfortunate ex-pats residing in Khartoum.

I recently found these two 1/32 scale market stalls.

General Gordon's arrival in Khartoum

The European ex-pats welcome Gordon to Khartoum

On the upper deck of the Nile River steamboat.
Gordon is in the center, wearing a red fez.

Dockside

Departing from Cairo for the journey up the Nile to Khartoum.

More civilians in the streets of Khartoum. I particularly like the man with the houkah.

I am always on the lookout for more Arabic civilians, so if you know of any then please let me know.

I look forward to meeting some of my blog followers at Little Wars and Historicon. Drop by and say hello at the conventions, or better yet, sign up for my games.