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Author Topic: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?  (Read 3352 times)

Offline Munindk

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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #15 on: February 02, 2018, 10:48:01 AM »
I never said paint the pants red. I wouldn't do that for troops in action, not for the period we are looking at. Check what I said: white linen fatigues were the standard campaign uniform.
I misread you then, sorry. I held on to the sentence "Standard uniform was blue jacket, red trousers and red-and-blue kepi." possibly out of fear of having to paint a lot of white.

I'll probably give the officers red pants then, to make them stand out.

I'm considering some Senegalese Tirailleurs (Perry zouaves with Perry Mahdist heads), would their uniform be the same as the legionnaires (Fez, not kepi)? Again, I've seem pictures of them with white, red and light blue pants.

Great thread Hu Rhu! I've been vary of looking at older threads because a lot of the images in those threads are gone, most due to the photobucket scandal.

Offline Plynkes

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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2018, 11:09:26 AM »
I think it is a similar story to the Legion. The "proper" colour of their pants was blue (I've seen both dark and light blue), but they sometimes wore white pants on campaign. Don't know if I've seen them in red pants. In the first decade of the 20th century they shifted to a khaki campaign uniform of a different tailored style, though (it's the uniform the Artizan figures are wearing, it is rather less zouave-like), so it depends when your game is set.



...possibly out of fear of having to paint a lot of white.

 lol I get you. It's not so bad, once you get the hang of it.

With Cat-Like Tread
Upon our prey we steal...

Offline Happy Wanderer

  • Mad Scientist
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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2018, 12:04:43 PM »
Gringo40s are doing some new Legion sculpts for Indochina if you’re headed east...will work in Madagascar as well I think.

You can check the thread on TMP...might be something different 😉

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=472134



« Last Edit: February 02, 2018, 12:07:11 PM by Happy Wanderer »

Offline Munindk

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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2018, 12:28:50 PM »
I'll probably stay in Africa, but the gunboat could be interesting :)


Offline Munindk

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  • Denmark
Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2018, 12:58:13 PM »
My german is.. not sufficient to read your site, but its good enough that I can figure out what google translate really means :p

Do you know if Castaway Arts has a european distributor? The minis look lovely but customs would kill my hobby budget.

Offline Driscoles

  • The Dude
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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #21 on: February 02, 2018, 02:10:58 PM »
I dont think so.
Frank and me think the best FFL Minis are the ones from Black Hat Miniatures former unfeasibly.
They also make the best Touareg and Camelrider.
I would always choose them and only a few from Old Glory and Castaway to mix the lot.

Offline Munindk

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  • Denmark
Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #22 on: February 02, 2018, 02:23:18 PM »
I quite like the look of the Unfeasibly miniatures, but they're hard to get these days as Black Hat isnt making them anymore and Unfeasibly themselves arent answering emails.

I found some at Colonel Bills, but its just a matter of time before their stock runs out.

I ordered enough for 3 squads of 12 and an artillery piece, which should give me a 24pts TMWWBK force. I'll probably add some tirailleurs senegalese and perhaps some Spahis, made from Perry ACW plastics later on.

Offline Driscoles

  • The Dude
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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #23 on: February 02, 2018, 02:42:30 PM »
We ordernd a huge lot at Black Hat 2 month ago
Did they really close down production?

Offline Arundel

  • Mastermind
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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #24 on: February 02, 2018, 03:05:48 PM »
Wow, that would be a shame if Black Hat is no longer making those figures. Were they not selling, I wonder? So strange: they were the best FFL/Tuareg figures I'd ever seen.

Offline Munindk

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 642
  • Denmark
Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #25 on: February 02, 2018, 03:44:39 PM »
From Black Hat Miniatures webshop, where they used to sell Unfeasibly https://www.blackhat.co.uk/product-category/28mm-miniatures/28mm-miniatures-exotic-adventures
Quote
PLEASE NOTE: We no longer cast this range under license and have returned all the moulds, etc to Unfeasibly Miniatures.
I assume its because the guy behind Unfeasibly had a little misshap with a kickstarter, but I dont know for sure.

Offline Will Bailie

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Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #26 on: February 02, 2018, 05:22:33 PM »
A good online source of information for uniforms and more for the French in North Africa, check out the Adventures of the Red Shadow:  www.warflag.com/shadow/

The page hasn't been updated in a long time, but if you scroll down, you'll find links to colour lithographs of Legion Etrangere, Armee d'Afrique, Tirailleurs Senegalese and more, as well as other wargaming inspiration.

I've ordered from Castaway Arts on several occasions (and each time I was far away from Australia) and got great service.  They were able to ship me miniatures and a copy The Sword and the Flame when I was in Kandahar!  So don't let little things like oceans and continents scare you off from placing an order with them  ;)

« Last Edit: February 02, 2018, 06:04:07 PM by Will Bailie »

Online FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4605
Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #27 on: February 02, 2018, 06:17:21 PM »
http://www.warflag.com/shadow/

Hopefully above will give a link to Red Shadow.

"I misread you then, sorry. I held on to the sentence "Standard uniform was blue jacket, red trousers and red-and-blue kepi." possibly out of fear of having to paint a lot of white."  Just why I posted my comment about white trousers above.  Be slightly wary of the French Army cards at Red Shadow - those are mostly metropolitan France uniforms (though the few colonials are nice additions).  

Blue coat over white trousers is what most people will think of for the late 19th century Legion.  But Plynkes is correct about the formal uniform.  And perhaps part of why most of the officers retained their red trousers is that they considered Legion duty distasteful - in the extreme in some cases - and could hardly wait to get back to being in a 'real' unit of the army.  Makes them pretty distinct targets, though.

Glad you liked Hu Rhu's thread, was worried it might be more intimidating that inspiring - but it is a very cool thread.

If you want variety, there are many ways.  Blue coat, white trousers or red trousers.  White shirt-sleeve over white trousers.  For those in coats, different color epaulettes for different type units.  There are also the penal units.  And then the various 'native' units like the Spahis, Zouaves, Tiralleurs.  It can be a very colorful army on the French side.  So maybe not 'too' much white.  But some.  If you can track down an the issue of Colonial Conquest with the Legion section, it gives some nice details.

Mostly, have fun with it.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2018, 10:06:56 PM by FifteensAway »

Offline Will Bailie

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    • Will's toy soldier blog
Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #28 on: February 02, 2018, 06:22:01 PM »
Thanks for fixing the link, Fifteens!

Offline black hat miniatures

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    • http://www.blackhat.co.uk/
Re: French Foreign Legion questions - uniforms and suggested reading?
« Reply #29 on: February 05, 2018, 02:29:22 PM »
Wow, that would be a shame if Black Hat is no longer making those figures. Were they not selling, I wonder? So strange: they were the best FFL/Tuareg figures I'd ever seen.

Hi

We stopped selling Unfeasibly under license for a number of reasons - the main one being that the royalty I was paying was fairly high and they were an obvious range to stop as I needed more mould space and time to develop the 54mm side of the business.

Mark had originally agreed to sell the range to Colonel Bill's but I believe he has changed his mind and is now hanging on to them... He does appear to answer messages on Facebook.

Mike
Mike Lewis

Black Hat Miniatures
www.blackhat.co.uk

 

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