Interwar Royal Navy & Royal Marine figures

[Wirelizard]

So, lots of companies make US Marine Corp & US Navy figures suitable for the interwar periods. Lots of British soldiers out there too. But how about suitable Royal Navy & Royal Marine figures?

What was the usual RM squaddie or RN shore party equipped with & wearing between the wars, anyway? Could some of those many British soldier figures join the Marines with minor conversions or even just a touch of paint?

[traveller]

1st Corps have some British WW2 sailors that might pass. Regiment games has a British WW2 shore party that also would fit

[Plynkes]

The Regiment Games ones are very nice. Pity they gave the MG gunners Brens instead of Lewis guns, though. They'd be a lot more versatile, period-wise, with Lewis guns.

[former user]

what would be the difference in uniform?
Navies are usually rather conservative...

[joroas]

They would be similar, yes, but American sailor's caps are completely different to British, although steel helmets would be the same at this point.

[former user]

how about copplestone and Brigade games revolutionary sailors?
big difference?

[Arlequín]

RM would be pretty much indistinguishable from the British Army, so no problems there. RN wore quite a curious mixture of kit until mid WW2... Sudan style canvas gaiters with '08 webbing over their normal rig.




http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=24168.0

[Hobbit]

Northstar carry Pheonix miniatures' WW1 Naval Division figures:

http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=71&page=1

Not keen on them myself, but they may do the job.

Woodbine Designs do WW1 Brits with separate heads including a Royal Navy cap:

http://www.grippingbeast.com/product.php?ItemID=2047

[Bullshott]

Not interwar, but the same problem would have occurred then for actions ashore in the tropics ....

After the War ended the Japanese on Indonesia threw away their weapons, which were picked up by Indonesian nationalists and used to kill Dutch settlers. The heavy cruiser HMS Exeter was called on to support Dutch paratroops fighting the nationalists. When they needed to send landing parties to assist in policing ashore, the Navy had a problem in that the only tropical weight clothing they had was white. To get over this problem they resorted to methods that wouldn't have been out of place in the Indian Mutiny and dyed their uniforms khaki using tea! This from my uncle who was serving on Exeter at the time.

[argsilverson]

For interwar era, since there was only minor differencies in the uniforms, I would go with existing figures like Copplestones or Brigade games or even Old glory colonials/boxer rebellion. Alas there is no shore police among them. The main problem is the rifles, which are more modern than WW1 and colonial, but this fact can be ignored. Also concider that navy was not quite modrnised, as far as it concerns the weapons used on land and usually carried older versions.(conservative attitude or better lack of funds or in any case invent a reason to justify it). Apart the main colonial powers, smaller navies had no reason to appear in tropical uniforms. For example greek navy had no tropical uniform until 1942, when greek navy in exile under british rule patrol in Indian waters and has been reequipped with british supplies. In general blue uniform was used for winter and white for summer. So it is reasonable to use blue clad sailors with white gaiters and belts armed with rifles (and some times cutlasses). So far the only specific interwar sailors are: US by Tiger and Pulp, Japanese by Pulp and regoment games british (and US in tin hats?) and Copplestone Russians. WW1 sailors can be found in the ranges of Brigade games, renegade, woodbine, North Star etc. Please note that while brigade games has german sailors, the french by renegade are "marine infantry"  infantry commanded by navy and not naval landing parties or shore patrol. They carried normal infantry uniform with the french naval hat with the red pom-pom.


Usually navies copy a great power's uniform. And in general rule more or less all navies wear the same uniform. The main diffrence I can see is their hats. So, as a brief guide:
British can be used as australians, new zealand, canadians etc "colonial" navies (indian -add some sikh heads with white turban and a black stripe- shri lankan etc) and smaller navies like greek etc
French can be used for belgians and Finnish navies
Germans can be used only for those navies that had a cockade on their caps (convert them with fez wearing heads and voila Ottoman navy till the abolition of fez).
Russians with these ribbons can be used a Bulgarians
US can be used for mexicans
SPanish can be used for some latin american navies and Italians (but with not much succes)
Japanese might represent chinese but I am not sure.

[joroas]

Just to update this, Pulp Figures have some British sailors out any day now.  Hopefully, this range will grow.  

[fastolfrus]

Not sure that the officer looks quite right.
Nothing specific, but he looks slightly off form.

[joroas]

The jacket looks American at first, but it is the standard white hot weather jacket for RN Officers. Home dress would be the blue double breasted jacket.

[Arlequín]

They look quite good to me. 

[fastolfrus]

The jacket looks American at first, but it is the standard white hot weather jacket for RN Officers. Home dress would be the blue double breasted jacket.

Probably just too used to seeing photos in the album in home waters.