As some of you know, I've been working on a little American Civil War project set in the 1930s with a few friends, partly inspired by the great new territory being explored by "A Very British Civil War". I've also got a discussion group for this specific topic set up at Yahoo Groups (just search for the group 'ACW2', and feel free to join us.)
The story we went with was heavily influenced by a document called "ACW 1935" by the members of an American Gaming group, lead by Mr. Paul Beck who have been freely distributing the document online. We've made our own changes along the way. If anybody's interested, I believe some of the authors are now members of the ACW2 group.
Here are some of the fruits of my labor. These are all soldiers of the Kentucky Free State; they are constitutionalists who have decided that they are best served by independence, at least for the moment, but who align their interests with the "legitimate government" lead by Harry Truman, rather than the Nationalists, as lead by Douglas MacArthur, Al Smith, etc. They have been dealing with a great deal of conflict in our recent backstory, being so close to Indiana, which is a battleground for the Constitutionalists, who maintain the north part of the state and Indianapolis, versus the Nationalists, who are aligned with KKK militias and other right wing groups in Southern Indiana. In addition, they are under great pressure from Huey Long's "new Confederacy" (the so-called "Americanists") to the South.
The Kentucky Free state is an Anarcho-Socialist Commonwealth, appropriate to the nature of Kentucky's diverse population and various distinct Hollers, Counties, and Towns. The counties are loosely aligned under a central government that maintains executive authority in the event of a national crisis. The legislative body is comprised of various representatives, elected from each county, as well as each of the major trade unions and labor associations existent in Kentucky at the time. (The major heavy industries in Kentucky in the 1930s were Mining and Steel Mills, and Agriculture was still a huge part of the local economy.)
The motto of the nation and its political apparatus are borrowed from Nestor Mahkno of the Ukrainian "Black Army". - "Land to the Farmers. Factories to the Workers."
Because of the nature of the conflict, and as a matter of pure survival, the defense forces (The KFS) are fully integrated racially, and heavily supported by numerous local militias, alarms, etc.
I'm not completely finished with this part of the project (I still have a Schneider donated by France that needs painting), but here are some images of what I've finished so far.
Here, we have an image of some of the members of the 3rd KDF Infantry Regiment. The unit is one of the elite formations in the KDF, and many of its members are veterans of the First World War or were previously part of the large US Army presence in Kentucky centered around Fort Knox. The first image depicts the commander of this particular company, Captain James Morris Brotherton ("The Fighting Cherokee"), along with a standard bearer carrying the KFS national colors - green (symbolizing agriculture), black (symbolizing industry), and crossed yellow mining tools, symbolizing miners and the unions. The figs are both from Brigade's RCW range.
More members of the 3rd in the next two images including a machine gun team. These are a mix of Anglian SCW, and Brigade's Harlem Hellfighter's range. Some conversion was done with the separate heads available from Anglian.
Next up, members of the International Mining, Local #520: Black Mountain Militia, and some supporting armor!
-Doc
11 September 2020, 06:25:34 PM
