Looking forward to seeing this take shape.
THX
Since I am not going to bore anyone with meek WIP pics, I’d rather throw in some background info about the minis and their potential.
The other ranks wear the regular
pantalons culotte and tunic, albeit with a simple back-slit, not
á soubise fashion. The Kepi is the covered old M1884 (or the first uncovered late 1914 versions with the war uniforms that were discontinued with the introduction of the Adrian) with the puttees dating the uniform as 1914. Equipment is the M1892
bretelles style with M1888 pouches, musette bag,
boudin horseshoe roll and
bidon, though not all wear them. Interestingly, the regulation would have required the musette on the right and
bidon on the left for light infantry, which is how the figures are tagged – but only one wears them as such, the others wear them line infantry style – which is even better for the FFL use.
In short, the appearance dates the dollies as 1914-1920ish (maybe a bit longer, depending how long it took for the 1914 style kepis to replace the old M 1884).
A very strict interpretation leaves us with the following options:
Pants are very simple and could be anything from
cachou (old colonial khaki), over
bleu ciel (mécanicien),
bleu horizont and the greyish transitional variants to the US tan and british khaki cloth and finally the french
khaki moutarde, with all khakis in two weight variants of course.
Tunics (due to the simple skirt slit and the five buttons) can be either the M1901 colonial
cachou, the transitional horizon blue variants and the transitional british and US khakis. The regulation mustard khakis would have the correct cut.
Finally the kepis could be the khaki or
bleu mécanicien covered original M1884 (off-white only in North Africa) or the transitional uncovered horizon blue (and greyish variants) versions. For post war use other khaki variants of local dye would be acceptable too.
Puttees can basically be any shade available from old greatcoat or regulation issue, so basically all shades mentioned above plus the darker
gris de fer. Same goes basically for musette, bidon cover and horseshoe roll, plus off white canvas.
In order to emphasize the representation of the late 1914, early 1915 period,
gris de fer, bleu mechanicien and brown corduroy could be used, especially for the newly raised foreigner units.
The webbing and shoes can be either the original black or the 1915 brown leather versions with a few old ones thrown in for variation.
This leaves me with the following options:
Pre 1914 colonial style (very stretched because of the puttees which would have been non-regulation), North Africa or Gallipoli/Macedonia respectively later
Late 1914 early 1915 transitional style, western front (a bit narrow)
Late and Postwar Near-East/Anatolia, possibly also RCW in the north.
The latter is actually the broadest option (with a little stretch also acceptable for the first two periods), with the exclusion of helmets and greatcoats.
I hope you enjoyed the juxtaposition of uniform history and miniature reality.
I would appreciate comments and questions and especially correction.
a few comments on the NCO figure later
05 January 2008, 03:17:51 PM
