French foreign legion, Norway 1940 Gorgon miniatures

[pacofeanor]

First of three ccombat group ,those miniatures  are very nice to paint , i've got 10 men , two are missing, the lmg and VB grenade luncher (Gorgon miniature if you read it .....). I wonder  to know if there will be an  helmeted pack to mix with those ones ?




more on my blog (english language inside!)

best regards
paco

[former user]

tres bien fait!

congratulations!

so the second one will be with anoraks...
did You use army painter dip?

[pacofeanor]

Thx former user !

Next there will be anorak yes! but for "chasseurs alpins" (blue berets) as i only found photos of FFL with sheep skin jackets (essentialy at the landing on Bjerwik and near Narvik),or "ski jackets" in hot weather .

best regards
paco

[former user]

what are ski jackets?

[pacofeanor]

There are three jackets in the "mountain dress" , sheep skin jacket, and anorak (white /green).


"blouson de skieur" :

[former user]

oh, wow, THX a lot
in the drawing they have a hood, but the picture of the original doesn't show any.....

but noone makes the ski jackets....
I thought these could be useful

[pacofeanor]

The hood is removable so you can do them with or without!

yes the BG chasseurs are quite good! but i hope for Gorgon to realise chasseurs with ski jacket and  special gaiters ......


best regards
paco

[former user]

 
hope dies last....

[axabrax]

These look great! I just got a batch of them myself and am priming them for painting.

I would buy the ski troops myself, but I have to wonder if it's profitable for Gorgon to come out with another beret-clad unit where the only difference is a few bits of kit. Only a real expert, such as yourself, would notice the difference. You might be better off trying to convert the FFL troops for now or using the BG ones?

On a sidenote, I saw an interesting documentary on World War II in Scandinavia the other day, and it noted that none of the French ski troops actually got to ski because the quartermaster forgot to include their ski straps in the supplies! 

[former user]

that is an interesting note....
I thought it was more because of the time of the year and because they were involved in landing operations only. Initially they had been trained as intervention force for Finnland and there is documentary footage where the loading of the ski equipment is clearly to be seen. Besides, there was only a small ski reconaissance unit as I understand....

[axabrax]

Interesting point that you bring up about the time of year. Most of the photos I've seen from the battles have shown semi snowy terrain, but I don't know if it would be thick enough to ski on. In general, I was planning on using my snow mat for games in this theater, but I wonder if that's actually appropriate?

I also found an interesting color video on YouTube that shows what looks like authentic footage from the British assault and some French soldiers wearing the sheepskin jackets. It looks to me like their pants are green.

[former user]

THX for the link.
the footage is not genuinely coloured, it is a remix and part of it is from french newsreels featured in this other link we had about the 13e DBLE.
So what we see of the landing operations is from Bjerkvik, which btw suffered heavy bombardment and civilian casualties from the Allied fleet....

Can't say anything about the snow, when I played this in Panzergeneral it was snowy 

[pacofeanor]

In fact , the finland expedition was canceled, and troops on the way to north east frontier when the  Norway expedition started. troops had three days to go to Brest and go on boats (wich were late too!) so they jump in one boat while the spacial snow equipment were through inside another boat etc .....

 so iff at the start some impotant equipment were missing (essentialy in Namsos!) in Narvik troops find a great part of their gears (but not al!) . Particularly the SES of 13° DBLE and SES of chasseurs alpins (6°BCA ) used their skis in combat , with violent fighting just before the fall of Narvik and after for the march to Sueden . In a snowy area of mountains .

 The father of one of my friend was awarded of the "war cross" for galantry at his machinegun (6°BCA) and remind the cold weather and all his friends with frozen feet !

best regards
paco

[axabrax]

Good to know gents. Thanks again for your expertise.

[former user]

hey, then Panzergeneral was well researched after all!