La (not El) Gran Revolucion

[Malamute]

Yeah, sorta peters out a bit after that, though. The film crew should have stayed at the front instead of following Coop on his somewhat tedious journey. 

I totally agree with you there. I knew nothing about the film when I saw it ( not so long ago on Beeb 2 I think) and it starts off promising plenty of action.

Though they do feature one of those pump-action railway carts for quite a while, and those things always make me laugh, even when they're not in Mack Sennett films.

[Major Weenie]

You know, those anglian miniatures might just work.
The key items of wardrobe are;
'Long' Pants/Trousers, no puttees,
Mauser 98 bolt action rifles,
and bandoliers for ammunition.
Consequently, Boer figures are pretty useful for conversions.  Except for the beards.

And remember, General Obregon also raised 'Red Battalions' of urban workers from Mexico City, and 'Indian Battalions' of Yaquis from the state of Sonora.

The post about 'La Gran Revolucion' brings up a very interesting point.  I speak (insert raucous laughter here) only high school French, and no Spanish at all.  Now I remember my first, not very good, history book on the Mexican Revolution having the title "El Gran Revolution."  But it's been a long time, and many mixed drinks, since then. So I could be wrong.  However, whilst rifling through my books, in an as yet unsuccessful attempt to find corroborating evidence, I remembered something that an ex-girlfriend (one of a seemingly endless progression) once told me about the Spanish language.  Admittedly, this may only apply to Spanish as spoken in Argentina.  She explained that "The Rat" was feminine (La Rata), but if the rat grew big enough, it became masculine (El Raton).  I wonder if that applies to the Mexican Revolution?  Or if my memory is merely clouded by too many LZ-129 Frosted Cocktails?
Regards,

PS - And for role playing, don't forget the German/French/British spies.  And 'The Sonora,' the Curtis biplane shipped, by truck no less, across the border from Los Angeles, and used to attack the Federal fleet based out of Guaymas on Mexico's West Coast.

[Slorm]

Well...
  Revolution/Revolucion, is a femenine term, is the same if it is big or small.

  At least for the Spanish speakers....

 And another comment, the rat is "La rata" (fem), and "the mouse", is "el ratón" (masc), but you can say "la ratona", to speak about the femenine mouse, but is inusual. They have nothing in common with the size of the rodent.

 Great miniatures!

[MuleSkinner]

have to go with slorm on this one, i rang my mother who is spanish and she said it's definately la gran not el gran........regardless of the correct one, it's an excellent period to wargame and if i had more money i'd be tempted myself.

[Plynkes]

But you could say "El Gran Revolucionario" if you were talking about Villa or Zapata (or Castro or Che).

Maybe that was the title of the book, and the last four letters slipped outside of Major Weenie's memory...

[area23]

That's some brilliant stuff you have.
I've been to Mexico some years back and the country left a great impression on me.
Also a lot of great art was made during and after the Revolution.

Indeed if someone made good ready to go figures that I liked I'd be sold....

[Major Weenie]

Just in case anyone is looking for some inspirational material on the subject, to get into the gaming mood.  Here are some links to the local club's web site that might prove usesful.

The latest issue of the campaign newspaper, 'The Bisbee Review.'
http://thebengalclubla.com/bisrev.asp

The campaign home page, with some, only partially successful, explanations as to what we were trying to do.
http://thebengalclubla.com/tbc_wwcampaign.asp

And the online map.  Move the mouse/cursor around on the map.  Items of interest may provide a pop up message, or click to move to a close up map.  On the close up map there are more pop up messages for more items of interest.
http://thebengalclubla.com/tbc_wwmap.asp

[Major Weenie]

Some stock figures,
All Old Glory, I believe.

Federales, in the 'General Huerta Uniform' so popular for villainous extras in movies.
Stock Old Glory figures from the PIM line.




Constitutionalists, General Obregon and President Carranza.
Old Glory figures, from the Spanish American War line.



Villistas.
Old Glory from their Villistas, and Wild West Camp Followers.





Mounted Villistas.
Old Glory, stock Villistas from PIM.



Only real problem with the Old Glory line is that the machine guns are all maxims, instead of Hotchkiss.
Regards,

[Spong]

I watched "A Fist Full of Dynamite" last night which made this period seem very appealing gaming-wise. I'd recommend watching it as inspiration for this type of gaming.

[Major Weenie]

I thought that I was about to pull a rabbit out of my hat on this one, but I was wrong.
About a year ago the TBC gaming club was contacted by a chap in Mexico City, whose great grandfather was 'General Navarette' in the Mexican Revolution.  It seems that he had stumbled across the club's online newspaper, 'The Bisbee Review,' and found a mention of the good general.   Well he sent us lots of very interesting photos, and even a CD of military music as currently played by the Mexican Federal Army.  It's surprising how popular John Philip Sousa marches seem to be with the Mexican military.  And how similar the style in which they are played to American Sousa.  I say this because the traditional Mexican marches and fanfares have a very different sound.
Anyway, yesterday I rememberd my contact and sent off an email inquiring about 'El Gran Revolucion.' Distressingly, it appears that, even in the Mexico of my dreams, 'La Gran Revolucion' is correct, and my amigo was just too polite to correct me in my many emails.  However, he did say something very interesting on the subject of rats.

"Talking about mouse and rats, it´s true, both are different animals (Rata y Ratón are different species), but also in mexico and of course talking in spanish, many people belives that rata is the female and mate of the ratón."

Oh, and here's a photo of General Navarette.

[Malamute]

What a splendid moustache

[Plynkes]

It was a war of facial hair, much like the American Civil War.

Just look at Zapata, Villa and Carranza.

Huerta would have stayed in power much longer if he had sported even a half-decent 'tache. I'll bet most of the Zapatista women had better moustaches than him.

[Major Weenie]

Gents,
1.) The HBO show about the movie that DW Griffith made of Pancho Villa wasn't all that bad.  Especially since Antonio Banderas is far more handsome than General Villa.  Although, I think that, once again, all the machine guns were maxims.  And if I remember correctly they did try to make something that looked somewhat like a French 75 field gun.

2.) With regard to mustaches, I think that Huerta depended more heavily on his frightening eyes.  I have a photo somewhere of Huerta with a woman and children.  One hopes that it is his family, but the look of abject terror on the kids' faces reminds one of that photo op held by Sadam Huessein with the children of the English hostages.  Oh, and a friend had an uncle who actually rode with Villa. The lad had come over from Greece, was quite naturally nicknamed 'El Greco,' and was famous for his magnificent mustache.

3.) And not another photo.  It's a Copplestone Chinese swordsman converted to a Federale standard bearer.

[Major Weenie]

Don't know if I already posted these two figures, but they're stock old Glory.  The one on the left is a Boer with his standard fedora hat, painted in what one hopes is a slightly more Southwestern color scheme.  He already has a Mauser 98 and ammunition bandolier, so no real conversion was necessary.  The one on the right is the same figure, but with a drop mould sombrero glued to the top of the head.



I'll look about for some of my stock Villistas to photograph.  Of course my camera battery seems to have given up the ghost.  So that may take a while.

[HerbyF]

A few fedoras would not be out of place in among your Villistas. It was a popular piece of headwear in that period. Even in Mexico.