French Foreign Legion miniatures - Now with painted minis

[Mr.J]

Hi all

I am interested in building a small FFL force for the interwar period, I'm thinking 1920s. I am a big fan of the Artizan ranges and would like to build my force using them, my question is which minis would be best for this period? There seems to be three distinct periods to choose from including the WWII minis and I'm a bit lost.

The 1888 kit seems to match very closely to pictures from the Rif War so I would have thought that would be right however the 1901 kit is clearly more modern and therefore of nearer the 1920s period and going the other way so is the WWII uniform.

Could anyone point me in the right direction please? I'm not totally fussed on 100% accuracy but somewhere in the ballpark would be nice.

[pacofeanor]

Hello, by "kit" you mean cartridge boxes, leather gears ? there were many minor change on cartridge boxes (1888, 1905, 1916 ) but only on the fixing behing the boxe, so in miniatures no changes !

the main change in uniforms from 1900 to 1930 is in 1915 by changing leather gaiters by puttes ("mustard" color ) they wore the same jackets , breeches instead of strait pants, flat collars instead of strait ones on "capotes" (coats), same pith helmet, same kepi ; new fashion gear : "chèche" around the neck. and new weapons, LMG chachats, grenades, VB lunchers , mortars etc ....

i use woodbine design for my FFL , they are just right for 20's and there is FM figures, grenadiers etc .... you have to remind that the main uniform in campaign for all french infantry from 1850 to 1943 is the coat winter or summer, cold or hot weather never mind , every body in "capote" , jackets were worn only for duty or in garnison :

http://pacofaitlezouave.blogspot.fr/2014/04/legion-etrangere-et-tirailleurs.html

best regards
paco

[Arlequín]

As paco says, the main obvious difference is the use of the chèche (scarf) instead of the kepi cover with the signature neck guard. The Artizan WWII FFL would work fine, except for the ones in shorts (WWII Free French). Obviously it is a limited range though and using the Woodbine figures would give you more scope.

[former user]

You might want to check my FFL thread, in which I copiosly elaborate

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=56501.0

[Mr.J]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, former user your thread is very inspirational, in fact it is one of the reasons I am interested in FFL in the first place. I should probably have just read it more thoroughly in the first place.

[former user]

THX very much. If there are any more details I can give please ask. There is a lot of reading that went into my project.

OK, so in short:
the thing with the greatcoat is apparently the norm - however, I have seen many pictures from north africa without it... so i would say it is Your choice.
The main difference for the tunic is the standup or fall down collar. Although introduced with the 1915 uniform, it was introduced for all ranks only in the '40ies, when it adopted it's final shape, rather large with a wide neck opening so the shirt and tie were visible on parade uniform. Before that the fall-down collar is seen mainly on the ranks who paid for their own uniform, basically officers. However, the large stocks accumulated during the war meant that all kinds of style could be worn, including the old-style standup.
The bleue horizon was probably not worn by the legion, at least not outside the barracks.
My personal choice was to represent the periods by the uniformity of colour style and differentiate them by the cut of the tunic. It should be clear that on campaign officers tried to achieve some kind of uniformity.
It is therefore basically up to You what miniatures You want to combine. Check the net for pictures, there are plenty due to the propaganda effort of general Rollet, the pere de la legion.

I have rarely seen helmets in pictures of North Africa or Levant ouside of war zones where artillery fire was to be expected. The so called cheche is actually the long turban scarf issued to the native troops, that was first adopted by the compagnies sahariennes (who were mixted troops, with mixed uniforms). It is rarely seen before 1919, apart from officers maybe, but was worn afterwards like a very long scarf by legion troops, and as I understand by the whole army of Africa around 1940. I have read about a style to wear it called "a la cherkesse", wound around the kepi and the head, by the cavalry and camel troops, but I have ever seen but a drawing (and the TinTin movie  ).

The rifles would be the next thing: Lebel rifle 8mm, later filled up with the Berthier rifle, that was a lengthened version of the original carbine for colonial troops and introduced because of production shortages. Difficult to load tube magazine versus Mannlicher style clip. why the legion wanted the Lebel back - hell knows. Anway the cavalry experimented with a special Lebel R27 carbine with modified clip loading. All changed when the Chatellerault LMG was introduced in 1926. Production switched to Berthier rifle and carbine, now in 7,5 mm; and since these were short now, short Lebel R35 carbine (with tube)  was modified to fill the gaps for second and third line troops. Check the Wikipedia entries for the armament, they are not bad.
I shall not hide the fact that many war spoils of Mauser rifles were issued to colonial troops, so many from the SCW moros could be used on both sides for the Rif War.

[Mr.J]

So I trialled a couple of paintjobs. I think they are maybe too yellow. Honestly not 100% sure whether I'm happy or not.



Sorry about the crap photo, just a quickie on the phone.

I think I much prefer these guys in style, as my immediate plans are for Pulp gaming I might just let accuracy slide on this one.



Please do let me know your thoughts on this, both the painted minis and my historical dilemma.

[former user]

first picture - 1920s
second picture, rather not - unless You want to make a Hollywood movie  

I don't think they are too yellow
but the hats would need a bit of tan

[Arlequín]

From what little I have seen, this looks to be a fairly close match in colour to the real thing, at least for 'fresh' uniforms. Worn and washed items would be paler I would think.



Detail-wise not so accurate though. 

[Mr.J]

unless You want to make a Hollywood movie

See all I based my image on the Mummy so I like Hollywood but I think you're right, I will go for Legionnaire style I think. I might tone down the yellow a bit but honestly that will depend on if I can be bothered right now. I was going for a bit of a worn look and in the flesh the tones are slightly more obviously different.

[former user]

the cut of mr vandammes uniform is nice, but the colour could be more mustard.
But You are right, close match