French foreign legion in Sahara

[Siaba]

In mexico two explains:
.-  the legion made use of whatever they could find. the plate in fact shows a legionary having a naval straw hat.

In Mexico, the legion used to fight in shell jacket without epaulettes. I don't believe they made use of every material available for epaulettes.

- standarisation of the epaulettes in green/red came some time later. so, probably there was a distinction of the various companies. sorry this is a detail I could not find so easily.

At the time of the Maximilian adventure, Fusiliers companies had red/green epaulettes. Epaulettes were yellow for voltigeurs cies (light infantrymen) and red for grenadiers cies. A french batallion had 6 fusiliers cies, 1 grenadiers cie and 1 voltigeurs cie.
In 1867, epaulettes became red for all french infantrymen but legionnaires kept theirs green with red fringes and crescent. Epaulettes were rarely worn on campaign thereafter but remained of the same colour.

As far as I know, Stephane figures uniforms are very correct (and very nicely painted too....hope he'll paint 25mm one day  ). He could also have painted cloth belts in light blue too as there were no colour regulations for this piece of dress.

[argsilverson]

In mexico two explains:
.-  the legion made use of whatever they could find. the plate in fact shows a legionary having a naval straw hat.

In Mexico, the legion used to fight in shell jacket without epaulettes. I don't believe they made use of every material available for epaulettes.

in mexico they used of whatever material they could find means that they used jacket not material to make epaulettes. Figure No 18 [plate 6] of above mentioned book shows the legionnaire with red epaulettes and straw hat. the same figure is on the cover of the book.

- standarisation of the epaulettes in green/red came some time later. so, probably there was a distinction of the various companies. sorry this is a detail I could not find so easily.

At the time of the Maximilian adventure, Fusiliers companies had red/green epaulettes. Epaulettes were yellow for voltigeurs cies (light infantrymen) and red for grenadiers cies. A french batallion had 6 fusiliers cies, 1 grenadiers cie and 1 voltigeurs cie.
In 1867, epaulettes became red for all french infantrymen but legionnaires kept theirs green with red fringes and crescent. Epaulettes were rarely worn on campaign thereafter but remained of the same colour.

This must be!

As far as I know, Stephane figures uniforms are very correct (and very nicely painted too....hope he'll paint 25mm one day  ). He could also have painted cloth belts in light blue too as there were no colour regulations for this piece of dress.

I second that!

[Siaba]

Sorry, Argsilverson, I misunderstood your sentence 

[black-bear]

awesome work old chap !!! I can't wait too see more of it, terrain, foes, and rules - keep going.

[Stéphane]

awesome work old chap !!! I can't wait too see more of it, terrain, foes, and rules - keep going.

I know a black bear among my french's friend, but he live (sleep?) in a cold and far away dark cave near Paris
May be after your hibernation you will see the rules and some exemples from the testing games.

Stéphane

[Regulator]

Top Notch!

[Bullshott]

Excellent work. Your 15s look better than many 28s I've seen (I only just came across this thread, so please excuse my late comments).

Following on from the comments about epaulettes, can any on help me with another uniform question? I need to know what rank badges were used in the late 19th century by the legion, both for NCOs and officers. Any help would be appreciated.

[argsilverson]

Excellent work. Your 15s look better than many 28s I've seen (I only just came across this thread, so please excuse my late comments).

Following on from the comments about epaulettes, can any on help me with another uniform question? I need to know what rank badges were used in the late 19th century by the legion, both for NCOs and officers. Any help would be appreciated.

The ranks of the french army remained virtually unchanged till today.
So, legion ranks were similar to those of the army.
Officers had stripes (up to five for the ranks of adjutant to colonel) and stars from brigadier and on to generals.
ranks were displayed on the lower part of the sleeves, on the epaulettes and on the kepi. all uniforms i.e. white, khaki and blue/red uniforms display them. as stated in above mentioned reference book:
"Rank lace was worn round the cuffs"
in the plates showing the legion from 1890-1914 they show gold lace in both khaki and blue jacket, I suspect same colour for the white uniforms.

However I think the adjutants had silver coloured stripe, while lt-colonel had 4-and- a-half stripe. Also note that the brigadier (one star general) was not quite a general but a rank between the colonel and the first general rank (brigade general) in british army for example. I think that the french have up to six general ranks i.e. up to six stars. I do not know ever a french field marshal with 6 stars.

[argsilverson]

Here is a link for the plate of FFL in 1900 with rank:

http://forum.uniforminsignia.org/viewtopic.php?t=1179