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WW2 French in North Africa (1)

 

Sons of the Desert...

My butterfly mind recently got bored with what I was doing (Napoleonic Russians to play against my Swedes) and wondered whether there was a project I could do fairly quickly all in one go.

So my good friend Richard generously gave me a bunch of figures last Xmas, and knowing my penchant for all things French he got me some Artizan figures from Nick at North Star. These are mostly French Foreign Legion (Legion Etrangere), but also include some of their Goumier allies too. Enough for a small game probably, so I dug them out and started on the FFL figures.


It probably helps that they are a long way from Napoleonics as far as palette and complexity is concerned! They're lovely figures, very characterful and easy to paint, always a bonus for me, and the results are quite pleasing, given my limited artistic skills.

The first dozen represent the legionnaires of the first three small sections. Richard has some Italians for this period, so we will probably get a game together later in the summer. Under Bolt Action the legionnaires are veteran and pretty tough, so small sections are still expensive, especially if you put them into transport, as I intend to! I'll do one bigger section as well, for more defensive use.

Next up will be some command elements (including NCOs for these sections), an LMG group, and a 25mm gun crew. These will serve double duties, so I can use them either for the dismounted gun, or as crew for the portee version I just happen to have already.

Because another reason for choosing to do this little army is that I already had some vehicles from Mad Bob Miniatures which are appropriate! A while ago he did some lovely Citroen-Kegresse vehicles in a Kickstarter (they're available on his website now), so I've also started on these - a P19 portee, and a P104 APC:

The P104 can only hold five troops, hence the small sections, but I'll also get from him a Berliet VUDB and a Panhard 179 (each of which can hold 7) so I can include an LMG and the command for these troops. And an armoured car for good measure, obviously.

I also have the P19 VLTT staff car from the kickstarter, so that will do for my regimental HQ unit, and I've added a Warlord 'Civilian truck' (actually a Citroen T-45) for the larger section. All the vehicles are WIP, so more pics when I've finished them.

And those Goumier I mentioned earlier? Well, turns out they had crazy stripey coats, so a quick look around suggests they are more likely to end up being painted as the similarly atired Spahis, who had plain white coats...

So likely a very characterful army, and fighting against the equally quirky Italians of this period it's likely to look a lot more like an 'inter-war' type conflict. We'll start with Bolt Action2, but may move onto Chain of Command instead as time goes by.


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