15mm Minifigs -Taureg Camelry

 Time for some Old School colonials!

My Legion forces can use more mounted opponents, and the camels suggested to me that they would readily take some speed paints. There may well be photos of these out there somewhere to provide ideas about the colors these warriors would have worn but I never found anything of much use. The models themselves also turned out to be quite fiddly and I'd be surprised if many of these enjoy active combat theses days.

First, I bought these decades ago and, as you can see, they are quite a mess our of the blister. The lead in the lances is very, very soft. So soft, I'm not even sure the little wrists and hands would satisfactorily accept drilling and then the pins for replacement. Also, nearly every camel had those big chunks of flash and evidence of mold shifting were evident on most of them. Still, the figures are very cool, but I don't expect them to endure a lot of play without problems. They are doomed to die you might say.

The other issue is that they don't sit right at all in the saddle and lean way back. Absolutely unusable in that pose. Just a mess in the execution of figure design. I could kind of get them to work if I cut the pommels off but they still needed propping up in the back. In the end, I left the pommels alone and put a pillow of epoxy for them to sit upon. It bled around the outsides here and there so I just painted them as if it was more robes. Many would have just said these are not worth the effort. And for many years I felt the same.

 

 

I used Contrast or Speed Paints for nearly everything but the bases and some freehand work on the shields and flags. Here I did them with a dark blue with black turbans, saddle cloths and decorations, all in red. There's a common image of a shield pattern but it is on a trapezoidal shaped shield. I intend to use these for Sword in the Desert so I will have to mark casualties on the spearmen. I don't track wounds on natives because I use these rules for engagements far larger than they are intended for. I also don't intend to use this mat for any of these games.

One thing about the difficulty in finding information about the "uniforms," it often means no one can prove I did them wrong very easily.

For these, I did the turbans and the saddle blankets in Ratling Grime, some Murder Scene for the decoration on the reigns and camel necks, then a mix of reds, purples, and tans for the robes.

As pictured, these 12 man units are comprised of 6 spears, 3 rifles and a musician, flag and officer. I could easily make a 15 man unit of 12 spears and command along with a 9 man unit of rifles and they interchange easily. I don't particularly bother with trying to strictly build units to the rules. These tribes, and the legion itself, used what they could get. 

 
All in all, and once based, I think they are a nice, colorful entry to the collection and will force the Legion to either race to their objectives are take some turns to drive them off. The delicate lances bend like a bread tie so not sure how long they will last but it's easy enough to grab these without touching them if one is careful. 

I still have 2 more platoons of Legion and some Spahis to do for the French as well as horse mounted Tauregs and the Bedouin half of the camelry so there'll be many more mounted figs to come at some point. I do enjoy doing 15mm because they paint up very quickly. I'm continually disappointed in how speed paints look on some of these but my earliest Bedouins were done all in washes so they kind of match. 

You can see all of French Foreign Legion pieces here.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

15mm Minifigs French Foreign Legion: Mule Company Pt. 2

Here's the mounted half of the Legion company from a few weeks ago ...

I didn't know it but apparently mules had the stamina and speed of camels but couldn't sprint. Mule mounted, the Legion could cover much more ground in chasing down Arab raiders than on foot.

There was an encounter where mounted Legionnaires tried to fight on muleback and were bettered quite handily by mounted Arabs. Subsequently they assigned two men to each mule to 1) remind them that they should dismount and fight as the infantry they are and 2) reduce the number of men required to hold the mules while the others fought. I gather that there was no appreciative loss in speed.

And here's both elements conjoined.

These are actually two units I guess though I'm short on command figures; I'm not satisfied with how I'll have to represent the full dismounted part when that occurs but that's a problem for another day. I'm done with Legion painting for awhile. These guys kinda burnt me out ...

Questions, comments are welcome!

15mm Stone Mountain French Foreign Legion: Cavalry

Nothing special here. These were sloppily painted a few years ago to match the older units in my Legion forces. I did however, update the bases to match all the Arabs I rebased.

15mm Minifigs French Foreign Legion: Bedouin & Tuareg Cavalry

These were completed a couple years ago. Best flag I ever did on these, one of the worst is on the Tuareg cavalry unit below.

I didn't quite have enough to do a whole unit but there ya go.

These too were finished just a few years ago. Mixed in are figures from the Minifigs Crusades range which serve perfectly well.

I believe I was trying to write out Allah on this flag but I am more certain than ever that my flag references betrayed me.

Next up and a final update for FFL for awhile will be the mounted half of the Legion Mule company. Stay tuned ...

15mm Minifigs French Foreign Legion: Mule Company Pt. 1

Just finished these yesterday - mounted counterparts coming up soon.

15mm French Foreign Legion

Company overview. When I started these there was no internet and the only thing I had to go on for painting guides was the movie March or Die and some black and white images I Xeroxed off an old library book. I'm not repainting though I know the marching unit to the right rear has a "wtf" quality to it.

My only plan when I did these was to apply wash over a white overcoat. I've touched these up a bit over the years but in no way have I corrected their serious flaws. Generally, these weren't cleaned, primed or painted properly at all. Ah well, I'll claim youth and the "arms length" excuse ...=D

I re-based these when I re-did the Arabs and I'm really glad I did as the wooden ones they were on couldn't be described as uniform in any meaningful way. Basing them all at the same time brought some much needed cohesion to a force that had been painted over the course of almost 30 years.

The Stone Mountain firing unit and artillerymen were picked up at Historicon a few years back and brought to the standard of the existing units. However, they were glued so solidly to their round bases I couldn't get them off without serious damage to the them. I'da preferred that, since these need to be ranked up, they be on square bases but there ya go. 

Next up, a Mule Company painted up to modern standards (Better than all these) and some slightly lesser quality cavalry for both sides. Questions, comments and followers welcome!

15mm French Foreign Legion: Bedouin & Tuaregs

I painted these Minifigs Bedouins I think on a plane when I was around 12. Oh yeah, I had, paints, an Xacto knife and superglue. This had to have been around 1982-83? It's one of the very first units I ever painted using washes almost exclusively. Zoom in at your peril.

Minifigs Bedouins

Minifigs Bedouins: My first arabs were painted so bad I deliberately did a simple job on these many years later so there'd be some continuity of some kind. That's true of most of this stuff.

Minifigs Tuaregs with Swords

Minifigs Crusader range if I recall correctly. Tuareg riflemen in back.

Up front here are Minifigs Crusades range mixed with Essex and Minifigs Tuareg command. Painted the same they blend in fairly well.

These Stone Mountain Tuaregs are painted with probably the most sophistication of all these and were completed maybe 6-7 years ago. One of the last units I added to this range.

Almost all Minifigs except for Essex mixed in the full unit to the right.

Overview detail

Terribly lit overview of the 10 infantry units. There was no Internet when over half the flags were painted so I guessed, guessed terribly wrong too but I won't repaint them.