Doc's French in Egypt (Armee L'Orient) project Part VI: the army nears completion

 Although started well over six years ago it was not until near the end of last year that I finally got my act together and finished collecting for the French army in Egypt, making my last purchases earlier this year and beginning to paint and base them all. Having just finished another battalion of the 9eme de Ligne (in Kleber) I have taken stock of everything I have for the Egyptian campaign so far. There are two more Demi Brigade's of figures which I will do as the 4eme Legere (in Kleber of course!) and a generic DB in 'tenue de disembarcation', as well as an 8 pdr battery (crew in Kleber) and a small unit of Guides or Chasseurs to finish up the French. Unfortunately I have had to give up on the Nile Flotilla idea for now - although a 28mm version of the D'Italie fighting off the hordes of Arabs in armed Dhows does appeal... 

So thus far there are:

        21eme Legere (2 x bttn @ 18)

        9eme Ligne (2 x bttn @ 24)

        88eme Ligne (1 bttn @ 24)

        61eme Ligne (1 bttn @ 24)

        4eme Legere (1 bttn - in Mirliton @ 18)

        Legion Nautique (1 bttn @ 24 plus gun & officer, four crew)

        Foot Battery (2 x 6 pdrs, 8 crew)

        Total: 174 infantry, 3 guns & 13 crew

        Camel Corps (Dromadaires)  (12 mtd, 14 dismounted)

        14/15eme 18/20eme Dragoons (12 mtd, 14 dismounted)

        7eme bis Hussars (8 mtd)

        Guides (a Cheval) (9 mtd)

        Horse Battery (2 x 4 pdrs, 8 crew)

        2 Mtd Generals plus Guide escort (3 x mtd) 

        Total: 44 mounted, 28 dismtd, 2 guns & 8 crew

This leaves a total of 48 foot, 9 mounted, 3 guns and 12 crew left to do. Plus another mounted general - or two - to finish my Armee L'Orient! They are faced by an even larger Ottoman/Mameluke force which apart from another gun or two is all ready to go and smite the infidel (insh'Allah)! 

The most recent French unit completed is the 9eme de Ligne in their bright red Kleber uniform. All Perry's metals. I have already made a battalion of that Demi Brigade in 'dis-embarcation uniform' as there is some conjecture that some of Desaix' infantry may have marched up the Nile before they had all been clothed in the new Kleber cotton uniforms.

I had intended to showcase this in November at the local club for the Little Wars 2020 convention but the Wuhan Flu pandemic put paid to that plus the restricted hours currently allowed now for games (just two!) means this won't happen before mid to late 2021 at the earliest.  Hopefully this will allow me to try a few test games first using the General de Brigade rules as a base as GdB have a number of Ottoman/French-in-Egypt scenarios. 

While I still have the little armed sloop and crew there are other technical difficulties including that I will have to make some Nile river sections up for it - I have neither time nor resources for that just now so as other projects beckon (WWII Vichy French in Syria, for example) so I've decided to put them on the back-burner as it were and just field the unfortunate Naval Legion fighting as land-lubbers. While they were much better at hand-to-hand (armed with a ferocious array of weapons and the early 'trench broom' blunderbuss) they had little of the discipline required of well drilled infantry so how they'll go in square against charging Mameluke maniacs on the wargaming table remains to be seen!

In truth I've blown the pensioner's budget (don't tell the Memsahib!) on getting virtually an entire Perry's Vichy (in Syria) army for my WWII Syria project. Just waiting for the last part to arrive which should give me a platoon each of French and Senegalese infantry plus a 75, Tanake Dodge Armoured Car and Somua R35(?) light tank - pretty much the entire shootin' match. Woohoo!  I've also acquired a WWI 1914-15 German army that requires a little tidy-up paint etc. The upshot is I really don't have the time or funds to do a Nile Flotilla (or another Revolutionary French army) - short of a LOT of painting commission work (all in prospect for the moment) so [sigh] a hard decision had to be made... the Flotilla is sunk for the foreseeable! O la vache!  On the plus side the French in Egypt project finally nears its completion.

Au revoir mes amis - until next time. 

Doc

WWII Germans - Fallschirmjager

Walked into my friend Dean's wargaming emporium-in-a-garage (very well-stocked and comfortable it is too) and given my recent WWII gaming jag these boxes of figures immediately caught my eye.  They're boxed figures for 'Rules of Engagement' - all Artizan figures by Mike Owen for Northstar in the UK.

As I'm currently doing Kokoda and I and my mates have quite a  few Australians and Brits, the box of Fallschirmjager were particularly enticing.  Perfect for doing Crete (1941).  You get a 28 figure platoon with command (including radio) and four MGs and eight SMGs (for all the NCOs).  The figures are nicely animated with the leutnant in his Luftwaffe feldmutze barking out orders - achtung!

 There is only one figure (armed with a KAR) with camo netting on his helmet, which is a bit disappointing but you can team him up with one of the NCOs carrying binoculars and viola -  you've got a sniper team! Just got to find something appropriate to make a scope for the rifle.

To the right of the 'sniper' is the radioman, part of the 4-man command group.  In front is one of my favourites, the three-man LMG crew.  Again an NCO with a pair of binoculars completes the MG squad.  As its a light, there's no stand, so I've got the gunner bracing it on some rocks.  The flocking on the bases is my own mix of "Mediterranean" - nice and rocky and dry - just like Crete!

  The LMGs are great and with four to a platoon, there's plenty of fire-power.  These were all MG-34s, the fearsome MG-42s (with 1200 rpm!) not coming in until 1942.  Likewise you don't get the STG-44s or the later FG-42s - the world's first assault rifles - until later in the war.  I believe they had some STGs on Crete but I'm not sure.  The uniform was also going through a change. The camouflage version of the unique fallschirmjager battle smock was only just being introduced, with the green 'splinter' pattern camos starting to make an appearance.  By 1942 the brown version had largely replaced the others although the plain one was used right up until the end of the war.  For my platoon I've only given camos to the sniper.

All the NCO's are armed with MP-40 LMGs (8 per platoon).  The platoon consists of 2 x 12-man sections and a command squad of four.

My favourites are without a doubt the LMG crew lying flat.  I've got them firing from behind some rocks, with his MG-34 propped on them - better than one team where the loader has it balanced on his shoulder - you can have that job!

They're a great set and one I'll be adding to again soon with some support weapons and even an armoured car!  I'd love to fit a 1/48 tri-motor transporter model but I'll have to keep me eye out for that one - they're scarce as hen's teeth.  My next lot on the paint shelf are my French hussars, which I will be focusing on.  They're half-done and I feel guilty leaving them un-finished for so long.

Remember to double-click on the pics to see the enlargements  and feel free to leave comments on the blog if you like.

Cheers,
          Doc