Britains Deetail French Foriegn Legion

 Linked to my Funny Little Wars idea I have now finished painting the French Foreign Legion (FFL) infantry.  As with all Deetail figures the mouldings are quite nice and look so much better with a little painting. I have enough for a couple of companies  and a Gatling Gun.  They will be supported by a squadron of cavalry, which I painted a couple of weeks ago.

The whole unit:

The Gatling gun

And the Bedouin Arabs, twice as many cavalry as the FFL:

As well as around 50 foot:

Most of the Arabs are still in their rather gaudy factory finish.  At some point I will paint them all.  In the meantime, I have just repainted the bases to get rid of the lime green colour.

Funny Little Wars

 Some time ago I purchased a copy of the book 'Funny Little Wars', a set of rules based upon the  famous HG Wells rules, Little Wars.

Over time I have been accumulating some 54mm figures to try out the rules.  My firs unit, Turkish artillery, are by Irregular Miniatures, having adapted some kneeling riflemen into gunners.  the gun is an old Britains matchstick firing piece:

I have also painted up some Britains Deetail mounted French Foreign Legion (FFL).  They started off like this:

And after some paint applied:

I have also painted some FFL infantry as well as a Gatling gun.  My plan is for the FFL to take on my Britains arabs.  The Turks/Egyptians will provide an enemy for my Britians British.  I also have some Mahdist warriors.

Inspiration

Having just painted my Airfix French Foreign Legion, I could not resist digging out my copy of Beau Geste.  Written in 1924, it is that well known tale of the Legion in Algeria.  

Unfortunately I do not have an original, with my book being reprinted in 1994; however, it does contain those wonderful illustrations by Helen McKie, of which some are in colour.

I especially like picture 2 as he gazes towards Airfix Fort Sahara! Lots of inspiration, although my recollection of the story is vague and I will have to read it again.

Airfix Type 1 French Foreign Legion

I have had the first issue French Foreign Legion in my figure collection for as long as I remember, certainly back to the 1960s.  However, I have never painted them before.  So, having just painted some Airfix Arabs, I thought an opponent might be required.

I was surprised how these figures improve with a bit of paint, to such an extent that I might set up a small wargame: