Sunday 9 September 2018

The Portable Foreign Legion


Eevee (named after a Pokemon character) taking her ease in the office aka the isolation tank or even ‘juve cube’

It has been an interesting weekend. To begin with we have a new addition to the family in the shape of Eevee - a four year old female cat courtesy of the Cats Protection League. We made the fatal mistake of going to one of their cat homing shows and so lo and behold - the feline contingent at our house is now back up three following the recent loss of our beloved Maisy. Eevee is in isolation at present until she settles in a little more and then we will introduce her to the rest of the gang - no doubt to much hissing, spitting, tail bottling and vocal indignation!

Laurel and I had a quick run out today - not to a boot sale - and I had high hopes of getting some essential modelling bits and pieces courtesy of the Works and Hobbycraft. Sadly I was disappointed on both counts which was a tad frustrating. I wanted to get some supplies in for the great ACW ship build but came home empty handed. As these models will be larger than those I built a few years back I want to use Basswood for the hulls and superstructures as it is a more durable than Balsa. I will take a look online and am sure I can get the material I need - and knowing the prices in Hobbycraft probably for cheaper as well!

Enough of the frivolity and on with the main point of the post.

I have more or less worked out the composition of the forces I shall be raising for the Portable Foreign Legion and indeed am also pretty sure about the figures I shall be using. Initially the set up will be for Morocco so Berbers will be the opposition of choice. I want to be sure that I get these right as they will also be featuring alongside the Turks against the Italians for the war of 1911/12 as well as for the Great War and after. I reckon that after this project is complete I will have Portable Wargame sized armies for around six forces. That sounds a lot but each one will be pretty small - which is one of the great attractions of the Portable Wargame.

The Legion will have a couple of cavalry units in support - Spahis and Chasseurs D’Afrique as well as artillery and some Turcos. At the moment I am looking at either Minifigs or Irregular Miniatures but have yet to finalise this. I am waiting on a specific book to arrive before I make this decision.

I will also need to think about some terrain to go with this project as for Morocco we are not just talking about sand. At this stage I am thinking about rocky outcrops and some buildings but I will need to be sure about the table footprint of the models I use.

I am waiting on my small order from Navwar for the ships for the WW2 project and the plan is to finish those before starting anything else. 

10 comments:

Simon said...

What is the Force composition you are looking at for your Foreign Legion/Army of Africa Force?

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Watching with interest

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

Updates will of course be appearing as and when.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Simon,

I have yet to nail down exactly what will appear but thus far the core will be the Legion with some artillery and Spahis/Chassuers D’Afrique. I will throw in some Turcos types for variety but mainly it will be the Legion. I need to do some more research and hope that Douglas Porch will help with his Conquest of Morocco.

The Berbers will be far more straightforward!

All the best,

DC

Brian Carrick said...

Nice cat!

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

What a very pretty-looking cat!

All the best,

Bob

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Home the new lady settles in
Go in a model shop come out with a model
Go toan event with cute cats and come back with a cat ;)

David Crook said...

Hi Brian,

She is indeed - we just hope that she settles in with the other two OK.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

She represents a bit of a break with tradition in that her name does not begin with the latter M and also she is not black and white!

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

Ain’t that the truth!

All the best,

DC