French Colonial Marine Gunners 1900 - Askari Minis

Artillery crew of the French Marines. These are 28mm figures by Askari Miniatures.

I painted them in the khaki uniforms for a buddy of mine Last Stand Dan for use in his Indochina games. I painted two gun crews, to differentiate them I painted one crew with white trousers and one crew with khaki trousers. These will be used as 4 man gun crews for TSATF, The Sword And The Flame and TMWWBK, The Men Who Would Be Kings imperial troops.

Askari Miniatures French M1897 75mm gun. 

https://askari-minis.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23_45&products_id=49

Here’s my motivation and reference for the above gun crew officer. 

Pallet

Uniform: Americana -Khaki Tan

Sun helmet: Craft Smart - Khaki

Haversack: Delta Ceramcoat  - Trail Tan

Puttees: Delta Ceramcoat - Trail Tan

Boots & Belt: Delta Ceramcoat - Black

Blue Trousers: Poly Scale Deck Blue with Poly Scale - Israeli Blue highlights.

White Trousers: Poly Scale - Light Grey then Vallejo- Off White

*There is no wash or dip on these figs as I left them for Dan to dip so as to better match his existing troops. 

Here’s the write up for these figures from the Askari Miniatures website. 

The French overseas colonies (except Algeria) were managed by the Ministry of the Marine (Navy). The troops they owned were either natives (Tirailleurs) or Europeans (Marines).

This European crew is dressed in the khaki uniforms that they wore c.1900. These troops would have manned shore installations or been on campaign in places like Madagascar, Indo-china, or West Africa.

They used the 80mm de Bange Mountain Gun.

Here is the same crew I painted with the Askari Minis 80mm de Bange Mountain Gun. This particular gun model is the older version and has since been replaced with an upgraded model.  

For earlier period uniforms, paint them with dark blue blouses and white trousers. See FR-17 for a mixed European-Senegalais crew.

Set consists of 4 figures as shown.

https://askari-minis.com/

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge #11 - Level 2 - Chamber 1 - Adventure's Landing

 Here's another entry of mine for the AHPC #11. 

The dark steaming jungle lies directly to port, the sunlight dances off the clear, shimmering, and bright aqua surf. The young LT wonders if this beach landing be contested or will it be a cake walk as his commander boasted? As the oarsmen struggle against the heat and humidity the French Naval Landing artillerists are cursing their wool uniforms. They soon, like the Legionnaires already inland, will discard the unwanted and inappropriate items and exchange them for locally made lighter fabrics. The excessive humidity deteriorates the European theatre gear rather quickly.

For this beach landing challenge I have chosen a French Naval Landing gun crew from Askari Minis. They are in the 1890's -1910's Naval Uniforms and are kitted out for a landing party in support of French Marines, Sailors, and Legionnaires fighting the infamous Black Flag Pirates of Tonkin. (I have Black Flag gunners on the painting table now!)

The small artillery piece is a French Mountain Gun, also from Askari Minis. However, this model is about 20 years old, Al has since made an even better retooled version of this gun that I will surely have to get. Askari Minis new retooled gun link.

I've painted this crew for my buddy Dan from the Last Stand Boatyard to be used for my favorite rules set The Sword And The Flame, though he's also a fan of the rules set, The Men Who Would Be Kings.

Chamber 20 pts, (4) 28mm figs x 5 pts = 20, (1) 28mm gun x 10 pts (it's a small gun, possibly only worth 5 pts?) - Total for this chamber: 50 Pts

What fine-looking Tars. As for the scoring, a crew-served-weapon is a crew-served-weapon ang gets 10 points if it's 28mm!

Tamsin

The Hun The Frog & The Lion - 3

                          The Hun The Frog & The Lion - 3: The Boats

The Series continues about this scenario I ran at Recon and will be running again at Hurricon with the naval portion of this battle. The scenario specs called for a civilian transport with a low draft to be converted into an armed steamer to bring the western troops to Mogadir. The French chose the civilian ship the Cite De La Meers. For this boat I used an awesome model made by my friend Last Stand Dan. He calls this boat the "R" Class Steamer and fits the bill perfectly. Dan hides magnets under the decks and glues matching magnets to the underside of the desired armament to keep them in place during games.


                                 French Gunboat: Cite De La Meers

The crew is French but the gunners are all German, as negotiated by their respective nations prior to the raid.

Native Dhows

The scenario calls for the possible arrival of (2) armed dhows fully crewed by veteran sailors and troops returning to Mogadir from pillaging the coast and any targets of opportunity.

Once again I turned to my buddy "Last Stand Dan" for a boat. The one pictured above with grey trim is a two masted dhow that he had made for me. It's another excellent model. All of Dan's boats are exceptional. He builds and sells many varieties of boats to choose from. He makes boats in 25mm as well as 15mm scales.

The Xebec with the green trim was made by the well known ship builder Richard Huston. I bought this boat well over ten year ago from my friend Patrick Wilson of TVAG. He sells Richard's boats as well as all sorts of other cool wargaming stuff.

Landing Craft

The troops need a conveyance to get them to their destination. I've used landing boats purchased at flea markets, ebay, and most recently from a new company based in Miami, Fl. Firelock Games who produce a pirate game supported by figs, ships, rules, etc. Their "row" boat is the perfect size and scale for my colonial games and works perfectly fitting 10-12, 25mm figs on small 3/4 x3/4 magnetized bases. I get all my magnetized bases from my buddy ACW Bill of Good Ground Miniatures, maker of the best 10mm ACW figs around. He sells all sizes of magnetized bases.

The rowboat to the left is the one from Firelock Games.

Next up: Post -4: Meet The Hun The Frog & The Lion.

Here's a list of the boat vendors of toys used in this post.

Last Stand Dan: http://laststanddan.blogspot.com/

TVAG - The Virtual Armchair General: http://thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/

Firelock Games: http://www.firelockgames.com/

Figure bases, Good Ground Miniatures: http://crackerlineminis.com/

http://www.hmgs-south.com/