New Project in Horizon Bleu!

POILU!

"Bluebear" kindly asked in the last post what those Old Glory figures mentioned were so I thought I'd devote a post to the "reveal". They are the first wave of a new pair of imaginary Interwar era armies. This first will be loosely based on WWI French equipment and their opponents will be some amalgam of Austrian and or Italian mountain types (haven't decided that completely...because I'm also entertaining a British intervention as well...all I'm sure about is a fictitious conflict in the Piedmont/Alps/Appenines region of Europe and despite the warring countries grand claims to nationalist fervor...we really know that it's all about the wine!...maybe I'll call it "The Cork Wars" ;)

Old Glory 25/28mm WWI French Advancing (basic 8 figure company)

As I mentioned last, I went with Old Glory figures for the core of the armies with Battle Honors and Askari to fill out the more exotic types. The figures are all around 26-28mm or so and comparable in heft so it should work out fine. The Old Glory WWI figures are some of their best stuff sculpting-wise and between OG and Battle Honors, there are some "rear area" figures like signalmen and medics/nurses to make for interesting additions to the games. And with my discount card at OG, I'm able to afford the armies! Of course this will also involve a few of those creaky early tanks and armored cars and such. And finally, painting figures for this era is fast!...I was able to do this first 8 man company in just a few hours.

Hotchkiss HMG (I'll be fielding 1 per 4 infantry companies)

Basic organization for the "French" equipped side will be (4), 8 figure companies to a battalion plus an HMG stand and a Battalion HQ with a couple of stands. To this core battalion will come guns, tanks, cav, and such. Armies of this era were transitioning from 4 company battalions to 3 so it will give a bit of flexibility in each army to field different sorts of forces...and since this will be fictitious, I might mix it up some. I'm going to keep the uniforms historical so I keep the option of selling the stuff if my interest wanes. (The bases are 40mm squares except for the Alpin because I changed my basing idea right after the glue had dried on them...so I have to decide how to get them off those washers?!)

Askari 28mm Chassuers Alpin (here only partially completed)

Rules will be varied, and I'm trying to make this collection play with several rule sets... as well as a set I wrote for the Spanish Civil War about 10 years ago. Maybe I can get them up to speed and offer them here for free.