From LeeH: French Archaeologists and other Civilians (Challenge Library: “History”) (82pts)

The sands of the Algerian desert part to reveal a group of French civilians examining old bits of pot, drinking wine and listening to a scratchy gramophone. All very civilised in the middle of nowhere…until the locals decide to attack of course! Then they will need the protection of a detachment of Legionnaires. Meanwhile, a handful of indigenous labourers and their overseer are working in the background thinking how strange these overdressed foreigners are. 

I’m briefly revisiting my Foreign Legion/French Colonial project from 2022 and completing a group of civilian models that were on my to-do list at the time but have sat neglected in my Pile-o-Shame ever since. I had got as far as priming and mounting them on sticks…and that has been where they have stayed for the last couple of years.

I have also painted an ‘irregular’ unit consisting of civilian adventurers and explorers who have taken up arms to protect themselves. 

I’m claiming the Challenge Library, “History” bonus for these partly because they are meant to be Archaeologists exploring the history of lost civilisations in Algeria & Morocco, and partly because I’m reviving a ‘historic’ project to finally finish it. 

16x15mm Civilians + Library “History” Bonus (32+20 bonus points)

15x15mm Irregular civilian fighters (30 points)

(Total + 82 Points) 

Great work here. Love seeing some civilian models amongst some more wargaming bits. And today has all sorts of scales going on, loving it! 82pts added to your total! Enjoy the Sunday!

Kyle

From LeeH -AHPC XII Wrap Up - French Foreign Legion in Southern Algeria 1900-1903

Before discussing my closing picture I wanted to say what a great time I have had this year. On a personal level, this challenge has been hugely rewarding but as always it has also been a great bulwark against the craziness that is the real world. I continue to be in awe of the productivity and creativity of all the participants. I count myself very lucky to have been able to take part alongside you. And of course, I can't ignore the huge effort that Curt and the Minions put into this event every year. If I were wearing a hat, I would doff it to you in respect. 😆

So, after thirteen weeks of intense effort, I have managed to complete my entire French Foreign Legion project. Terrain, Buildings, French Legionnaires and Berbers and even some little side projects like unit markers, movement bases and a set of rules for a game within the game. Of course, when I say completed what I really mean is I completed everything that I had planned to paint when the Challenge started in December. I'm sure there will be a few additions to both sides and some scatter terrain passing across my paint desk soon...but first I need to clean up the mess that is my hobby room! As per tradition, here is my obligatory wrap-up shot of everything. 

Now I need to get started on some intensive playtesting to hammer the scenario into a workable game (and to thoroughly refresh my memory of the rules). In the process, no doubt, I will find all sorts of little projects to work on like a French Legionary flag for the fort; wild animals; and maybe more casualty figures. I'm also currently hunting for a suitable desert well in 15mm for this part of the world, and some 15mm figures I can use as Tirailleurs and Spahis for use at some unspecified time in the future. No project is ever truly finished. 

Ray recently commented that there weren't nearly enough spreadsheets or charts to accompany my entries this year. I have been using my long-running worksheet to keep a track of my progress, I just wasn't sharing it a lot... but just for Ray, here's my wrap-up chart for Challenge XII. 

Not my highest final tally, but considering I did that largely without the aid of the bonus rounds for the first time, I consider 923 Points a respectable total. 

So that's it from me. Once again, congratulations to all the participants this year. I'm already planning for Challenge XIII so I look forward to seeing you all on the field of battle in 9 months' time! 

From LeeH - Foreign Legion Casualties (14 points)

My final entry to the Painting Challenge is a small group of Legionnaire Casualties. With these completed, I have achieved all of the items on my pre-challenge planner (it's not just random, I always have a plan!). It has been a wonderful Painting Challenge and I remain in awe not only of the painting skills of many of the Challengers but the output of some of the leaders (you guys are machines!). I’ve had a great time and got everything I wanted painted, and a bit more, so once again the group motivation of the event has served its purpose.

These models are from Blue Moon and are wonderfully detailed for 15mm figures. I only need a few of these and will be using them as set decoration rather than as casualty markers. I was going to base them individually but as they are purely for decorative purposes I decided to base them on little multi-figure vignettes. I will be using these inside the Desert Fort that I painted earlier in the Challenge to add a bit of life (and death) to the scene.

Points wise, I’m only claiming 1 point for the completely prone figures (because I only have to paint one side!), but 2 points for the figures that are sitting up or crawling because they are more 3d. So I make that a modest 14 points bringing my Challenge total to a respectable 923. Not my highest challenge total, but as I said, I have painted everything I wanted to, without getting too stressed in the process.

Now I am going to sit back and watch the mayhem of the last few hours of the Challenge and marvel at the wonderfully talented painters that have taken part this year. All that remains after that is to clean up my painting desk and get all my figures out for the traditional wrap-up shot. Kudos as always goes to Curt for running this amazing crazy event, and the incredible Minions for their tireless effort which keeps the runaway train on the tracks.

(And yes, I’m already planning for AHPC XIII).

From DaveD - an excellent completion entry there Lee. It's been a real pleasure to watch the creation of this project! 

From LeeH: Beau Hunks: Laurel & Hardy in the Foreign Legion (4 points)

My penultimate entry in this year's Challenge is a rather small one (no last-minute sandbagging from me!) which pretty much wraps up everything that I had wanted to do this Challenge. The self-imposed discipline of the event means I have managed to get an entire project completed in just three months and I can start playing with my new figures in a few days (once I've cleaned up my room of course... it's a complete mess!). I've hit my target twice, so I'm more than happy. Now, having patted myself on the back for my productivity, what massive entry am I posting today? Two 15mm figures worth just 4 points!

The plan all along was to paint two Field Forces for The Men Who Would Be Kings, one being the French Foreign Legion and the other a largely mounted band of Berber/Taureg raiders. Posties Rejects will be running on a demo table at the Broadside show on 4th June and my freshly painted figures will get their first outing as it is my turn to organise and run the demo game. Never wanting to do things the easy way, we also decided to add a little bit of fun to the game we will be running. So while the players get to have a conventional battle using TMWWBK rules, overlaying that there will in effect be a second game involving Laurel and Hardy, themed on their 1931 short film, Beau Hunks.

To get the Stan & Ollie look (ie Fat Man and Thin Man) I used two manufacturers' figures and then indulged in some conversion work. The Stan Laurel figure is a regular 15mm Legionnaire from Blue Moon. For Oliver Hardy, I needed a fatter built figure, and for this, I got a Legionary Officer from Irregular. Their models are an exact match for height but the Irregular ones are on the 'broader' side which was perfect for this little project. I had to remove the Epilettes and a pistol, then I added belt pouches and straps using greenstuff. I also extended the officer's coat so it looked more like a Greatcoat. I then cut a backpack and rifle off another figure and added them, making Oliver's pack a bit bigger (recreating a scene in the film) with yet more greenstuff. The result is, I hope, recognisably the bumbling double act of some of the best black and white comedy movies of all time. 

In the film, Hardy has his heartbroken by the unfaithful Jennie-Weenie (aka Jean Harlow) and he decides that he and Stan will join the French Foreign Legion "to forget". However, upon arrival Ollie realises that other legionaries and even the Commanding Officer have also had their hearts broken by the same woman. The aim of the game (or game within a game) is for Ollie to collect enough Jennie Weenie cards that he realises she wasn't worth it and get to leave the Foreign Legion. To that effect, I have written a simple set of rules centred around a card deck whereby Laurel and Hardy travel around the battlefield trying to catch up with various French Officers. When they get into base to base contact they check if the officer was a similarly jilted lover of the infamous Jennie-Weenie by pulling cards from the deck.

Some of the cards are pictures of Jean Harlow, but most are comic situations that have a limited effect on the game. It's a very simple mechanism that I hope will have players and the public alike quoting the Comedy legends while laughing at some truly stupid but classic moments from the film. Of course, I could have waited to do these cards until after the Painting Challenge but once the idea was lodged in my head I had to get them done. Never let it be said that I can't procrastinate with the best of them! 

This game sounds like a lot of fun, and I'm only a little disappointed you haven't presented a Jennie-Weenie in 15mm. Four of the finest points to you, sir!

Barks

From LeeH - Tuareg Camels - (88 Points)

This week I have completed two units of Tuareg Camels. Combined with the four cavalry units I painted earlier in the challenge this means the bulk of my Berber army is mounted, dangerous and looking for trouble... making them very dangerous opponents for the PBI of the Foreign Legion.

 

The Tuareg were at one point an almost exclusively camel oriented people, but years of French encroachment had decimated the camel population of the Sud Oranis. The French paid highly for camels to create massive supply caravans, accepting huge losses of animals with every trip. Between 1900-1903 for instance, over 60,000 camels perished through overwork and mismanagement. This was no surprise when owners were paid grossly inflated daily rates of 1 Franc per driver per day (10x the wage of a Legionnaire) and 3 francs per camel per day with disproportionate compensation if the animal died. Within a few years, the economy of the Oran Province had been distorted so much the Tuareg (and other Berber tribes) were finding it increasingly difficult to trade for replacement animals. 

This is the last major addition to my two forces for Southern Algeria and wraps up my Tuareg/Berber force nicely. This gives me a little over a week to wrap up a few small items for this project...and no doubt dream up with some ill-advised, last-minute ideas just to keep the pressure on as the Challenge draws to a conclusion. 

Points Scoring:
22x15mm Mounted = 88 Points

From DaveD .  

What better way to start the day than with some camel goodness. Now i know a good camel when i see it - and I likes em . Great job Lee

From LeeH - French Foreign Legion 75 mm field gun & crew (12 Points)

I couldn’t resist giving my French Foreign Legionnaires some artillery support so here is an 1897 Pattern 75mm Field Gun. This Quick-firing gun was designed to deliver time-fused shrapnel shells to enemy formations. This gun continued in service for many years, was used extensively in WWI (over 4000 were in service at this time) and was even used as the main armament of the French Saint-Chamond Tank in 1918. 

The recoil mechanism used a hydro-pneumatic system which meant the gun did not move when fired. This meant the crew didn’t have to re-aim between shots, greatly speeding up its rate of fire. Up until 1915 there were two types of ammunition, A time-delayed HE Round and the aforementioned time-fused shrapnel shell.

In 1903 a battery of 75’s was used against the Oasis city at Zenaga and within a few short hours had destroyed more than 150 buildings. The seven Ksars of the city meekly presented themselves to General Fernand O’Connor to ‘negotiate’ but they had little option but to comply with the French in the face of such firepower. 

Other than some casualty figures I think this is the last of my Foreign Legion miniatures for the time being. I’m working on some Berber Camels and then I’m more or less done with this project….I say that advisedly of course because no project is ever ‘done’ but I will have completed everything on my original plan and some extras that wormed their way into the plan as it went on. I'm looking forward to getting everything out for the wrap-up shot because I think I've got a respectable amount done this year. 

Points Scoring:
1x15mm Artillery Piece & 4 Crew = 12 Points

That's a great artillery group, Lee!

Tamsin

From LeeH - Mounted French Foreign Legionnaries in Greatcoats - (36)

I took last week off for a short winter holiday in Dorset and batteries refreshed, here I am, back in the mood for more French Foreign Legion. Actually, my enthusiasm for the period has been reinvigorated with some holiday reading. Conquest of the Sahara by Douglas Porch is an excellent book that paints a vivid picture of the landscape, the people within it and the wonderfully ridiculous and haphazard colonial ambitions of the French Third Republic.  

This week I have a unit of Mounted Legionaries, looking very hot in their dark blue greatcoats. Once again these are Blue Moon 15mm sold by Old Glory. 

The first mounted troops allowed for faster travel and gave the Legion a chance to finally engage with agile Arab horsemen. Initially, every man had a horse but these were soon changed to Mules (with better endurance, if slower than horses) with one mule between two legionnaires. On the march, one man would ride while the other trotted alongside. They would swap positions every hour and this enabled the mounted companies to cover much more ground. 

For reasons that elude me, I couldn’t get a proper Matt finish with my usual spray varnish so I ended up giving them another coat of Galaria Matt Varnish by Winsor & Newton. I don’t often use a brush-on varnish (I've had a few bad results in the past) but this stuff is very good and finally achieved the result I had been looking for. 

Points:
9x15mm Cavalry = 36 Points

From DaveD

Still the desert goodness continues . good to hear your holiday did you some good !

From LeeH - French Foreign Legionnaries in Greatcoats - (106 Points)

A couple of weeks ago I posted half of my French Foreign Legionnaires, wearing their white Fatigue uniforms. This week I have the same number of Legionnaires, but these wear the classic blue Capote Greatcoats seen in films like Beau Geste and March or Die. 

These were a little easier to paint than the ones in whites although I have firmly decided I should have stuck with a dark undercoat rather than white. I stopped painting with a white primer undercoat years ago because I realised any small missed area when painting the base colours stand out as something horrible. I guess I needed to re-learn that lesson with these guys. I’m happy with the way the figures turned out in the end, but the white primer made them just that little bit harder to get right. 

Next on my paint desk are some Mounted Legionnaires and a field gun, but you’ll have to wait for these. I’m taking a week off for a short family holiday during the half-term holidays. I’m ahead of where I expected to be at this stage of the Challenge, even after raising my target last week, so I can spend a week away from the brushes. I plan on visiting some of my favourite museums and catching up on some reading. 

Points:
Four units of 12 Legionnaires plus a Leader each and one spare leader, just in case.
53x15mm Foot = 106 points

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Curt here. It seems that Dave's retirement from BT works both ways as he's having issues with his internet connectivity. But never fear, that's why we have a squad of Minions waiting in the wings!

Lovely work as usual Lee. Though the previous white uniforms were very nice, you can't deny the immediate 'brand recognition' of the blue Capote greatcoats - it's just such a classic look. Like you, I gave up priming in white decades ago (except for Stormtroopers), so I both feel your pain and welcome you back to the fold.  I think I'm not the only one who'll be looking forward to your return from holidays so we can see your mounted legionnaires and the field gun. Nonetheless, enjoy your hard-earned break!

- Curt