15mm French Foreign Legion AMX10-RC


There's a few cobwebs here isn't there. My hobbying has been fairly passive for the past year but has certainly not gone away, Ed has covered all of our games and projects superbly on the Palladian Guard blog. Hopefully I should be back here regularly now if not frequently, and have plenty of modelling and gaming goodness to share. 

Today is Camerone Day, the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Camerone (or Camaron) at which a small infantry patrol of the Legion étrangère (French Foreign Legion) led by Captain Danjou were besieged by a total of around 3,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry throughout the course of the day.

When only a handful of légionnaires remained the Mexicans asked for their surrender, in response they asked for the Mexicans surrender. Out of the 65 only 3 légionnaires survived (5 had attempted a bayonet charge after running out of ammunition). Ultimately Danjou's men (Danjou himself had died earlier in the day) agreed to surrender if they could keep their weapons and that their wounded Lieutenant was given medical care. The Mexican General famously said of the légionnaires  that "these are not men! They are devils!" A Wikipedia overview can be found here.

Needless to say Camerone became part of the Legion legend and is today the most important day in the Legion calendar (only Christmas is close to the importance) and is marked with its own traditions and rituals, most notably the parade at the Legion headquarters at Aubagne where the wooden hand of Captain Danjou has pride of place. There are better descriptions of the battle and the day out there if you wish to look, but hopefully that is a decent overview. 

It seems like a timely day to share what's currently on my paining table - an AMX-10RC armoured car of 1er REC (1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment).


With the pending release of  the Free Nations expansion for Team Yankee (see Breakthrough Assault's superb overview here) I thought I'd get ahead of the curve and get my French forces started (or rather I bought the miniatures with the expectation of using a homebrew list but the timing of Free Nations was perfect). 

As the official miniatures aren't released until late August, I found two suppliers that currently produce the AMX-10RC - QRF and Totentanz

I ordered myself one from QRF as a test miniature, to get an idea of the quality - if I wasn't happy it would at least give me a chance to get the distinctive camo pattern right and could always be used as scenery etc. 

As it happens I was impressed with the level of detail, particularly at £6.50 per model. Whilst it does have less detail then the Totentanz, it is metal rather than resin (a plus in my book) it certainly has more than sufficient detail. I did have to make some minor repair to the side of the hull but that was quickly fixed with some putty and is unnoticeable now, again at £6.50 I'm not complaining. I expect to have a mix of ranges in the final army (including the official miniatures, and I expect PSC will be releasing a range shortly). 


I gave this a basecoat of Humbrol green grass spray, and then used GW Mournfang Brown and Abaddon Black for the other main sections (with some other Vallejo paints thrown in the mix). 

It's currently 'up on blocks' as I'm going to try a little weathering before I add the wheels and may be a little more highlighting now I have better light to paint in (although I still struggle to do exaggerated highlighting, especially on vehicles).


I've also put together a scratchbuilt 1/100 20ft shipping container for the project - the doors should have worked much like my Bilgewater Creek Necromunda piece, but I messed up - the next one will work properly. I need to fix the direction of the roof too.


 As anyone that knows me would expect I've been looking up the correct numbering and BIC codes (ensuring all the numbers follow the 1984 ISO rather than the 1995... I need to get out more). Ultimately this will have 'Legio Patria Nostra' painted on the side and form part of an FOB/COP, just means of adding a bit of identifying character. 

The roof at FOB Tora, Afghanistan. The container will mirror this.

Along with collecting most of 6e DLB for Team Yankee I'm currently working on some Mobile Riverine Force stuff for 'Nam - with some fairly heavy conversions of the default ATC/Tango boats likely to be my next post here... 

Thanks for reading, until next time. 

And Bon Camerone to all légionnaires past and present!

Comments

  1. Excellent stuff! Glad to see you terrain building again as well. We’ll need an inaugural game of Team Yankee Free Nations soon as well.

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    Replies
    1. Thoroughly looking forward to it, do enjoy a bit of terrain building.

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  2. Nice to see you are still working on the hobby mate!

    French in Team Yankee..... The Commies have a lot on their plate already.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely, and likewise mate, just seem to write about it all even less these days - but happily gaming even more than ever.

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