15mm Troops by Eureka for French IndoChina

All,

Yes, I'm embarking on another long-term campaign project.  I'm going to follow a fictional platoon of the French Foreign Legion in action against the Vietminh in northern French Indochina, generally west/northwest of Hanoi.  I'll be trying out "Troop, Weapons, and Tactics" for rules (but actually closer to platoon-level "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" as I'm not clear on the 'Tactical Initiative' concept and really don't understand the point, which is not a shot at the authors, merely a paen to my own thickness), and playing solo using Joe Legan's "Platoon Forward" system which, after years of using pieces of it, I'm finally committing to going for it full bore with Platoon Forward as written.

This is a Legion platoon, of course, because... why not!?  They'll have a native born French (as in, born in the actual country France) platoon commander, and everyone else will be foreigners, but rather than a bunch of European castaways I'm throwing in a bunch of, essentially, Colonial troops, because I want to ;)  I'm also basically using American ranks, because I don't feel like worrying about stuff like Caporal and Ajutant, and I added a platoon Guide because I'm worried about not having enough Big Men once the shooting starts and the platoon begins taking casualties.  I'm also setting up both the French and the Vietminh with 10-man squads with a squad leader, a rifle group of six men, and a gun group of three men, because it's easier for me.

In any case, you're not here for all that nonsense, you're here to see all the beautiful troops from Eureka Minis, so let's get to it!

So here's the whole mess.  Oh, yeah, there's more than just the troops (everyone is at left), there's also some rice paddies from Battlefront and some markers for Platoon Forward I made.

Here are all the troops, French on the left and Vietminh on the right, everything from Eureka Minis (USA), except the homemade flags ;)  The troops are all 15mm, based on pennies.

A closer look at the Vietminh, 93 troops and a howitzer.  But we'll come back to them later...

The French, 54 troops total, all painted in a simple camouflage utility uniform, with a variety of headgear consisting of steel pots, red paratrooper berets, green Legion berets, bush hats, and Bigeard caps.  I've long been painting 'modern' figures in three different skin tones, this time I went with four, so I've got a 'pasty' white, a 'melanoma' white, a light brown for persons of Central/South America, the Middle East, parts of North Africa, and Asia, and I have a darker brown for persons from Africa, all of which I'm making use of in my campaign.  So let's get to the poses.

So here's how Eureka does it for the French, they pretty much sell identical packs of troops, just with different headgear, so these are French riflemen, all in the same poses, but from three different packs (berets, helmets, and hats).  This dude is advancing with his MAS-36 rifle 'ready' carry.

And the reverse.  I spray painted the French green, then added some brown cammie, did weapons, skin, and headgear, then inked them, easy.

Some riflemen in the 'alert' carry, muzzle to the dirt.  At left is a Legion beret, at center is a helmet, and at right is a Bigeard cap.

Reverse.

Riflemen advancing, rifle leveled.

Reverse.

Riflemen firing from the off-hand.

Reverse.

Riflemen firing from the kneeling position.

Reverse.

Riflemen advancing at sort of a low-port.

Reverse.

Here we've got some riflemen advancing with M-1 Carbines in the 'alert' carry.

Reverse.

And more M-1 Carbines, advancing at the 'ready' carry.  At far right you can see some serious facial hair, which I was having some fun with on these guys.

Reverse.

Some gunners moving up with FM 24/29 "Chatellerault" magazine-fed light machine guns.

Reverse.

Close up from the port quarter, looking at that bush hat and beard.

A couple 'officer' figures with MAT-49 submachine guns, in berets.

Reverse.

And a couple 'officer' figures with MAT-49 submachine guns, in helmets.

Reverse.

Eureka sells radios in 'Walkie-Talkie' and backpack versions, so I picked up some of both.

Reverse.

And then we've got some troopers with MAT-49 submachine guns, 1st pose.

Reverse.

And second pose.

Reverse.

And then we get to the crew-serves, starting with the M2 60mm mortar team.

Again.

Another.

Again.

Probably too many...

And once more.

Before we move on to the tripod mounted, belt fed, water cooled, .30-caliber machine gun.

Again.

Another.

Reverse.

Profile.

And one more.

And last for the French, we get to the recoiless rifle team.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Low angle.

And reverse.  That's it for the French!  Should be plenty for my platoon-sized games with some company/battalion-level support.

So back we go to the Vietminh.  I went completely with fully-uniformed regulars, no locals in black pajamas or anything like that.  I gave them a very simple paint job, too: spray-painted uniforms using the same green I used on the French, then hit helmets and web gear with Iraqi Sand, did flesh, weapons, and some details (like collars on officers, foliage on helmets, etc...), then inked them.  Simple and plain, but I think effective.

So let's kick this off with some officer figures, which come in two poses, both wielding pistols.

Reverse.

Some standard bearers, bearing home-drawn flags colored with my kids' markers.  Certainly not going to win any beauty pageants, but good enough for my table.  Any white showing on the flags is purely down to poor Communist craftsmanship...

Reverse.

Ahh, yes, the bugler.  You may notice this cat looks a bit different to the rest, and he is.  Eureka Minis USA didn't have any Vietminh buglers in stock, so I bought a Japanese bugler and thrust him into the fray.  If using a Japanese bugler for my Vietminh troops bothers you, just wait until I use this force for North Koreans or Chinese in the Korean War ;)

Another look.

Some drum-fed light machine guns, I believe made by Degtyarev and called the DP-27 or -28.

There is a second pose for the LMGs, a prone gunner firing from bipod.

And now we move to the rifleman poses, a dude advancing with rifle at port arms, bayonet fixed.

A rifleman moving up quickly, weapon leveled.  I'm not sure what rifle the Vietminh are supposed to be carrying; in terms of the castings, they look a lot like the MAS-36s the French have.

Another advancing rifleman, muzzle down.

Moving up, rifle at the ready.

Advancing, hunched forward a bit, without pack.

Rifleman firing from the off-hand, with some bits of foliage stuck to his helmet.

Anotherrifleman advancing, hunched over a bit, this time with pack.

Rifleman firing form the kneeling position, and a good looking pose, but he's got the wrong knee bent.  Yes, some guys do this in real life, but that's not proper form ;)

And now we get to the Commie submachine gunners.  Hard to tell if that's a PPSh-41 with magazine (vice drum), or a PPS-43.

Very similar to the above, with same weapon.

Another, this dude standing a bit more upright.

And this guy hunched over with what appears to be an M-1 Thompson (likely courtesy of the OSS).

And now we get to the crew-serves.  Since they're Commies I'd normally assume this is an 82mm mortar, but by the looks of it I'm guessing this is actually a French 81mm mortar.

Again.

And once more.

And here we have a WWII-era Japanese 70mm howitzer (Type 92, I believe).

Again.

And once more.

And how 'bout some machine guns?  How 'bout some more WW-era Japanese weapons, also called the Type 92, but this time a tripod mounted, air-cooled, stripper-clip fed machine gun.  Historically accurate, but I would have preferred to have seen some Soviet-made MGs, like the SG-43.

A closer look.

Another.

Again.

And once more.

And lastly we come to the Vietminh bazooka team.

Reverse.

Again.

And once more.

A little terrain for ya.  If you followed my 'Two Brothers" campaign you saw I bought some of Battlefront's rice paddies. Well, I finally got around to putting some grass on them.

A closer look.

And like I said, I'm going all-in on using Platoon Forward fully, as written.  It's something I've been wanting to do for years now, but I've been too lazy, always taking shortcuts.  Well, no more!  I needed some blinds markers, so I grabbed some poker chips I had lying around, spray painted them, marked them with a Sharpie (in Platoon Forward there are different types of enemy blinds, A, B, and C), flocked them, then stuck on some clump foliage before spray sealing them.  I think they look pretty good; again, nothing award winning, but I think they will do their job and not look too outlandish on the table.

A closer look.

Well, everything is set, so here's to hoping I can carve out some time and actually play a game sometime soon.

V/R,
Jack