The Big Push 5.

The 1er Regiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie du Levant. A very impressive title for the composite French cavalry regiment that served in Palestine. Formed from two squadrons of Spahis and two squadrons of the 4er Chasseurs d'Afrique, the pre-war colourful French Colonial uniforms have given way to mustard khaki and Adrian helmets. Again, painted, based and varnished speedily over four days for the Syria 1918 demo game at Colours 2018.

These are Crusader Miniatures early WW2 French cavalry with a GWM French Dragoon Officer to lead them. Only three Crusader figures have their original horses. The other horses are of unknown origin as this unit was scratched together from some figures that Adrian and I had in our respective lead piles. Some of the Crusader horses had been used elsewhere. Some purists may complain that the equipment is not correct but I don't care. What was important was that we have some mounted troops, clearly identified as French, wearing adrian helmets. I don't have time to carve off and resculpt the canvas ANP 31 bag. Paint it khaki and it is just a bag! These chaps appear briefly in this piece of footage from the Imperial War Museum entitled "Armageddon" (4 mins 44 seconds in). Here they are in a screenshot from the film.

Next.... a command base featuring Captain R H M MacIntyre MC, Officer Commanding 7th Light Car Patrol, his driver and a bloke frantically trying to signal the leading elements of the Desert Mounted Corps.... and a car, of course.

Great War Miniatures 1914 French Cuirassiers 2.

The two figures from the Command pack. 

Great War Miniatures 1914 French Cuirassiers.

Back in late June, quietly and without fuss, three packs of 1914 French Cuirassier figures appeared on the GWM pages of the North Star website. I ordered one of each and they arrived last weekend.. There are no images of the figures on the North Star site so here is a picture of the first to be painted up. The troopers are are very similar having swords drawn and held as seen in this example, the only variation being the direction in which the head is looking. The Officer figure in the command set has his sword held down at his side and the trumpeter is pointing to his right (very similar to a Perry Miniatures Napoleonic Cuirassier Trumpeter). In all there are six horse variations (the usual six found in GWM packs) and once cleaned up from mouldworms I find them a very characterful little group. The colour scheme for this example is taken directly from Andre Jouineau's "Officers and Soldiers of the French Army 1914". Here it is from Amazon.