Recruiting for Back of Beyond
A word from Pete Crawshaw of West London Legion…
Greetings fellow gamers.
On reading materials provide by Rob and his enthusiasm for setting up a BoB campaign, I thought I would dig out my ANZAC’s and Turks. These have been languishing in a box, unloved and partially painted for quiet a while and press them into action.
Last Fridays zoom meeting provided some further impetus. I have purchased the rule set “Setting the East ablaze” and with a bit of imagination I could see my plucky Kiwi’s and Johnny Turk becoming allies as the war has ended and they wander off to the Baku region in search of fame and fortune.
My figures are from the Woodbine range sold by Gripping beast. Nicely sculptured, with good animation. They have a high tin content which does make them brittle and I have managed with much skill to break 4 of the figures off their bases. Ones that only have one foot on the base in a running pose. Some drill holes, wire pins and araldite has hopefully fixed the issue.
Their leader will be Bernard Freyberg VC, DSO and Bar who had fought with Pancho Villa, paid for his travels before the war by prize fighting and during the Gallipoli campaign swam ashore to set off flares to distract the Turks. He also led the last cavalry action of WWI at 1 minute to 11, on November 11th. Very much a boys own hero and an adopted Kiwi to boot. So the ‘Bernies bastards’ it is then.
The zoom meeting highlighted other figures which I could press into service. Artisan design’s TE Lawrence and Arabs will provide a irregular element but I also noticed they made Foreign legion figures. It just so happens the Foreign Legion were deployed in Syria after WWI and it would seem their pattern uniform and kit hadn’t changed from pre-war days. I will need additional firepower if they are to face the Bolshi’s. So Im looking to purchase some Lewis gunners from the Copplestone range, while I’ve just acquired an Austen and a Rolls Royce Armoured car from Empress miniatures. Both of these vehicles saw service in the region. So time to paint.
