Hello Woodsy
As those of us in the Northern Hemisphere enjoy the heat of summer and think of escapes to seaside and sand I sit in the heat of northern Connecticut and at least contemplate sand.
Not the sand of a beach but of the deserts of north Africa. I recently found a box of French Foreign Legion in uniforms appropriate for north Africa in the 1900's which I purchased to recreate one of my favourite comic strips of the 1950's,
LUCK OF THE LEGION in EAGLE comic.
I loved the colour illustration and stories, also bought the books containing novels of the characters. I had been given a number of Pulp Magazines by an older cousin which inevitably contained at least on FFL tale.
The movie with Ray Milland, 'Beau Geste' was great fun, a true adventure and over the years I have acquired reprints of the Sergeant Luck stories ....
and of some of the pulp stories. There is a lot of plot repetition in these stories and none really betters Beau Geste by P.C. Wren as a novel.
I still have my copy of 'The Reluctant Legionnaire' a true tale of helping a Brit escape from serving in the Legion which certainly put off any childhood plans to enlist!
Attached are first progress photos of the figures painted in the diorama, not finished but the best way to see where painting needs improvement.
See what you think.
Terranova47
USA
What a fun project! The Foreign Legion, such a romantic adventure. SFZ
ReplyDeleteI too read the P.C. Wren books. Airfix did a FFL set of small plastic figures, a set of Arabs, and a Fort Sahara. Later on, they did a 54mm figure kit of a Legionaire.
ReplyDeleteMy set of Airfix 1/76 FFL perished in our garden around 1961 when I recreated The Battle of Camarón which was a last stand engagement fought on 30 April 1863 between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican Army. I had built a balsa wood farmhouse with walls coated with plaster of paris. The inspiration was the story of the battle told in a Luck of the Legion novel.
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