"WW1 ANZACs" Topic

Project nearly finished now that these are done.

Commanders:

Recce:

20mm and 1/72 plastic, metal and resin.

link

How fast you gonna run? Fast as a cheetah!

Might I ask what makes these blokes Anzac. I am not certain either the New Zealanders or the Australians ran Rollers.And both armies had mighty distinctive headgear.

Mr. Hawkwood. Only two of them are ANZAC (note capitalization). What makes them so is simply that I say they are, in the context of my wargame force.

Rollers, see:
link

Contemporary photos of ANZACs wearing pukka 'lemon-squeezers' in theatre are as scarce as hen's teeth. The 'slouch hat' was the headgear style of choice (or so my Australian friends lead me to believe).

Not bad, mate- but where's the batman making tea while the "staff wallahs" stand around gibbering?

Senior officers and staff tended to wear peaked caps rather than the slouch hat (except Monash, when he was raising 3 DIV). In fact the peaked hat was also worn as often as the slouch hat by all Australian troops in Egypt and at Gallipoli, regardless of what the movies show. Once the ALH went into the desert, though, the slouch hat was preferred.

Solar topees were also worn (though not nearly as frequently) and can be seen in photo's throughout the war, but most often in the early war. So your figures will do as Aussie staff officers, many of whom preferred to wear British uniforms in any case (as plenty of photo's on the AWM site show).

You may want to see if you can get Redcoat to Cams by Ian Kuring. Ian was a WO2 in the RAR and became curator of the Infantry Museum at Singleton before being posted to the Army History Unit. That gave him access to a lot of material that isn't often seen, some of which made it into his book. There's a lot of photo's and info you may find interesting, even useful.

"Lemon squeezers" were worn by Kiwis, not Aussies.

Cheers.

Dal.

ok. I posted this also.
Great job my friend!.

Amicalement
Armand

Dal, thanks for a very informative post. A pity I'm at the end of this project, too interesting to finish. Maybe an expansion.

Final word on the figures for anyone interested. The solar wearers are from IT Miniatures, they are staff officers who just happen to be wearing that hat, the other one is from HaT (no pun intended!). They represent from left to right; brigadier Australian Light Horse (hence the green uniform), British General officer, British RFA officer and finally, brigadier of New Zealand Mounted Rifles. Forgive the artistic license.

And a Thank You to Armand as well.

Well, mate, there's always the Imperial Camel Corps: link . How often would you see them on the table?

Dal.

A votre service mon cher ami!. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

Dal, that's a distinct possibility. Head swaps onto HaT Colonial British camel corps perhaps? Or even the Egyptians as there seems to be a dire shortage of the British sets. More than enough spare figs and bits from the ANZAC sets, so……..

I haven't seen the HaT sets, mate, so can't say. As long as there's a tunic, bandolier and boots on the figure it should probably do the job, though. Do the Egyptians come with fez? A quick flick with a knife to cut down the fez with bit of putty in a flat strip, to make a turban, and you could have Indians.

Dal.

Before and after (image manipulation, not figures, thanks to Plastic Soldier Review) uses a head from HaT Australian Light Horse. The Egyptians have puttees but I wouldn't be at all worried about that. Weapon needs a trim but otherwise not bad at all, they always look more convincing when painted!

They should do the trick nicely, mate. And they should raise some eyebrows at your club.

Cheers.

Dal.

Great work, George!

Thanks WeeWars, appreciated.