Gearing Up For ValleyCon 2016 - The Infantry

One of the things I had to decide before getting stuck in to building my early war British Armoured Car Squadron for Flames of War was what style of infantry figure to use. This is a short post on the process I went through to decide.

My army is set in February 1941, the tail end of winter, which in North Africa can apparently be quite cold. Many of the photos of the time show soldiers wearing battledress or greatcoats. I wanted to use Battlefront Miniatures figures, but with no British greatcoats in their range, the basic look I am after is long trousers and the Mark II helmet.

I was able to rule out many of the BF figures immediately due to unsuitable headgear, including those with 1944 pattern helmets, berets and slouch hats, as I don't want to have to do a stack of head swaps. The 8th Army range is in shorts, while the BEF figures, which are in battledress, are carrying gas mask bags on their chest, which I believe stopped sometime during 1940.

That leaves just the Italian Campaign range. Battlefront say these are suitable for 1942 onwards, but I can't see anything too anachronistic for early 1941, at least nothing obvious in 15mm scale. They are in trousers and rolled up shirt sleeves, wearing the right helmet and no gas mask bag, so to me they look about right.

Of course, chances are that by the time I've painted them, none of these details I've agonised over will be visible...