Among my old lead toy soldiers were five castings quite a bit smaller in scale, being 50mm to their forehead. Still keen to use these, decided to form a green-coated unit to serve with my W.Britains King's Royal Rifle Corps, which are also on the small side.To help with the size issue, I based the London Irish Rifles on thicker bases.
The London Irish Rifles are a volunteer-reservist battalion formed in 1859, and has a distinguished military record. Their uniform was rifle-green, with mid-green facings.
MGB
(The last photo courtesy of ..... By HantsAV - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66566236
These fellows , not to mention those in the last two posts, have turned out really well. Excellent work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Allan, I want to use my high morale to clear as many as possible, its all too easy for me to stop painting. But I fear piles of unpainted figures, must clear them.
DeleteMichael
Great looking unit - some of them are a bit shorter than the officer in the last pic!
ReplyDeleteHi MJT, very true. One of the problems with re-enactment groups is the perfectly normal variation in members heights, exaggerated by there only being half a dozen in a particular uniform, if they mustered two hundred you would not notice the height variation by forming them up according to height, lol. I should have put the LIR next to the KRRC, they look fine mixed together so the bases have done the job.
DeleteMichael
Very smart unit!
ReplyDeleteHi George, I agree, its a smart looking unit and a pleasure to have in the collection. I know many Americans are surprised to find the Scots-Irish (Presbyterians) are the most pro-British community in the UK, but also hundreds of thousands of Irishmen (Gaelic-Catholic) fought in the British army from the battle of Waterloo to the present day. Only recently I read an article about the Collins family, lost six sons in WW1. The London Irish Rifles lost over a thousand men during WW1.
DeleteMichael
At the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 before the 36th Ulster Division went over the top a catholic mass was held followed by a Protestant service. All attended regardless of religious positions.
DeleteThats very interesting George, Christendom and Europe lost too many of its best in that war, it allowed unnatural creeds to arise throughout Europe.
DeleteNichael
Good loooking unit, and a bit jealous about this project :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil, hope you find future posts of interest. I'm going all out to clear my unfinished projects, call it a new year resolution.
DeleteMichael
Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteThe whole height thing reminds me of college days. One year my roommate and I were the 2 shortest cadets in our Squadron. The drill when forming up for parade was to fall in in a single rank, "tallest on the right shortest on the left" , then we'd count off file around and hey presto the tallest were on either flank and the shortest in the middle, all very even and easy on the eyes. The middle height guys had to jostle for position when initially falling in but Christien and I would just saunter down to the far left.
Indeed Ross. In keeping with the old saying, those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. I spent the last twenty years organising history displays, talking about the 18th Century, the British Army, tactics, etc. So I never had to form up, just stand there talking about it, lol.
DeleteMichael