News in from ICM has news on two figures sets, a World War 1 French set coming and a Cold War Russian figure set now available.

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Thanks!

Hard to believe the French went to war in 1914 in kepis.

Hard to believe they went to war in blue coats!

I saw a WW1 documentary on AHC or the Smithsonian Channel that said the idea was for the poilus to be able to blend in to the blue sky.

That was the second uniform, the Horizon Blue uniform, a pale blue gray color introduced later in the war. The original 1914 uniform was deep blue jacket and bright red trousers.

The French entered the war in 1914 outfitted in brilliant Napoleonic colors of navy blue tunics and red trousers! An obvious error of the times. They soon changed to the Horizon Blue that jphillips mentions

Horizon Blue was adopted when the armies stalemated into trench warfare. The idea being to camouflage the advancing French troops from the enemy viewing them from the lower angle of the trenches. The new uniform, in theory, would blend with the sky blue horizon from which the French advanced! A unique concept of the times I would imagine. What a great set of early war French figures in the brilliant Napoleonic uniforms! I never thought I'd see anything like this in my lifetime coming from the model manufacturers. WWI is about to have it's day in the modeling community thanks to the 100th anniversary...can't wait to see the creativity all you fellow modelers have to will share with us

Hard to believe ICM give us almost the same pose of aus rus ger fr figs LOL

1914 French trooper



1914 German trooper



No comment...



H.P.

ICM are producing some really fine WW1 figures and weapon sets. I thought the French set were going to be standing easy type soldiers, (original box art) but that's my preference. For advancing troops they will work fine and the 1914 uniforms will certainly be colourful.

I picked up the British WW1 weapons set the other day, another fine range of equipment. I am hoping that their British Infantry release will be marching troops as originally shown on the provisional box art but now I'm not so sure they will be! I'll have to wait and see. The weapons set contains sufficient equipment to convert a range of troops if necessary. If they should turn out to be advancing infantry then they will marry in well with the Tamiya set giving more upright poses coming along behind.

MB still have a WW1 heading in their kits in progress so perhaps we might get some more from them too.

A big leap forward in available 1/35 scale troops which is to be welcomed.

Cheers

Al

Now we need a resin head company to keep up with these new lines of figgies.
Would be nice to see some gas mask wearing guys?
J

I still have my fingers crossed for some AEF figures.

The red trousers and kepi cover were supposed to be covered with drab covers. The red was retained in the uniform to build morale and a constant reminder about revenge for 1870. And the fact that the French were constantly fooling around with new drab uniforms but had not decided on one yet. Horizon Blue was actually a compromise. It was supposed to be tri-color cloth with blue, white and red intermixed giving it a vaguely light khaki cast.

The German army had only just switched from blue uniforms and many reservists paraded in blue only switching to field grey before reaching the front.

BTW a French soldier would not be in a mask in this uniform. There were a number of changes made to the uniforms for mass-production in late 1914-15 so the first horizon blue clad soldiers had single breasted coats and fall collars etc.

I'm going to be displaying these next to my old ICM Franco-Prussian French infantry set for contrast.

I hope we can get some Turkish Infantry in the WW1 mix from ICM..!

Wouldn't they just be backlighted, and sillouetted, and appear dark anyway, no matter what color they were?

To see pictures and drawings of french pre-ww1 uniform tests check this link:
http://rosalielebel75.franceserv.com/reforme-uniforme.html

Minor criticism - everyone's charging about on the battlefield with fixed bayonets, and no one's shooting. Out of ammo?? Looks more like a medieval battle with spears and pikes!