All the items mentioned in this months release should be available the week of the 15th July, thank you for all your fantastic support so far in 2021, next month should see more Boer war, Zulu war and WW2 releases plus other goodies. Our new Warbirds will also have arrived and we have some real beauties to unveil in July. The Korean war series will hopefully see an update in August as well as a new German tank.
For now its adieu from the Team @ Gunn
Following on from INDO001 we have four members of an FFL patrol.
INDO002-005, below are the resin samples of these figures for your enjoyment. Our patrol are equipped with a variety of weapons including a 30 calibre machine gun, M2 carbine and a MAT49 machine gun, one of the most successful French guns ever manufactured. These figures should be available in a couple of months or so, the paint schemes have been finalised as we now head into production.
INDO001 FFL PARA NCO
Our first figure in this range features a French Foreign Legion paratrooper, he can be used in a variety of diorama positions, in ours he was designed to be overseeing his patrol as they return to base. This NCO wears the lizard camouflage pattern uniform issued to French Paratroopers in the region from 1953 onwards. He also carries the folding airborne MAS36 rifle and is wearing mainly American WW2 webbing equipment with French DF37 issue grenades attached to it.
Limited to 120 in number and priced at $55.00 / £47.50 Whilst stocks last
Indochina is the name for 3 country's that initially came under French rule in the 1800's, namely Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Although the French brought architecture, railways and roads they also ruled the region with an iron fist, any insurrection being harshly subdued, as has been the way of all empire builders since the beginning of time.
French hegemony was interrupted during WW2 by the Japanese who annexed the country once France had been defeated by Germany. After the Japanese defeat in 1945, the French were keen to re-establish their control over Indochina and carry on with the rule of French law as if nothing had changed during the interim. Unfortunately for the French, the seeds of independence had been fermented by the Viet Minh, a Communist group of revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh. Although initially not very successful, the rise of China as a Communist power in 1949 led to a large increase in weapons for the Viet Minh. With more and more heavy weapons being supplied to them, the Viet Minh grew in confidence and were able to take on the French in set piece battles and by using guerilla warfare tactics to subdue any smalltime opposition be it civil or military. The Viet Minh had grown to such a size that they were deploying fully fledged combat division formations in the field by this stage of the war,
The Viet Minh were as brutal if not more so than the French, any civilian who showed any disobedience to their cause would be swiftly dispatched by machete, firing squad or sometimes buried alive. Thousands of innocent people died under their regime even before it became the official governing body of the country. On the battlefield the Viet Minh leadership showed little regard for their soldiers welfare and favoured mass wave attacks by infantry against French positions, with a horrendous loss of life that has still not been made official to this day. They were more successful in ambushing French convoys and vast swathes of the country were no go areas for the authorities, as the Communists tightened their grip.
After 8 years it was acknowledged that this was now a fully fledged war, the French decided on a set piece battle that would destroy the Viet Minh once and for all, luring them to a place called Dien Bien Phu (DBP). The operation was codenamed Operation Castor.
Parachuting men and equipment into DBP in November 1953 the French set up a heavily defensible position surrounded by mountains. As there was an airfield there, artillery and tanks were also transported via this method into the camp.
The French rightly assumed assumed the Viet Minh would come en masse to expel the French, they wrongly assumed the Viet Minh would not be able to bring heavy artillery to bear onto the forward facing slopes overlooking the camp. By a mammoth effort using thousands of Viet Minh soldiers and civilians they succeeded in bringing artillery fire to bear onto the French positions by March 1954 . Within two months and after a daily artillery barrage and a seemingly unending appetite for sending infantry in suicidal assaults against heavily fortified positions, the Viet Minh succeeded in overrunning DBP.
The 11,000 French army survivors were marched off into captivity where over 70% of the French died during a 3 month period of captivity, the Vietnamese/Thai/Cambodian allies of the French who were interned at the same time suffered over 90% death rate in the camps, basically they were starved to death.
Interestingly Dien Bien Phu has often be called the last stand of the SS, the ranks of the legion being filled at that time with many Germans from Hitler's 3rd Reich.
The war ended shortly after DBP with the French agreeing to leave Indochina and an interim government being set up to run the South along capitalist lines, the North being run under a Communist regime, with the intention of unifying the country once open and fair elections could take place. Of course this never happened and the country was then set on a course for the second Vietnam war, this time featuring America and her Allies coming to the aid of the South Vietnamese. The rest as we know is history.
Our first pieces will feature 11 interactable figures that can be combined or used independently of each other. These will mainly feature FFL paras as they would have appeared at DBP, following on we will then have French Marine Commandos making a raid on a VM village, pictures of these to follow soon, pictures of the real thing below. Of course there will be vehicles and the re-release of our small jungle hut ACC PACK011 due to popular demand.
Some new Zulus for you collectors of the series, this time with rifles! The Zulus were not natural marksmen and often with no training, would just pick up a rifle and start firing it. These Zulus are all firing over the sights hoping their bullets will find a mark!
SFA044 A prone firing Zulu has picked up a redcoats jacket plus his rifle and takes a shot at the enemy.
A new version of our marius mule Legionnaire, this time without shield as he endeavours to get to safety with his few belongings. This figure also comes with photo etched steel sword blade.
Limited to 100 in number and priced at $55.00 / £47.50 whilst stocks last.
[FONT=arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif]ROM126 Advancing Legionnaire with Sword[/FONT]
An upgrade with our Romans as they now come with photo etched steel blades for their swords! ROM126 is the first one and I have to say it's a marked improvement over previous releases.
This Legionnaire moves cautiously forward whilst looking to the left.
A version with Imperial Red Shield. Limited to 80 sets B version with 9th Black Shield. Limited to 35 sets C version with 19th Green Shield. Limited to 35 sets
[FONT=arial, helvetica neue, helvetica, sans-serif]ROM124 Advancing Legionnaire with Spear[/FONT]
A new Roman advancing with spear lowered and looking to the left, can be used individually or as part of a group as pictured.
A version with Imperial Red Shield. Limited to 80 sets B version with 9th Black Shield. Limited to 35 sets C version with 19th Green Shield. Limited to 35 sets
Dear All Welcome to July's figure newsletter with some unique and exciting offerings being brought to you by the Gunn team including the launch of our new Indochina series, however lets start with the Romans
Agree, i have ordered as well, which did you go for? I went with the 19th, will look at a scene where they are walking through the Teutoburg Forest on the look out for an ambush. Or as we used to say on Patrol in NI "Look out for the Ambush but ignore the Bacon Trees".
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
