K&C WWII: The Rarest of the Rare - Free French from 1993 (1 Viewer)

[Louis Badolato]

Yes, but I wouldn't say I discovered it. I would give that honor to Fred from Paris, who found and bought the first of two (without having any idea what it was, only that the base was marked 'K&C"), came to me to have it identified, and to Bill Sager, who, when the wife of the seller (Carl Hoegemeyer) told him there was a second MP, allowed me to purchase it as I had identified it.

 

[jazzeum]

Oh, yes, now I remember. That was a good find and good show for you what with the plane you found and the MP.

 

[Louis Badolato]

To whette your appetite, here is a quote from the book about the Free French sets:

"Sets FF1 (Foreign Legion) and FF2 (French Marines) each consisted of one standing officer, one marching sergeant and a combination of marching riflemen, standing riflemen and a trooper marching with a grease gun. The Free French appear in U.S. Style uniforms with French flags on the shoulder, wearing French style head gear (foreign legion kepis for FF1 and orange sailor cap with red pom-pom for FF2). Andy sculpted two basic bodies for these figures (as well as the U.S. MP), one standing and one marching. He sculpted three different heads (one with Kepi, one with French Marine hat, one with helmet/goggles). He sculpted two basic right arms (one carrying a grease gun, which could be mounted with the gun angled up or down, one carrying a slung rifle) and two basic left arms (one arm akimbo, one hanging down), and combined variations of these bodies, heads and arms to make the different figures. The Free French sets were originally listed in the winter 1992/1993 dealer dispatch, but a variation of the set as marching U.S. figures is depicted in the 1996/1997 Warbirds Flyer. The author only recently obtained set FF1 in November, 2007, and these two sets are certainly the rarest of the glossy WWII figures. According to Andy Neilson, these Free French figures were just not selling, so Andy and Gordon took the remaining castings, replaced the heads with the head from MP1, wearing a helmet with goggles, and sold the remaining sets as U.S. troops. These figures are in an extremely natural and realistic pose, with perfectly proportioned bodies, heads and hands. This level of sculpting would not be matched by K&C until circa 1999/2000, and the painting is also excellent. The two sets originally retailed for $70 each."

 

[Louis Badolato]

The Free French arrived this morning! I am e-mailing Brad photos to post of (1) the Free French Foreign Legionarres wearing Kepis (FF1), (2) the Free French Marines wearing sailor caps with orange/red pom-poms (FF2) as well as (3) a marching U.S. soldier (made by Andy to sell the remaining castings by combining the marching free french body with the head from the U.S. MP).

 

[bsager]

Louis,
Did you just acquire FF1 and FF2?

Bill Sager

 

[Louis Badolato]

Yes Bill,

I didn't realize until it arrived, but the seller sent me two FF1 Free French in Kepis (an officer and a trooper), two FF2 Free French in Marine Caps (a sergeant and a marine) as well as one of the marching troops with the helmet and goggles. You'll see the photos as soon as Brad posts them.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Bill,

I just forwarded the photos to your e-mail. You can post them if you are able.

 

[jazzeum]

Probably the first time many of us K & C hardcore have seen this, Free French Marines:

 

[jazzeum]

Free French Legionnaires wearing kepis:

 

[jazzeum]

U.S. Soldier (what is that helmet, by the way?):

 

[Louis Badolato]

Glossy MP.

Compare the helmet on this MP to the helmet on the marching figure, and you can clearly see that Andy merely substituted the MP head onto the marching Free French figure to create a new U.S. figure (with more wide appeal).

 

[jazzeum]

You're right about that. The helmet on the soldier I just posted almost reminds me of a UN peacekeeping soldier. I don't know if they still do, but didn't UN troops at one time have the light blue helmets?

 

[Chuck Harris]

You're right about that. The helmet on the soldier I just posted almost reminds me of a UN peacekeeping soldier. I don't know if they still do, but didn't UN troops at one time have the light blue helmets?

Brad

Yes UN troops did use Light Blue Helmets & I think they still do. They are not seen on the News very often doing the job they should be doing. Someone shots at them they pack up and go back were ever they came from.

 

[CannonFodder1971]

Brad

Yes UN troops did use Light Blue Helmets & I think they still do. They are not seen on the News very often doing the job they should be doing. Someone shots at them they pack up and go back were ever they came from.

They still do. They're not seen as much because their deployment often entails such a limited mandate. Irish troops in UNIFIL spent 20 years providing themselves as target practice between Israeli-backed SLA and the various Syrian and Iranian-backed militias in the Bekka Valley. Their Ghanaian replacements let things slide a bit in the following years - they stuck pretty much to the letter of their mandate, which meant no pursuit, and in some cases a series of endless exchanges with HQ before even securing the right to return fire. I'm not saying that the Irish solution was the best one, but if there was a grey area it was best to err on the side of protecting the integrity of the UN operation, which sometimes meant a little more forcefulness than crouching in the foxhole at the checkpoint.

Regional solutions are now the preferred option: think of the UN-backed but NATO-led KFOR in Kosovo, or the UN-backed African Union forces in 8 different African conflicts. In Afghanistan there is the UN-backed but NATO-led ISAF force, which includes Canadians, French, Germans, Turks as well as non-NATO troops such as the Swedes. These sort of operations have a "peace enforcement" role rather than the peace-keeping one of the traditional blue helmeted UN operations. They use tanks, F-16s, and plenty of hardware!

It should also be remembered that the UN forces were traditionally operating in the background of the Cold War, so there was always a pre-supposition that the USA or USSR could lean on some local warlord or separatist/liberation/royalist/etc movement given that their financial/military life support could be switched off. Nowadays there just isn't the same situation, and there's no-one with which to negotiate in many of the current conflicts. It's preferable to have African Union troops do the job too in some of those situations, as the last thing that's needed is the perception of neo-colonial resource wars.

Anyway, enough of that. Blue helmets/berets would be a nice option for Andy to consider some time in the future, but it's hard to think of a mini-series that would sell.