SOE Sisters No.1: Nancy Wake (#Fembruary2021)

“I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas.“

Nancy Wake

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Nancy Wake

• Born: Wellington, New Zealand, 1912.
• SOE Rank: Captain.
• AKA: ‘Hélène’, ‘The White Mouse’.
• Died: London, England, 2011.

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It’s Fembruary and my first SOE agent is now operating under cover in France! One of five female WWII agents courtesy of Bad Squiddo Games, Nancy Wake was once described as;

“…a real Australian bombshell. Tremendous vitality, flashing eyes. Everything she did, she did well.” Training reports record that she was “a very good and fast shot” and possessed excellent fieldcraft. She was noted to “put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character.”

Something of her independent spirit can be gleaned from how she ran away from home at the age of only 16. Living in France at the outset of WWII, she and her husband aided allied airmen to escape from France after 1940 until she eventually had to escape herself (something she was very good at – the Germans calling her ‘the white mouse’ because she kept slipping out of sight). Sadly, her French husband was captured, tortured and executed, a fact she only discovered at the end of the war. Her survival technique included her natural brazen self-confidence, Nancy later saying;

“A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I’d pass their (German) posts and wink and say, ‘Do you want to search me?’ God, what a flirtatious little bastard I was.”

The sculptor seems to have captured that nerve and poise with this pose. Nancy is attractively dressed and nonchalantly strolling on her way while casually examining her fingernails, but her hidden steel and deadliness is nicely represented by a dagger tucked away just out of sight by her side.

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Alongside the Maquis, she certainly took part in a number of firefights and battles with the Germans, later confessing to reluctantly having to kill a sentry with her bare hands, in a manner she’d been trained repeatedly to use by the SOE.

Nancy survived the war and was decorated lavishly by a grateful UK, France, New Zealand, Australia and USA. She emigrated to Australia with her next husband, an RAF officer, where she unsuccessfully stood as a Liberal candidate in elections there.  After her 2nd husband died in 1997, Nancy returned to the UK where she lived at the Stafford Hotel in Piccadilly, London. Here she ‘would usually be found in the hotel bar, sipping her first gin and tonic of the day and telling war stories‘. She ended her days living at a home for disabled ex-servicemen and women until she passed away at the ripe old age of 98 in 2011.

So ends my humble salute to Nancy Wake of the Special Operations Executive. I have purchased some cheap plinths for my ladies which I will probably pop them on to them for a final post. In the meantime, my next instalment of these SOE sisters is hopefully coming soon!

Nancy Wake in uniform.

FEMbruary 2021

It’s that time of the year again that many of us figure painters, makers and bloggers look forward to. Fembruary has been declared by Alex at Lead Balloony blog. I’ve not missed a Fembruary yet and there’s no way I want to miss out this year.

My previous Fembruary submissions:

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  2020: Empress Catherine I of Russia

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  2019: Soviet snipers

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  2019: Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens)

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  2018: Empress Catherine II of Russia

So I’ve been taking a look at my figures as usual to find something which could satisfy the core aims of Alex’s great idea which is namely to paint and post some female miniatures in the ‘name of fair representation in the hobby’. In his blog post, he goes on to say “Given that this is intended as an encouragement to think about inclusion in the hobby then it makes sense if your entries are kick-ass ladies, and not the product of some socially awkward mini-sculptor’s sexy fantasies…” A final round-up is in early March (in time for International Women’s Day, on the 8th March).

For more details on Fembruary, see the Lead Balloony post and you could do a lot worse than check out his son’s very impressive Amazon quartet while your at it.

Nancy Wake in First Aid Nursing Yeomanry uniform, 1945, Public Domain,

If it’s kick-ass ladies that Alex wants to see, then my selection should more than fit the bill. This year I couldn’t resist Bad Squiddo’s wonderful new range of WWII female SOE agents. All of them, with one exception, are based on real life heroic agents who served the cryptically named Special Operations Executive. The characters include:

• Krystyna Skarbek
• Nancy Wake
• Virginia Hall
• Noor Inayat Khan
• Annie Norman

The first four are based on real WWII SOE agents, the last one is Bad Squiddo supremo herself, Annie Norman, aka “Gestapo’s Most Wanted”. Annie might, of course, even be a genuine agent too but I’m not allowed to talk about that…

Krystyna Skarbek, SOE agent, Public Domain

I’ve also had my eye on another female figure from Bad Squiddo but it’s doubtful I will get time to paint that before Fembruary’s deadline, so (like a good SOE agent) I’m keeping that very ‘hush-hush’ for now.

Man of Tin blog has submitted some lovely Fembruary work in recent years – are you in again this year, Mark?

I’ve been painting figures again this week, so more news on that to follow.

Blogging the ‘Nog

It’s Christmas and I’ve been making my first ever Eggnog. Pat over at Pat’s 1:72 Military Diorama’s had, like me, never tried eggnog so we resolved an intention to give it a go this Christmas. This was all inspired by my raising of The Eggnog Cuirassier Regiment, earlier this year – the heavy cavalry of the Army of Advent.

I invited over the regiment’s commanding officer, Major Pigsin-Blankets, together with some of his men to observe and try out a glass of my eggy drink experiment.

I chose a recipe off the BBC Good Food website which called for condensed milk. Next, I added four egg yolks and some sugar syrup I made with a teaspoon of vanilla essence. The whole mixed together…

…and don’t forget the brandy!

Did someone say brandy?!

The Posset Posse ride out… straight to the brandy!

Two hours chilled in the fridge before serving over ice! I added a dash of nutmeg on top as a final flourish. My verdict? Totally delicious, if very sweet!

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There has been a very timely post by Clare Mosley the Derbyshire Records Office about the historical Christmas ‘posset pot’, an ancient eggy drink not dissimilar to eggnog. Apparently, during the Great Plague of 1666, “it was even used as cure for the disease.” Well, we could all use a bit of that magic lately.

https://recordoffice.wordpress.com/2020/12/24/a-winters-posset/

Cheers, Major, and God bless us, every one.

The Suburban Militarism Christmas Card 2020

Ottomania: Turkish Sipahi

As promised in my last post, here are the finished Red Box Ottoman Sipahi, my first cavalry unit for the growing army of Ottomania.

With this unit of Ottoman Sipahi, I thought that the painting process might be quicker as a consequence so much armour to paint but I was wrong! There were still plenty of little details left to paint which demanded careful attention. The end result is a very pleasing addition to my Ottomania project!

A quick run through some of the finished figures…

Sipahi archers:

Technically, all the Sipahi are archers as they all have separate quivers for both bow and arrows. I’m referring here to those who are shown using the bow. I’ve placed them all on walking horse poses as I can’t imagine that they would be widely used on a charging horse.

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There’s nothing worse than getting your scimitar stuck in a tall plume… Some of the poses were a little 2 dimensional, but still have nice detailing.

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This next pose seemed to go particularly well with the charging horse.

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Perhaps my favourite pose was this one:

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Finally, some Ottoman axe-wielding maniacs:

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There’s plenty more troops for Ottomania to paint from Red Box but for now it’s back to those Napoleonic French Infantry on the march, though I may have to wait for a painful back spasm to improve first…(it’s my age, you know…).

Keeping Calm and Marching On

Don’t–don’t–don’t–don’t–look at what’s in front of you.
(Boots–boots–boots–boots–movin’ up an’ down again);
Men–men–men–men–men go mad with watchin’ em,
An’ there’s no discharge in the war!
“Boots (Infantry Columns)” by Rudyard Kipling

As we head into a pandemic-fuelled ‘winter of something-considerably-more-than-discontent’, us modellers and hobbyists will recognise the great importance of our hobbies in helping us face the trauma and keep going. I often hear stories from others who find solace and support in the act of focusing our attention upon these little men and women.

And so it is with me. November will soon be turning distinctly wintry in this part of the world and so I’m going back to something comfortingly familiar which suits both the coming season and the current necessity of doggedly carrying on. I’m back on the march!

Try–try–try–try–to think o’ something different —
Oh–my–God–keep–me from goin’ lunatic!
(Boots–boots–boots–boots–movin’ up an’ down again!)
There’s no discharge in the war!

The men doing all the marching with me will be the good old Strelets French Infantry in Advance. This is the last of those veteran early Strelets sets I purchased for a pittance on the sad closing down of a local model shop. They’re wearing their greatcoats and stoically foot–foot–foot–foot sloggin’ through the deep snows of a Russian winter. I add a handful more every year and they now number just over 70 in total. In recent years, I’ve also painted the associated wintry Strelets ‘sledge train’ sets.

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They’re not the most elegantly sculpted figures ever made, but for some reason I just can’t help but love them. I’m already well under way with them, having add a bit of paint to them in my spare moments recently. Once I’ve painted the latest cohort of 14 marchers, I will have the remnants of the sister set “French Infantry on the March (1)” to paint.

My latest platoon of new recruits, the last of that box of men ‘in advance’ – or should that be ‘in retreat’ (from Moscow)…?

Happily, and much to my surprise, a box of ye olde “In Advance” set finally came up for auction recently and I’ve now got another box also for a snip. All of which means there’s another few years left in this winter painting tradition to go yet. In the meantime, my Ottoman Turkish Sipahi are finished and I’ll be sharing them soon in my next post!

Marching Frenchmen making their way across a the desolate wintry wastes of my lounge carpet.

Knights of Ottomania

I’ve just about finished painting the riders from Red Box’s 2nd set of Osman Sipahi for my Ottoman army. With all their considerable amounts of armour, I’ve had to crack open the metal colours far more than I’m used to with my 18th/19th century bias. According to Plastic Soldier Review, getting these figures to sit on their already painted armoured horses will involve yet more cold steel in the form of my scalpel, so we’ll see how that goes…

In the meantime, here’s how they’re looking. It seems Ottoman shields could take many ornate designs using anything from full colour to plain metal, so I’ve just used my imagination here with these figures.

Archery was a significant part of the Sipahis power and Red Box have given all of the figures quivers for containing either the bow or arrows. It seems a kind of decorated red leather was typical and so I’ve given that to the whole unit.

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Red Box have also included a couple of poses showing the bows in use.

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So hopefully with a little work this week should see my Ottoman army adopt it’s first cavalry formation to join the artillery and units of Janissaries already done!

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A Return to Ottomania

In the sort of random change of topic that is a feature of my hobby, I’ve decided to make a return to my Ottomania project, which is dedicated to the Red Box range of 16th/17th century Ottoman Turks. Hitherto, I’ve created a comprehensive artillery corps and some token elite Janissary orta (battalions).

For some time, I’ve had Red Box’s Ottoman cavalry sets and pulled out one of those boxes to make a start. The box I’m working on is ‘Set 2’ of Red Box’s Osman Sipahi (yes, I do have ‘Set 1’ as well).

The Osman – or Ottoman – Sipahi were the armoured cavalry of the Sultan. And when I say armoured, I refer to both horse and rider equally. The coat of metal strips protecting the horses on the box cover is known as barding and has been reproduced by Red Box with these figures.

According to my Osprey book on the subject, “Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774”:

“Although the highly disciplined janissaries mostly impressed the Europeans, their importance was far less than that of the sipahi cavalry, the battle-winning offensive element in a classic Ottoman army.“

I’ve decided to get to work on the horses first of all, mostly because I fancied tackling all that armour. There are two poses in the box and one pose in particular had a real problem with flash on the sprue. I had to virtually carve out the legs from a mass of plastic using a scalpel on some. It’s a real shame as the sculpting otherwise looks good, even if some of the leg positions are a bit ‘iffy’ (the walk is good but the leg positions on the canter are bizarre).

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I’ll be painting more armour soon as I make a start on the riders. We’re going back into lockdown as the pandemic rages once more here in England, so we modellers will once again be looking to our unpainted piles as a means to sustain us through the long winter to come. Take care, everyone.

Marvin

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The Eggnog Cuirassiers

My pot of yellow paint can now rest for a while as Hagen’s lovely Prussian Cuirassiers have now been fully converted into the bright yellow uniformed Eggnog Cuirassiers; the heavy cavalry regiment of the Army of Advent.

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I’ve mostly based their uniform on the Prinz von Preußen Cuirassiers, being attracted to their bright colours. The saddlecloths have been painted the same as that regiment’s design of crimson edged with white but instead of the royal cypher, I’ve added a small white symbol with yellow centre (a bit like an egg, see?) to the pistol housings.

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You will notice that the flag bearer is still forlornly waiting for his guidon. Traditionally, Advent’s flag designs have been in the hands of my daughter but teenagers, it seems, have other interests and so I may need to attend to it myself it she doesn’t get around to it soon. Whatever it looks like, it will not look anywhere near as detailed and realistic as those which Stokes created recently on The Grand Duchy of Stollen blog.

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I like Hagen’s horses, just the right side of slender and a little like an ill-fed thoroughbred on campaign – a stark contrast to Strelets’ stocky horses which all seem to have been out in the spring grass for far too long! Admittedly, the pose of these Hagen horses leans towards the excessively dramatic but at least nobody can accuse the Eggnog’s of a lack of enthusiasm in their charge.

A little green flock will attend to the extravagant metal plant this horse is leaping over.

Trumpeter and Officer are below. The officer is Major Pigsin-Blankitts who is riding a high-spirited black stallion going by the name of Bethmännchen.

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The regimental Christmas plinth is also now prepared and, with the grim kind of winter we seem to have in store for us in the northern hemisphere, I reckon the Suburban Militarism household will need every bit of their colourful spectacle when appearing on the yuletide mantelpiece later this year.

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Post script:

I’ve realised that I forgot to mention the results of my poll regarding whether the Eggnog’s should have coloured lace on their tricornes, As these photos demonstrate, the winner was for no coloured lace. All of which made things easier for me!

Late reinforcements…

It must have been a few years ago now since I joined the crowdfunding of Hat’s Napoleonic Light and Heavy Dragoons sets. At long last, after a number of incidents and issues (retooling and resizing), and much forum commentary (not all being very complimentary), these troubled soldiers finally, belatedly, arrived at Suburban Militarism HQ – and in shockingly bright, red plastic!

With my two boxes, HaT have kindly included their sampler set consisting of 16 more light and heavy dragoons, making for a grand total of 40 British dragoons unexpectedly arriving through the post this week. Plenty more recruits for the Napoleonic Cavalry Project.

I know HaT have taken some stick for the long delays on this crowdfunding project, which is certainly understandable. However, for hobbyists like myself (that’s right; these are not toys because I’m a grown-up, serious, bona-fide hobbyist) at least we can thank them for two shiny brand-new sets of Napoleonic British cavalry.

They’ve been such a long time coming that they almost feel like an unexpected gift from some mysterious benefactor. Given the size of the Great Unpainted Pile, they may be an awful long time before any paint gets applied too…