Swedish uniforms in culture

Military life from the early 20th century is not big in Swedish pop culture nowdays. One of the few exception is a comic called "91:an Karlsson", that is about a private that hates being a conscript. It started in 1932 and is still being published to this day (summer 2013!). It is based on the creator's time as a conscript during World War One, and that is very obvious when you look at the uniforms. The figures are using both the older m/ä and the newer m/10 uniforms, but for some reason not the m/10 hat.

Correct military details has never been the top priority for comic writers (or most other people) so most uniforms have many incorrect details, but who cares? :-) So don't use these pictures as reference when painting.

First some early pictures, which are pretty accurate.

And now some newer, and as we in Sweden says: Finn Fem Fel! (Spot the difference). They mix equipment from 1880 until 100 years later!

And of course he got himself a staty in Halmstad!

All pictures are "© Egmont/Semic Press"

Uniforms from late 19th century to 1936, part 1: m/ä and fm/06

In the late 19th century and early 20th Sweden was a very poor country. Other countries did actually send food to help feed our children (thanks everyone!). In 1917 there were hunger riots in Stockholm, and we hadn't even been part of the First WSorld War.
What's the point of all this talk? The point is that the military was poor before the First World War, and afterward the politicians thought that we wouldn't need a strong army so they cut the budget even more.
So the military had to save money as much as possible. Therefore when a new uniform was introduced they didn't throw away the old ones, nothing was wasted. Instead they used the old ones until they were beyond repair and then you could get a new uniform. Because of this you can see soldiers mixing different uniforms in the same unit.

Soldiers wearing uniforms m/ä

The oldest uniform is called modell äldre (m/ä, model older), and that's the name all uniforms before the fm/06 uniform (more about that one soon) got. The m/ä uniform was not identical in the whole army; different units had different looking m/ä uniforms. You can here see the different models.

How to convert from m/23 to m/ä: They are very similar so you will only need to cut away the four front pockets with a sharp knife! This uniform did also have more buttons.

Next model is called fm/06 (test model 1906, försöksmodell 1906). The idea was to get a modern unity uniform, one that the whole army would use, instead of having many different. Here are some of the sketches of what the new uniform would look like. Some ideas was used from the sketches, some not. You can see that they were heavy inspired by the look of the Swedish soldiers of the Great Northern War.

The fm/06 uniform evolved into the m/10, which was the official uniform until 1923 for the army and from the First World War until the Second for Landstormen (Home Guard).
But more about the m/10 at a later point.

Tunic fm/06

How to convert from m/23 to fm/06: Cut of the epaulettes.

Painting guide, part 5: NCO 1910-1936

And here is part 5 of the painting guide, the NCO's. They were equipped identical to the privates, except for the insignia on their hats.

A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict

A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict (En Lagom Svensk Konflikt) is our campaign setting. The idea is that civil war broke out in 1931 between White and Red forces. It is of course inspired by VBCW and the Spanish Civil War, with a hint of Russian and Finnish civil wars in it.

As I am concentrating on the regular army I made a map of what the regiments in Svealand and parts of Östergötland are up to.

The regiments in Falun, Gävle and Örebro have joined the Red uprising, while those in Stockholm, Uppsala, Strängnäs, Linköping, Karlsborg and Skövde stay loyal to the government. The region of Bergslagen, which is controlled by the red faction, is very important for both sides because of the industrial production.

 

Bergslagen is sparsely populated and most part of it is a large single forest, but in the small communities along the waterways there are a lot of iron mines, ironworks and other factories. Karlskoga is also the main center for weapon production in Sweden.

Landstormen - The Home Guard

In the end of the 19th century Landstormen (the Home Guard) was created as a local defense force. From the beginning all males in the age group 27 to 32 years old was part of it, but in 1914 the upper limit was raised to 42 years of age.

When World War One started the Landstorm was mobilized to guard the borders and coasts. Until this time the uniform was civilian clothes with a tricorn hat (just like the one in the army) and a armband. But now it was obvious that it was not enough so during the war the Landstorm was also equipped with the grey m/10 uniform. The m/10 uniform was used until 1939 when they got the new m/39 uniform.

Later they also got the m/21 helmet and the m/26 hat. The hat was identical to the army's m/23 hat, except that their's was grey.

The Home Guard mostly used the army’s m/96 rifle, but also the older m/67 rifle.

Landstormen was badly organized and trained. Except for five days, training was largely voluntary.

Here is some pictures of the Home Guard in 1914.

 

The first battle involving the Sweding Interwar range

Have you seen the battle report on Dalaupprorets blog? He had done a marvelous scenario and prepared a very nice table for our club night. I was very impressed!
http://www.dalauppror.blogspot.se/2013/06/a-very-moderate-swedish-conflict-aar1.html

Here you can watch the soldiers advancing from the cows' perspective. (Click on the picture for a large view)

Painting guide, part 4: Private 1890-1910

Here is the fourth part of the painting guide series. This time it is the m/ä (model older) uniform. The figures are not supposed to be used for this uniform, but since it looks so close and it was still in use during the 30s I will show it.
There are some small differences, to make the jacket you have to remove the four pockets on the m/23 uniform.
You can find part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here.

Painting guide, part 3: Private 1910-1923

Here is the third part of the painting guides. It is a riflemen for the years 1910-1923, or he could be a Home Guard from 1914-1940. The tricorn hat m/10 is more correct than the older m/ä hat, especially for the Home Guard. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

Today's game

Today we will play our first game with the Swedish range. I will provide the figures and Dala the scenario. It look like it will be mighty fun, take a looks for yourself:
http://www.dalauppror.blogspot.se/2013/06/1930s-filling-station-nafta.html

I have had a busy week with family and work related stuff, but I hope I will up-date the blog with a new painting guide (soldier 1910-1923) tomorrow.

A new cavalry book

The other day I was at the army museum here in Stockholm looking for books. Then I found this one, which is totally new!

As the title suggests it is about uniforms in the Swedish cavalry; to be exact from the 17th century until the early 20th. The text is both in English and Swedish. There is a lot of pictures, but it is only original drawings from the same time as the uniforms. Some of the pictures are good, many not.

But it is still a very good source book because it covers very much and it is very cheap (150kr).

This is just part one, part two will be about the infantry and book three about artillery and more modern uniforms (m/10 and younger).

Aaron Brown: Our sculptor

I thought it would be time to say a few words about our sculptor; it is after all no secret that he made our miniatures.

It is Aaron Brown of Black Crab Sculpting who has done all (15!) our miniatures. He is a nice bloke and very, very professional. Since he lives in New Zealand,  I never met him in real life, just talked to him on mail. He is always very friendly and comes with good solutions to my problems. And he is of course also a very talented sculptor!

He has also sculpted ww1 Belgians for Brigade Models and Quar for Zombiesmith.

But he has sculpted much more than just 28mm, take a look at his 1/10th busts on his web page: http://www.blackcrabsculpting.com/, they are breathe-taking beautiful.

As he is a New Zealander he is of course also carving in jade, you can see sime of his stuff here: http://www.acarvedpiece.com/. I'm not surprised at all; when I was backpacking over there everyone seems to do that. :-)

And he is also working in bronze, mainly horses,  if I understand this link correct: http://www.aaronbrownsculpture.com/. Take a look at them, they are truly beautiful, he has breath life into them.

Do you still want to know more about Aaron? Then you should read his own presentation here: http://www.aaronbrownsculpture.com/about.html and here http://www.acarvedpiece.com/about.htm