[Alt History] The light machine gun of the Nation, P.R. National Army

Hello!

Chauchat, the nation's light machine gun

    Following the withdrawal of the US from Puerto Rico in 1907 the new armed forces inherited some American guns with which the troops where armed, still as the years went on the Puerto Rican army became more and more outdated, at the outbreak of WWI it only had bolt action rifles and a handful of artillery pieces some of which dated to the late 1800's. By 1917 Puerto Rico's military was already starting to transform itself, the acquisition of new weapons had increased it's firepower this included the acquisition of a number of chauchat light machine guns. The decision to acquire these guns would lead to a lot of debate and contention, the trials by which they where submitted showed design flaws such as mud getting in the magazines and some troops injuring themselves with the back end of the LMG which earned the chauchat the nickname "La mula" or the mule. Nevertheless the National Army adopted it out of a need, the original chauchats where bought in 8mm lebel but where re chambered for the mauser cartridge locally, by 1920 the chauchat had also undergone a series of improvements, chief among it was the production of new magazines along with improvements on other areas that gave trouble.

The Chauchat would serve the Puerto Rican army and Navy until 1949 when they where replaced by the M1918 Browning Automatic rifle which would serve the nation's armed forces until 1963. As for the remaining chauchats, An unspecified number of them was sold, a handful of them remained in service with rear guard units  and those that were neither sold, destroyed or stayed in service where simply stored at Castillo San Luis in case the nation ever needed of them once again.








For now however stay safe out there and have fun doing stuff.

Nice, totally adds to the 'international' look of your army. Again, I like how they end up having to use outdated stuff. I can imagine the pilot flying an old American warplane from the Pacific theater in the early 50s, when the big players already fly around in jets.
Also, good to see the pavement in front of the historically important door.

Well, but I hope you change the belt buckle, though.

I know next to nothing about these guns, but with your modifications it looks sharp and functional, and I'm glad you had fun getting it there. The soldier and background are great, too, as usual.

That looks really cool. Fits in with your army and alt-history well.

Ovy wrote:Nice, totally adds to the 'international' look of your army. Again, I like how they end up having to use outdated stuff. I can imagine the pilot flying an old American warplane from the Pacific theater in the early 50s, when the big players already fly around in jets.
Also, good to see the pavement in front of the historically important door.

Well, but I hope you change the belt buckle, though.

Thanks Ovy, I decided to use old weapons for these guys cause it gave them a sort of "nostalgic" feel to them (unsure if that would be the right word), plus the idea that if something works why change it is something I wanted to portray in some way. There's pavement on the front, it's even made with a bit of a slope towards the gutter but I always forget and zoom in too much.

The buckle I'm changing it, I actually found the one that I was going to use.

GubernatorFan wrote:I know next to nothing about these guns, but with your modifications it looks sharp and functional, and I'm glad you had fun getting it there. The soldier and background are great, too, as usual.

Thanks Gubernator, the youtube channel forgotten weapons has one or two videos about the Chauchat, I think it's a very interesting lmg specially for the time period in which it was produced.

Stryker2011 wrote:That looks really cool. Fits in with your army and alt-history well.

Thanks Stryker, this was mostly a fun little extra, tho if I find the pieces I might be tempted to make another navy guy.

Poor fellow, being armed with one of the worst weapons ever built. From what I've read about the Chauchat, most US troops troops threw them away before firing as little as one full magazine. They should have gotten their LMG's from Germany, like the rest of their kit ;o) This brings me to the German Army belt buckle, which seems the only thing out of place on this figure and the one thing I would replace or perhaps file down if it were my figure.

This being said, my Non-nazi but terribly PSD'd post-apocalyptic character Erika von Stroheim wears her great grandfather's uniform with all its Nazi badges and decorations, though I did consider for a while, not putting them on the uniform and having new, orignal badges made by Patches of Pride.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:Poor fellow, being armed with one of the worst weapons ever built.  From what I've read about the Chauchat, most US troops troops threw them away before firing as little as one full magazine. They should have gotten their LMG's from Germany, like the rest of their kit ;o)   This brings me to the German Army belt buckle, which seems the only thing out of place on this figure and the one thing I would replace or perhaps file down if it were my figure.  

This being said, my Non-nazi but terribly PSD'd post-apocalyptic character Erika von Stroheim wears her great grandfather's uniform with all its Nazi badges and decorations, though I did consider for a while, not putting them on the uniform and having new, orignal badges made by Patches of Pride.  

Thanks ThePhotosBlog. I read some time ago that the chauchats given to US troops where specifically horrible, not only the common problems but an additional once since the US chauchats where not on 8mm Lebel so that also made the chauchat much worse. I believe the Belgians managed to get theirs to work more or less but they still replaced them.

I originally intended to use an MG08-15 But I'm still waiting on it, I might update him once I get it. As for the buckle I'll be changing it soon since I found the one I was going to use, this was a temporary solution.

Theboo-bomb wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:Poor fellow, being armed with one of the worst weapons ever built.  From what I've read about the Chauchat, most US troops troops threw them away before firing as little as one full magazine. They should have gotten their LMG's from Germany, like the rest of their kit ;o)   This brings me to the German Army belt buckle, which seems the only thing out of place on this figure and the one thing I would replace or perhaps file down if it were my figure.  

This being said, my Non-nazi but terribly PSD'd post-apocalyptic character Erika von Stroheim wears her great grandfather's uniform with all its Nazi badges and decorations, though I did consider for a while, not putting them on the uniform and having new, orignal badges made by Patches of Pride.  

Thanks ThePhotosBlog. I read some time ago that the chauchats given to US troops where specifically horrible, not only the common problems but an additional once since the US chauchats where not on 8mm Lebel so that also made the chauchat much worse. I believe the Belgians managed to get theirs to work more or less but they still replaced them.

I originally intended to use an MG08-15 But I'm still waiting on it, I might update him once I get it. As for the buckle I'll be changing it soon since I found the one I was going to use, this was a temporary solution.

The historical LMG that is dearest to my heart is the Bren, which when re chambered for 7.62mm served in the British Army until the mid 80's. A 7.92mm variant with a straight magazine was also manufactured in Canada for Chinese Nationalist troops during WWII, though I have never seen one in 1/6th scale.