"15mm ww2 French" Topic

Hi, along with all the current projects I am working on, I have decided to start building a French army. It seems a good time as there seems to be a pretty good range of figures available.
For once I intend to build this force gradually and adopt a paint as I go attitude. This is partly driven by money issues!
I have spent many an hour perusing organisational lists of troops and manufacturers lists and have come up with a few items I have been unable to find.
1) French cavalry. On horses! Can't find any. Was thinking I might have to do some conversions. Any ideas?
2) Motorcyclist. Actually I see FOW do some, but couldn't find any others.
3) Citroen Kegresse P19 halftrack. Pretty sure no-one has done this in 15mm yet.

Apologies. just found this thread re the french cavalry TMP link although interested in other opinions, interest from manufacturers, Geoof? Martin?!!

The Forged in Battle Polish cavalry may also be suitable. They've appeared since that previous discussion. They're in greatcoats & Adrian helmets but I haven't seen any 'out of the box'.

Quality Castings had French M/C in their range. Don't know if they still do though.

Ah, interesting. I haven't found any info on the web on what uniforms the french cavalry actually wore. Looks like I'll have to splash out some cash on a book, unless anyone has the info to hand? If the uniform is very simlar to the Polish then I might well go with the true north polish, as the forged in battle ones, although good looking, all have the same pose. I suppose if teh uniforms are similar it would explain why noone has bothered bringing a pack out.

Also I see true north do some polish MC's…..not sure what helmet they are wearing. might be suitable.

Hmm, an interesting thought.

Yep. Gotta go with Polish WWII cavalry in Adrian helmets to sub as French WWII cavalry. I also recommend the True North Miniatures castings as well, for the fact that you get a variety of poses in their packs.

By the way, I never heard of the Forged in Battle range, but I'm looking at the website now, and the figures are NICE! You guys manufacturing these excellent ranges aren't making it easy for me and my wallet!

Geoff, a Citroën-Kégresse P19 halftrack would be nice. Please?

Just an aside to you interest in building a French force, Massin Editeur published a wonderful book on French soft skins entitled L'Automobile Sous L'Uniforme 1939-1940. I think it is really something special and well worth adding to your library if you can find it.

Outpost Wargaming also do Polish cavalry in French style Helmets in 15mm.

Ah. Bought a load of prussians from Outpost before. They were good. Hmm…another option. Never would have though of even looking at Polish lists. See TMP worth it's weight in lead!

Minifigs do WW1 cavalry in Adrian helmets with slung rifles very nice…

No-one makes the P19. QRF makes the P17 in artillery tractor and engineer variants though.

Battlefront dropped the ball with french halftracks. They had already done the scupting for the track units for their 21st Pz range so it shouldn't have been hard to do the original french versions that were the most common artillery tractors. Instead their FOW list claims trucks were commonly used to tow guns.

You won't get a decent range of softskins from Battlefront because there's no money to be made in making them, you are lucky to get the 21st Panzer French SPW's in my opinion.
If you want a full range of obscure softskin vehicles you need to look at 20mm or 10mm or hope one of the smaller companies starts making them.

henk.fox3000.com/alby.htm

pithead-miniatures.tk (3 versions of the P17)

You won't get a decent range of softskins from Battlefront because there's no money to be made in making them

While not everything, we do have quite a selection though.

British: link
American: link
Soviet: link
French: link
Belgian: link

I have some of QRF's French, British and Japanese trucks and can vouch highly for them.

link

…is great looking.

Yes Geoff,.,,,and you want to add the P19 verison shown above to your list!;-)…hmmmmm while you're at it you could add the other version….

And the 25mm ATG portee version.

FiB's range are very nice. I started some early war French and Germans and bought them exclusively from FiB and I'm very impressed by their figures. The French tanks are very good quality and fit well with other ranges I have (QRF, Peter Pig and Battlefront) as do the infantry, who are in my opinion nicer quality than the BF figures.
I imagine if I ever get round to finishing them I'll just use BF for any odds and sods that I cant find anywhere else.

Wow. Came across this today while doing a search. Can't believe it's been seven years! To be fair they have been busy years and I have done other things! Still interested in building a WW2 French army,

Still need some P19s for transporting troops. Wonder if it's possible to get some printed with todays tech?

Hmmmmm..think i have found one…..Shapeways..never used it so no idea how good it will be. Also unsure how much it will be to get them to the uk so may be expensive!! The gut who has designed these has over 5 hundred 1:100 designs…..loads of stuff i've not even heard of!!
link

I've bought from Jarfir – good quality and service. Shapeways is very good for finding obscure stuff (though the Search function could be better) but inevitably expensive