"Cold War French uniform/camo in 1980-1990?" Topic

Hi to all!

Could someone please help me with uniform for French Army during last decade of Clod War ( 1980-1990)? What do their uniforms and camouflage was looked like? Is it right that they were close to modern French with Famas and wearing Tap47 or Khaki F2 camo?

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White?

2 GROSSMAN
White???

2 Werwilf
Thanx for link! Camopedia tells:

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Throughout the period ranging from the 1960s into the early 1990s, French military forces, like many of her European counterparts, were officially clad in plain olive green. Periods of development by private companies, particularly in the early 1980s, led to a handful of experimental patterns such as those produced by Texunion in 1981 and 1983, but it was not until the events leading up to Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990-91 that the French government once again embraced the idea of clothing military personnel in camouflage uniforms. Since the early 1990s, French forces have retained camouflage clothing as their standard operational uniform.
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So Cold War France like Germany used non camouflaged uniforms? And for pre 1990 French Army I need to use modern French figs but paint them in olive green? Does anyone have ANY photos of FAMAS armed French soldiers of that era???

Yes, they were still wearing olive green in the 1980s, including plain olive green helmet covers, and were still deploying to the Gulf dressed in plain olive green.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Now I am wandering what paint is better for french Olive Green :)

No worries.

Re uniform colour: It always looks quite a more rich shade of green than West German olive-grey uniforms of the period or the similarly green-grey uniforms worn by the Canadians. US Vietnam-era olive green uniforms look to be a reasonably good match.

Oops. I've just noticed that the soldier above holding the APILAS LAW is actually wearing an NBC suit rather than a tunic under his body-armour, so don't use that photo as an indicator.

I found!!!!!!!

OK, what about their bullet proof vest? Should it be same colour as uniform or as ammunition?

To be honest, French webbing was a very close match to the uniform – a very slightly brown tinge to it, but not much difference.

You can see the standard-issue French body armour on that photo of the APILAS gunner above. It's got the slightly brownish tinge to it, so I'd say paint it to match the webbing.

I'm just about to start painting 1980s French in 15mm and plan to use Humbrol 155 (US Olive Drab) for webbing, helmets and body-armour, while using a slightly greener tone such as Humbrol 86 (Olive Green) for the uniforms. I usually give webbing and body armour a very light dry-brush with Ochre Humbrol 83 (Ochre) to pick out the details and give it that worn/dusty canvas look.

I should add that the plastic 'foliage' camouflage seems to have been mainly a paratrooper thing. Most non-Airborne types seem to have worn plain painted helmets or plain olive-drab cloth helmet-covers (same fabric as the uniform).

I see. I will make a test painting on one 15mm Peter Pig figure and show you the results. By the way, do you have any blogs or Internet gallery?

Was in green back then and I don't recall any body armour at all.
the pic with Apilas has to be much later.
Famas came in slowly mid 80s on.

Stuff could be old and quite faded; you can have different shades in same unit esp. if brand new F1 stuff and older ones.

Cheers Jcfrog, that's interesting to know.

The earliest photos I've seen of APILAS are in photos of Jeep-mounted recce guys from 11e Division Parachutistes in the big exercise of 1987.

No sign of body armour in any photos I've seen of 1980s French troops, but it is very common in photos of Division Daguet in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, circa 1991. However, the Peter Pig figures have it… :o)

Thanks for the info on FAMAS. Yes, wasn't it only produced from 1979 onwards? I've certainly seen lots of photos of troops armed with MAS from 1984 or thereabouts.

Mark – those are pretty much the exact colours that I use for my 1950s French! Can't find a decent photo of them though…..

I know that real french uniform was less greenier, but I wanted my 15mm French to have different uniform colour than West Germans

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