"WW2 French infantry spray paint base colour?" Topic

Hi.My preferred method for painting a few hundred 15mm ww2 figures is to spray with a lighter shade of the main uniform colour then use a (usually) brown wash to create some shading. This also darkens the uniform hence the need to start with a lighter shade.

I'm looking for suggestions for a spray to use for early ww2 French uniforms. I'm thinking either a light olive khaki with a brown wash, or a light brown and use a green wash.

Anyone done similar or have any suggestions?

I think you need to go more towards olive green.

I wrote this guide to painting WW2 French for Crusader many years ago in 2010. I also have French Army 1940 by Andre Jouineu which is clearly greenish khaki as the main uniform colour.

PDF link

Olive Green for WWII , works for me.

I couldn't find a spray that I thought represented the French uniform well. Let is know what you end up with.

Will do. As with all of these things different sources give different takes on the colours. Some more green. Some more brown.

Finally lockdown has given me chance to start painting!
I ended up using a tin of FOW war paint Italian armour as a base colour. Then I am washing with Aggrax earthshade. This results in a very close match to the vallejo 879 green brown paint. If you wanted something slightly greener than green wash might work well.
Hopefully photo of french cavalry attached.
subheadingMark 1 

My observation of French WW2 uniforms is that they appear to have a bit more brown than is typical in an "Olive Green".

Among Vallejo colors I look more for "Khaki" (No. 70988) or "Khaki Grey" (No.70880).

I recently re-furbished some H&R French infantry figures that had been in my extras bin to create a company of Dragons Portees. These had been painted some 30 years ago using Poly-S "French Khaki", a color that was really rather green.

I am at a pretty small scale (6mm), and I'm afraid my photography skills are not quite up to showing details of the uniform color. But I much prefer the look I have achieved with Vallejo Khaki Grey.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

They look very nice. As wargamers we spend a lot of time trying to get the 'right's colours, when in reality we know that uniform colour varies dramatically. Different factories produced variations and then the fading of uniforms changed a lot. This is still an issue today. I have black uniform trousers that vary in colour dramatically…some have turned green, some grey and some blue.

This is my topic showing what I've painted so far. All the troops have been painted the same way but the lighting makes a difference as well as they appear different in some of the pics!!
TMP link