"My 15mm WW2 French Army" Topic

At Christmas I treated myself to a load of French WW2 troops. The majority are Skytrex and QRF (due to value for mone and the rest are Peter Pig and FOW to fill in some gaps.

I am lucky enough to be working at home during lockdown (along with the better half and the kids), so I am using some of the time gained to start painting.

I thought I'd bore you all (maybe inspire a little) and keep myself motivated by updating you with my progress.

Before I started I looked at what troops I would actually need for the scenarios I was going to do….rather than just buy a load. This saved me money as I didn't buy tanks for only one scenario or buy too many infantry, This will also save painting time!

I then spent some time collecting references and paints for painting.
Then after some modelling (including a lot of head swaps for the motorcyclists) and assembly everything had a spray of basecoat and I was ready to start painting :)

So far I have painted the cavalry..still need flags though and the artillery, anti-tank guns and the AA guns.
I'm planning on getting anything with people done first i.e. all the repetitive stuff , before I get onto the tank..the fun?) bit.

Oh….list of what I'm painting.
Troop type units figures
Infantry Co. 9 108
Motor Infantry 4 48
MG Co. 4 48 + 12 mg
Cavalry 4 48
Motorbik unit 4 72figs + 24bikes combos
81mm mortar 4 4 mortars
75mm Art 8 8 guns
25mm AT 4 4 guns
47mm AT 4 4 guns
20mm AA 4 4 guns
Renault FT (MG) 3 Already got
RenaultR35/R39/R40 12
Hotchkiss H35/H38/H39 6
Somua S35 6
Char B1 & B1 BIS 6
Portee Laffly T15 TCC 47mm 2
AMR 33/35 6
AMD Panhard 1784 4

The cavalry…on bases but not flocked etc…..I will leave that till all painted as it's my least favourite bit!

The artillery, anti-tank guns and AA guns (I painted two extra of each type anti tank gun to save wasting the ones in the pack!
I've also only got 6 artillery pieces…instead of 8…but I only need 8 for one scenario so I will probably just use some ww1 ones!

I am doing the exact same thing as you. I am working towards an Infantry Division for Blitzkrieg Commander although only one infantry regiment rather than three and the artillery reduced proportionally. Infantry are Skytrex and cavalry are Forged in Battle Poles.

I cannot imagine what game you have in mind with all that anti-tank artillery but they look great.

If you can understand French there are some great French sources available.

Good luck and keep us posted with progress.

Regards

That is indeed some very fine work!

I'm using the 'Blitzkreig in the west' scenarios adapted for our club wargame rules. The anti-tank won't all be on the table at the same time usually!
The Skytrex figures were a steal compared to the price of others. I did like those Forged in Battle ones but we t with the outpost miniatures poles instead.
My french is ropey but I did pick up a couple of French books at the PAW show this year…worth it just for the pictures :)

A nice looking army.

Thanks. The camera on my phone picks up details I cant see with my eyes so didn't paint! I'm not going for super quality painting just quick and easy ready for gaming…hopefully!

Building a early war French myself, using the FoW 4th ed. rules and the earlier Blitzkrieg source book. I wanted to do some blue-ish coats and helmets, but like your uniforms too. Could you tell me what colors you used?

Yes…the colour of the uniform,as always, is up for debate. In essence I went with the faded green-brown uniform choice.
For speed and ease I like to find a base colours of paint that is lighter than the end result. I use a spray can for this I then apply a wash to shade it and pick out the detail.
You can do this with different shades, black, brown, green, blue etc. For example I've shaded grey primer with a blue shade to make a nice blue grey uniform before.

For this I used a can of FOW war paint Italian armour and then washed it with the games workshop/citadel Aggrax earthshade wash. The end result is very similar to the vallejo 879 green brown.
For the other colours I have pretty much gone with the Vallejo ones in the FOW painting guide. I have used lighter colour flesh and a brown so that it darkens when I shade it.
The guns have a black wash rather than a brown one..to me it looks more 'oily/mechanical'.

Her is a link to the FOW painting guide in case it's not in your book.

link

Managed to knock out four units of Heavy Machine Guns and four 81mm mortars.

I am trying to be more productive and am going for speed rather than perfection. I have deliberately not bothered with painting the hair on each figure. I feel the helmet hide it so it's not seen when using the figures.
I have also not painted any chinstraps…..Without magnification my old eyes can't even see them!

PS. You might have noticed the guys feeding the ammo for the HMGs are doing a bad job. This is because they are fed from the left but the models are made to feed from the right. I chose to put the people on the correct side and imagine they are just passing the ammo up ready to feed in!

Have been busy but managed to finish off four units of dismounted motorcyclist. Peter Pig figures.
The next stage is 9 units of Infantry (108 figures). That should keep me busy for a while.

Great job! I very much enjoyed the pics of your developing French army. I just started painting one today from a pack of FOW figures I found in my hobby store. They lacked LMGs and support so I have ordered some from Peter Pig. Hope they fit in Ok. Can I ask who makes those attractive AT guns?

Thanks. I always wonder if anyone is reading when posting stuff. The 25mm AT guns are peter pig. The 47mm AT guns and the 75mm artillery are skytrex.

Thanks. Looking forward to watching your army develop. BTW this post has nearly 500 hits so people are stopping by to look.

Nine units of infantry knocked out :) Mainly skytrex,,,very nice sculpts and so cheap in comparison to some other makes.

So 'all' I have left to do is to handful of tanks and other vehicles……… :) oh and then an awful lot of basing.

Nice looking minis. That's a lot of vehicles to paint! BTW I just noticed the very useful painting guide link you posted. I've only just finished my first platoon and it appears it's uniform colours are wrong! Never mind I'll use them as reserves. :)

Well these motorcycle troops took a while. They are a mixture of troops using a whole mix of odds and sods of motorbikes, riders and odd seated figures etc. A lot of the pillion passengers are outpost wargames polish cavalry.

All the figures have had head swaps using the peter pig motorised infantry heads.
Some of my modelling is far from perfect but it's nice to get the four units all done.

C`est magnifique mon petit filous !

Hi … great post …thinking of starting a similar project .Can you confirm the manufacturer's of your vehicles ..and guns …you mentioned QRF based on cost …but I have found them to be of variable quality compared to Peter Pig and Battlefront ..
Also could you advise a source for infantry and armour platoon / company organisations.

Cheers

LOSH

Hi Madlini1966. Bit of a mixture of manufacturers. The first I bought was a ebay lot which turned out to be some really old Peter pig models and a few QRF. I the looked at the tanks I wanted and looked at quality and price. If money was no object I'd

Regarding organisation of troops I would recommend the Bitzkreig in the West series, however, not sure if I can mention them at the moment with all the drama around that company and this site.

Tanks finally painted! Just a few other vehicles to do now.

They look good …..are any of the Somuas by QRF.
Was wondering how they compare in size to the Peter Pig ones.
Cheers
Losh

No. The top somua is and old no longer made Peter pig one. The bottom one is the skytrex/old glory 15mm one.

Wow…can't believe it is July when I last posted!! Time flies. Anyway, I finished off the last French vehicles and have flocked the bases on the whole army. I've just knocked up some flags for the cavalry, so for now the French are done!! I have some British, Belgian and Dutch vehicles to do next :)
Below are the last few vehicles, a mixture of battlefront and QRF.
I ended up making a few 'decals' up myself….well they are just printed designs on paper…some 'number plates', towing symbols, and unit symbols as the range of decals available for the French leaves a lot to be desired!
So that's me done. Looking forward to getting these guys on the table once we start gaming again. Hope I might have inspired someone to get some French done :)

Tres bien faits.

Certainly looks to me that they'll teach the Boches a thing of two.

BTW, if you're looking for French uniforms, there was a comedy in the 1970's called "Mais ou est donc passee la 7eme companie?" There are clips on YouTube. The equipment is mixed (somehow, they end up with an M3 halftrack), but the uniforms were quite good.

Hi,

Badwargamer what manufacturer did you get the Cavalry from?

Edwin

Hi Edwin. They are polish cavalry by Outpost wargame services.

Beautiful, lots of work though. Did I miss it somewhere, I didn't see what scale these were? I wanna do some early war French, British, and German, and possibly some North African Italians and Brits. The figures looked really nice but I suspect from the brands you were ticking off that they are all only available in the UK.

Did I miss it somewhere, I didn't see what scale these were?

Given the title of this topic is "My 15mm WW2 French Army" and it is posted on the 15mm board I am going with 15mm
:)

Heck of a nice thread. You certainly have built out quite a nice force.

Thanks for posting all the details of your work, manufacturers, headswaps, etc… Although I am a 20mm guy, I find more and more I appreciate what some folks are doing with taking their 15mm WWII beyond just straight out of the box efforts.

Given the title of this topic is "My 15mm WW2 French Army" and it is posted on the 15mm board I am going with 15mm
:)

DUUUH!!! (slaps forehead with palm)
OK, I'll try again, are you using FoW rules as well? You seem to be referring to the FoW organizations

One other question, you have a pantload of motorcyclists, does anyone out there make bicyclists?

Hi. Only just seen the questions. Peter pig is available in the US I believe.
Brockhurst hobbies?? The skytrex models are sold as Old Glory in US I believe.
Cyclists are a missing item for many armies…I use some peter pig bicycles which I put next to a unit to indicate cyclist. Not ideal but will have to do!