WWI French Adventure


  • When I saw the renders oh so long ago I knew I was going to be in for a few box sets of French. After much assembling I have painted one of many squads of infantry to battle my friend's Germans. 
    First squad completedMany more to go, but I'm happy with the first batch. 



  • That is a lovely shade of blue. How do you paint them?


  • I like the paintjob... verry good...


  • @Stilton Disco Thank you. I mix a blue and gray together to create the color I wanted.

    Then I wash them with a very watered down blue wash. 


  • Just got my box of French today. And I'm wondering if you ran across any fit issues? I needed to do a bit of surgery on the German MG08/15 figure and am just wondering on what to expect.


  • @Mike Higgins the only fit issues I had were with some of the arms, but I believe that was me  not following the numbers on the sprues! 😁


  • 😂 Understood!


  • Continuing along I've painted up two more squads of ten French soldiers. 
    I am liking how they are coming out so far. Being basic line troops they look a bit "alike" but they two options for the machine gun helps that out. 
    I essentially have 30 soldiers completed and I'll work on some platoon command soon. 


  • Look forward to what you come up with for a platoon command. Having just got mine yesterday and just a glance through the sprues it's nice to see the Chauchat options.


  • What did you do with the extra officers? 


  • Finished up some platoon command for the French. 

    I figure the classic hand up was the way to go with the first command section. 

    I try and paint ten models at a time so I had a second command stand on the paint desk as well. 

    I went with more of the point and tell other people what to do approach with this officer. I noticed later that I used the whistle hand on one of the officers entourage.  Maybe he is just too lazy to use the whistle himself? 😁

     


  • Excellent work! I notice you don't use their backpacks, this is the way I want to go also. Beautiful finish on the Chauchats. I didn't even notice a whistle hand. But my older eyes have some difficulty with the darker grey color of the figures. For me it's hard to see if I even have the arm shoulder connection smooth and correct, I usaully need to check them out with a magnifying glass for correct position (arm to shoulder) before I set them aside to let the glue dry. So pretty much my only gripe is I wish they would use a light grey plastic for their figures. 


  • @Mike Higgins thanks! I figure if they are going over the top the backpacks would weigh them down. 

    I agree the dark grey sprue can make it hard to see some of the detail at time! I was just looking for different hands to use to make some different poses.  😁 it really is a nice box set. 


  • Painted up some machine gun teams from another company. And then I saw the renders of the new French machine gun teams! I'm sure I'll buy those too. 😁

    Technically I did add a Wargames Atlantic model to the team. I figure it would be a good use of the many officers models.  Someone has to be directing all those bullets.  

    Using the officer model I did create a signals officer to forward observe and drop some artillery on my opponent. Added some binoculars to spot and a pistol to show that he means business. 


  • Keeping things moving along I painted up some Americans to go alongside my French. I know that they had a darker helmet but I came across one image where one guy used a baby blue helmet so I thought the entire squad should have them. It will blend in with their French soldier colleagues on the battlefield much better this way!


  • Beautiful work.  That's an army you can be proud of.  

    What rule set are you using for your games?


  • @JTam  my friends want to use the old warhammer historical rule set. I think it is called. "Over the Top?"


  • Well, that's another thing I didn't know I needed till now ;)

    Looks like a fun rule set.

    I picked up Warhammer Ancient Battles a few months ago just for s*** and giggles.  (Well actually because I was disappointed with the SPQR rules and I didn't know what do with the Gauls and Romans in the box set otherwise.)

     


  • More blue to overwhelm my opponent with. 
    This now makes 50 soldiers and two sets of 5 command for the platoon leaders. I figure with so many of them now painted I should take a picture of everything done so far:

    Soldiers in the bottom left are basecoated and ready for paint. Starting to see the end of the French paint log with about 35 models left to go!

     


  • I see you went in with no half measures!  Awesome.  Like the second "army" shot.


  • Could you do us a favor and post a close up shot of one the WGA French Infantry next to your FT17?  What scale is your FT17?  Thanks!

     

     


  • That army shot is brilliant!


  • @JTam  sure thing!  The tank is from Warlord Games so I'm assuming it is 1/57th scale. 


  • @Brendan O'Connor 

    Thanks Brother!

    The edged camo on the FT17 looks good.


  • @Brendan O'Connor 

    Looks like there might be another rule set you could try sometime in the future:

    https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/50203/ww1-rules-and-miniatures-box-set

    (Four posts down).


  • Got some more paint on the models.  This time an eight man trench cleaning team with gas masks and grenades. The only difference was the gas masks, but it really felt like I was painting a different unit type. Love the look of gas masks. 

    As of right now I only have 25 models left to paint for my WWI French.  Two box sets down essentially!


  • The new squad looks great.

    I think your producing the highest quality content on this forum. 

    Tremendously enjoying following the progress of your Army.  I got a little one running around and my painting/hobby type is hovering near zero.   Thanks for letting me live vicariously ;)


  • @JTam  thanks those are very kind words!

    I'm lucky that my kids are now old enough that I have regained hobby time, but I know exactly where you are coming from! It's hard being a parent to little ones and having enough energy for hobby time. Don't worry, before you know it you will be back at it again! 


  • @Brendan O'Connor 

    I'm not worried about it.  She'll only be this amazing age a few years.  I have the rest of my life to putz about with little plastic and metal men ;)


  • Back to some Americans helping out the French.  This brings me up to two squads of Hellraisers. Pretty happy with how these came out. 

    At this point I only have 15 models left to paint. I can see the end of the project!


  • Last squad of ten completed. I now have about 88 soldiers painted up and only a five man squad of infantry left to paint! 

    I can see the light at the end of this hobby tunnel. Until they produce those nice machine gun teams I saw sweet renders of awhile back!


  • @Brendan O'Connor 

    Straight up awesome.

    Looking forward to the group shot when your done (for now).

     

     


  • @Brendan O'Connor 

    Your friend who is putting together Germans, is he using the WGA plastics, or other miniatures?


  • @JTam  he has some older models from ten years ago. I believe the are from the Foundry.  I told him I'd play against him but I didn't want to build a large force with metal. Then WGA produced these really excellent French in plastic and I couldn't say no any longer! 

    I can't wait for the full army shot either!


  • Here it is, my final five French soldiers!

    I feel great completing about 80ish soldiers. The sculptor, Thieu Duong, really did a fantastic job on this set. The models took washes really well which made my paint style look better than what I can usually do. 

    I wanted on soldier to have the red pants and hat of the early war because it is such a great look. I decided maybe the officer is a bit esentric and wanted to maintain tradition on the field of battle.  

    I'll break out the game table at some point to do an army shoot to close out this project and paint thread. 


  • Great stuff


  • Here it is. My last post for this forum thread. Here is my complete WWI French army. 

    Thanks Wargames Atlantic for these great models. I look forward to coming back to this project when those plastic support weapons are finished!


  • Brilliant work!

     


  • Amazing work Brother.  The finished army looks spectacular.  Nice photography and scenery as well.  

    I'll miss your updates.  Hopefully WGA hurries up and releases the French machineguns soon ;)


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