I'm just about finished with painting up my second box of Tirailleurs depicting early war (France 1940) units.These are truly amazing miniatures, with so many possibilities for variation in poses and weapons. A real joy to assemble and paint. I opted for a mix of Lebel and Berthier rifles. Crusader 28mm figures match pretty well in size, so I am using these to fill in the gaps (Hotchkiss machine gun, mortar and anti-tank teams).
The kneeling figure with the VB mortar is is also Crusader.
Well done, a lot of french troops were from the colonies, also before 1940's disaster, after the bloodbath of WWI France was very short on manpower. These figures are well detailed, expecially in the mix of equipment that plagued french army, with the newer rifles mixed with the older models from the last war.
For opponents, I have two boxes of Warlord Games blitzkrieg Germans to paint. They're nicely sculpted, but somewhat smaller in size and limited with poses. Having just received a box of WA's Italian infantry, I may work on those instead. There were a few battles in 1940 along the border, after all.
These are really nice Don!
Those French black warriors are very nice.
If you make others, consider putting on a black NCO with a red chéchia, to break the uniformity a bit (and a white officier of "la Coloniale" - marine infantry ?).
In the French military tradition, we like to face Death "sur son 31" (well dressed) !