My goal is to build two platoons worth to start, one mid war French and one mid war German. I intend to use these with the TFL ruleset "Through the Mud and the Blood" which I've been told works best with one to two platoons per side.
So here is the first French squad - a corporal, a chauchat gunner and his assistant, and 6 riflemen. The figures themselves are a joy to paint, with lots of character and great poses. I like the proportions, and I was pleasantly surprised with the strength of the metal, which makes the bayonets more durable than I had expected.
Eventually the platoon will sport one more squad similar to this one, a team of bombers, and one of rifle grenades.
Here in isolation are the corporal, the chauchat gunner and his assistant:
Here are just the riflemen, the backbone of the French army:
And here is a look at their backs to see the details of their gear. Honestly I probably didn't need to bother painting the backs, as I am confident they will never be shown to the enemy anyway.
Excellent work!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much J Jackman, they were a joy to paint, and there will be a lot more to go with them.
DeleteLooking forward to seeing your progress with this project...I've thought about doing the same thing myself in 15mm using the PP British and German figures.
ReplyDeleteOh, those are lovely! I'd like to do some WW1 French myself, and will refer back here when I do.
ReplyDeleteYou should definitely do it Barks, and post pictures!
Delete...and I have! I followed your paint scheme below, more or less. Thank you very much!
Deletehttp://wargamingwithbarks.blogspot.com/2019/01/15mm-ww1-french-infantry-and-support.html
Those look great. Can't wait to see the Germans. Doing some early WWI myself http://myblog-lekw.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks lekw, glad you like them. I should have the first Germans based up in about a week or so and ready to post photos. Great to see your own excellent looking WW1 project!
DeleteVery very nice painting and inspiring. I am starting my own project in a few weeks. Would you mind giving a run down of all the colors you have used?
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Braxen, I'm very glad if I could help inspire someone to their own project.
DeleteThe blue of the uniforms starts out as Polyscale/ Floquil British Azure Blue. I believe this is not still in production, but I bet there are close matches in other paint lines. It's a light sky blue, though a little less vibrant than that implies.
Next I give it a coat of dark blue wash from Citadel Colors. I forget the exact name but they only make one dark blue wash. Then I do a round of highlights with the original base color, and a second round of highlights adding a little white to that.
The khaki packs are painted with Reaper's Faded Khaki, and then given a wash of Citadel's Agrax Earthshade.
The helmets are painted a medium gray and then given a coat of the same dark blue wash the uniforms get.
The brown is a mixture of a couple colors, but basically I start with a light reddish brown and then give it a wash of Agrax Earthshade too.
Hope that helps, and I look forward to seeing pictures!
Hi - I've just stumbled across this while researching for my own 15mm WW1 army. I plan to base these on FoW bases for use in Great War - could you advise how they compare in size to Battlefront Models? Theirs are pretty much exactly 15mm from bottom of the base to eye level. Thanks very much in advance.
ReplyDeleteOh - and great blog by the way!
Hi Scipio,
DeleteI've been wondering myself about how the two lines compare, as I was thinking about mixing them - so this is helpful to me. I measured some of the French riflemen, and they were also pretty much exactly 15mm from the bottom of the base to the eyes. That sounds like a good match to me. My impression from looking at comparison shots of the two online is that the Battlefront models are slightly beefier, but not by that much. I think it will be a good fit.
However the Peter Pig Germans in helmets I believe are an earlier line, and are slightly smaller - more like 14mm to the eye. And there is some variation even within that line. For example the stormtroopers throwing grenades are a little smaller than the riflemen charging with bayonets. Just minor differences though.
I believe the pickelhaube models are more recent sculpts, and probably match the French models better.
Best of luck with the WWI project, and I hope you'll post some pictures. - James
Thanks for the information, I'm glad my measurements were useful. I have a few BF models I was given as a gift so I think I'll go ahead and mix the ranges. I'll be sure to update with pictures. Much appreciated!
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