Hotchkiss H38/39 from S-Models

Thomas and I are doing our best to fill the gaps in our French and German forces for France 1940 and Chain of Command.

We checked what we had and made a list of what was really needed and that list wasn’t too long - essentially a handful of figures with special weapons.

When I rummaged around in the box of 1/72 scale WWII-stuff I found some unbuilt tanks that just really wanted to be built. So, as a warm-up to the French soldiers, I built and painted these H38-tanks. Really nice kits, you get two in a box and can make a choice between long and short guns and also open or closed commanders hatch.

I chose to have two opened hatches as I have two commanders from the Matchbox Char B1:s that will fit well, but they are not painted yet.

So here you have four tanks to my ever expanding French 1940-army.

French trucks and a van from Frontline

Working hard on removing the WWII-vehicle plastics/tin/resin mountain. I have around 20 British vehicles built and waiting for paints to arrive, and while waiting I assembled some Frontline 20mm resin vehicles, two civilian ones - C3 Lorry With Canvas Tilt and C4 Delivery Van – and two Polish (and they were recommended as French when I bought them a couple of years ago) – P10 Polski Fiat 508 Light Pick-Up Truck.

I need French trucks for future CoC or IABSM scenarios, so French they are…

The trucks and pick-ups were painted with Vallejo 975 Military Green and dry brushed with Vallejo 978 Dark Yellow. Tyres black. Decals from Aleran Miniatures France -40 series, French Transport.

They got a very light dusting of MIG PO39 Industrial City Dirt pigments.

The van was painted Citadel Foundation Necron Abyss and dry brushed with Vallejo 965 Prussian Blue. The signs are some posters I found on the web, and printed on a colour printer. It’s a liquor, of course…

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Welcome

- One A Day Tech with a brand new tech-blog with the same name.

- DeanM with WAB Corner on historical wargaming.

- Karitas with Excommunicate Traitoris – a wargaming and modelling blog. Lots of 40K and fantastic painting. Well worth a visit.

- Will Mays with Will’s Ramblings about miniature wargaming and photography. A very nice site.

- Lord Siwok with blog Brains and Guts! -you guessed it – zombies!

If any of you do have blogs I’ve missed, then put a link in the comments below and I’ll link to them.

Hotchkiss H35 in 20mm from Frontline

More resin models from Frontline, this time the French Hotchkiss H35.

The pieces was placed in water and machine-wash for about an hour, to get rid of the mould release.

Lots of bubbles and pits on the models, so quite a lot of preliminary work before I could start painting. Since I bought these I have seen that it is possible to buy these tanks in plastic, and I really think that would have been preferable, as the quality is somewhat lacking in these resin pieces. 

Colours used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted):

Base coat - 978 Dark Yellow

Green stripes – 894 Camouflage Olive Green

Borders – 980 Black Green

Exhaust – 302 Dark Rust

Tracks – Citadel Tin Bitz drybrushed with Citadel Chainmail

Washed with Citadel Devlan Mud overall and Citadel Black ink on springs.

Dusted with MIG pigments – P023 Black Smoke around the exhaust and P234 Rubble Dust and P029 Brick Dust overall.

Welcome follower InChigh74 with the blog 1914-45 – modelling and wargaming WWI and II. A really nice blog.

A farewell to Donald Featherstone, who has passed away.

FT-17 in 1/76 from Revell/Matchbox

I’m not sure I should call this a reinforcement to the French forces, but anyway, here it is: a FT-17 from Revell’s remake of the classic Matchbox set with a Char B1 bis and a FT-17 and a scenic piece.

An easy build giving a decent enough little tank.

When I had started painting it, I remembered that the Finnish army had some in the Winter War. It was disliked, and most of them were emplaced as bunkers… It would have been fun to paint one up as a Finn, but that will be in the future.

I’m not sure about the paints use, as my oldest son came and painted some Space Marines and in the resulting chaos among my paints I forgot what I used for this one.

Welcome Grigork with The Magalomaniac (Mwaha), en excellent blog about wargaming with lots of nice terrain. Recommended.

Also a big welcome to sgt.steiner with the blog Sgt.Steiner's Wargaming Blog about wargames, both board, miniature and PC. With a nom de guerre like that, how could you not like him!

Char B1 bis in 1/76 from Revell/Matchbox

My French forces just got a substantial reinforcement with these two brutes.

They come from Revell’s remake of the classic Matchbox set with a Char B1 bis and a FT-17 with a scenic piece. A good set with two very different tanks, one puny WWI tank, still in service in 1940, and one monster, one of the really feared French tanks.

No problems assembling the tanks, great fit and clear instructions. The tracks are soft plastic, and with hindsight I would have glues them in place and shortened the track length a bit. Now they are a bit too long, and don’t fit tight.

When it comes to painting French armour I had a feeling that everything goes, but also had a feeling that that was not the case. Some research into Char B1 bis camouflage found a very interesting French site, chars-francais.net, with a lot of info on French tanks. The page on Char B1 camouflage gave some very helpful colour plates, and I based my tanks on one of those plates.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Dark Green: 979 German Camouflage Dark Green drybrushed with 850 Medium Olive

Brown: 984 Flat Brown drybrushed with 818 Red Leather

Exhaust: Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust

Tracks: Gunmetal washed with black and Citadel Devlan Mud

Grille: washed with black.

Decals from Aleran Miniatures, France -40 set for H39 and H35 tanks.

Everything got a couple of coats of matte varnish, and a light dusting of MIG P234 Rubble Dust pigment.

Ready for action.

Welcome follower tomw with his brand new blog Hapless Plastic, about everything modelling in plastic. Well worth a look and it certainly looks promising.

French 1/72 WWII infantry from Pegasus, Caesar and Battlefield Miniatures

The painting table has been terribly neglected lately, but at last something is finished.

This batch is some French WWII gun-crew, big men (for IABSM) and soldiers.

Paints used (mainly Vallejo):

Uniform: 873 US Field Drab (seem to be the best, will continue using that) or 879 Green Brown (the lighter tone)

Helmet: 888 Olive Grey

Belts: Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Boots: 871 Leather Brown

Equipment (backpack etc): 914 Green Ochre

Everything washed with Citadel Devlan Mud

Level 3 Big Man from Pegasus

Level 2 Big Man from Caesar

Two soldiers from Pegasus

Three crew from Battlefield Miniatures manning a 25 mm anti-tank gun from Hinchcliffe.

Somua S-35 in 20mm by Frontline

Two resin Somua S-35 tanks by Frontline ready for the France 1940 front. I painted one of them a couple of years ago, and the other in the same colour-scheme just now.

The models are in two pieces, hull and turret, and very basic. The running gear especially is rather vague on the details. On the plus side – they are rather cheap.

Painting French tanks are always fun, as everything goes. I have some French magazines with lots of photos and also some assorted books on French armour as inspiration.

Colours used (Vallejo)

Base – Tan Yellow 912

Camo – Yellow Olive 892

Camo – Beige Brown 875

Lines – Burnt Umber 941

Tracks – Gunmetal metal

Wash with Citadel Devlan Mud

Pigments

Decals from Aleran Miniatures, the France 1940 set FR-2 (for H35 and H39).

French Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank gun from Hinchcliffe

French 25mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun
This one is from Hinchcliffe too, just like the artillery, but much higher quality. Recommended.

I painted it with Vallejo 975 Military Green, dry-brushed with a lighter green and topped off with some pigments.

Here we have another of these guns I finished last year. The crew is a mix, three men from Battlefield Miniatures (lovely models!), one (in the back to the left) is from Caesar’s French infantry, and one, not seen in this picture, is a modified Airfix WWI French infantry-man that originally releases a pigeon.

French 75mm artillery from Hinchcliffe

This years goal is to finish as much as possible from the tin- and plastics-mountain, and as a part of that I checked the box of 20mm WWII-tin.
I found a couple of bags with guns, wining for paint.

French 75mm Canon de 75 modèle 1897

I found two bags from Skytrex/Hinchcliffe, bought for £5 apiece.
They were made of quite a lot of tin… meaning a lot more than was necessary. Terrible cast.

After some cleaning the result was decent.
French equipment was painted in a variety of possible and impossible ways, and I tried to get a militaristic look different from British and German equipment.
I painted the guns with Vallejo 887 Brown Violet, and dry-brushed with 886 Green Grey. As dust I used Vallejo pigment Dark Yellow Ochre, and soot at muzzle was MIG Black smoke.

I’m pleased with the result, especially considering what I started with.

More guns to come.