Monday 6 March 2017

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.

17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Very good kits. I should mention that there is also included some etched-brass stuff for super-detailing but I skipped that as I want robust kits for gaming

      Delete
  2. Excellent. I have one VB guy glued, will fix the other one ASAP.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice work. I can't understand the logic behind camouflage, then a huge blue `shoot here' marker on the side of the turret.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marker helps ID, preventing blue-on-blue in combat while being easy to cover up when the vehicle is stationary and hidden.

      Delete
    2. The most obvious example of that is the original big all-white cross on the German tanks in the Polish campaign. It worked so well as a aiming point that the Germans modified it to the filled cross seen in France and later.

      Delete
  4. Great looking camo on the tanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! It is somewhat grounded in real camo. French WWII camo really is a fascinating subject.

      Delete
  5. Nice work. The early war gear has a charm of its own. It appeals to me more than wall-to-wall Panthers and T34s cluttering up the battlefield.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely! That's why it's my favourite period of WWII + the tanks are so cute :-)

      Delete