French army for the Battle of France

[bluewillow]

Fabulous brushwork on those,

It is great you are honouring your Grandfather with a splendid project. Do you know where they were in the line?

 I also really enjoy painting French also, particulatly French tanks and armoured cars, the camouflage schemes are fabulous, all of them are 20mm.

Will you be adding a 25mm or 47mm anti tank gun?

Salut
Matt

[tancrede]

@Etranger :
Yes, "Le Fantasque" was painted with one of the weirdest camo scheme of all the time ! ^^
But for my own B1, I will stay more classical... 

@Bluewillow :
For the 41è RI (one of the oldest regiment in the french army as it was founded in 1634), it was part of the 19è Division d'Infanterie, part if the 6th french army.

To make it quick :
It was stationned in Alsace, then in the Somme in the middle of May 1940.
During the german attack, the 41è RI hold his positions during nearly 2 weeks from the 23 May until the 7 June.
After the order was received to fall back in order, the 19è DI begun to retreat to new positions but many troops were surrounded by the Germans and many surrender after firing all their munitions (and nearly 30 prisonners were killed by SS).
Then, the 41è RI retreat to the Oise, then the Marne river, then the Cher and finally in Cahors. 
The regiment was disbanded in Limoges in July.
(For a little history, the regiment was recreated in 1944 using members of french maquis in Brittany and took part of the fightings for Lorient and Saint-Nazaire in 1945. It was part of the french forces of occupation in Deutschland in 1945 and early 46. And the regiment is still active yet).



So as you can see, it will be difficult to know where my grandfather was in line and captured, but the french army has a huge archive, and I must make an official demand, and I have not do that yet.

For the AT guns, I will certainly add some, mainly 25mm as it was the standard dotation of an infantry regiment (even if the real dotation in AT guns was often very far below the theorical dotation).


@moiterei_1984 :
Thank you, sir, as I'm a real fan of your work, especially for the Spanish War and Early WW2.

[hallmarkFPS]

beautiful stuff!

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Absolutely superb, like others I love the cam schemes on the vehiclez but am really impressed with the infantry they look amazing, tres bein!!   

[FreakyFenton]

Amazing work! Chapeau!

[tancrede]

Thanks for comments, guys !

And for a happy new year, here is a little AT-gun for my french army :

[Shahbahraz]

Very nice indeed. I decided to do mine in some camouflage, but yours look superb. 

[tancrede]

Mine is plain green, same color as my sidecars, and it will be the same colors for other pieces of the army (Laffly on other transports, for exemple).
Inspiration pics came from the Hotchkiss 25mm in the Saumur museum :

[Shahbahraz]

That colour looks very dark, do you know if it is original? I based mine from colours on equipment at the Musée de l'Armée. But I was working largely from memory as it has been a few years since my last visit.

[Eoin OCnaimhsi]

Superb, really great.

The detail on the rifles is great.

I was planning to do a French force myself later this year. I was hoping there was a range available from some manufacturer that do Chauchat LMG's and Berthier rifles and carbines so I can convert gun crews and cavalry.

[tancrede]

That colour looks very dark, do you know if it is original? I based mine from colours on equipment at the Musée de l'Armée. But I was working largely from memory as it has been a few years since my last visit.

The AT guns looks very dark on each color pictures of actual models I've seen.
But the colors faded with the sun...

I was planning to do a French force myself later this year. I was hoping there was a range available from some manufacturer that do Chauchat LMG's and Berthier rifles and carbines so I can convert gun crews and cavalry.

For the Chauchat, I haven't seen any model yet.
Maybe 3D printing.

But for the Berthier rifle, I think the Warlord Games cavalrymen can do the job as thea have some carbine, and not the Lebel rifle.

[von Lucky]

Stunningly beautiful painting - well done.

[Ray Rivers]

Stunningly beautiful painting - well done.

I'll second that!

 

[Axebreaker]

Excellent looking force!

Christopher

[tancrede]

Hi guys !
Sorry for the lack of update on this topic, but I've been working on many projects for the last few months.

Here is the second infantry section, now finished :



And a little pic of my fully painted 750pts french army for the Battle of France :



Expect more to come soon, as I want to add a 75mm artillery, and some more "dragon portés".