French army for the Battle of France

[Ray Rivers]

That's a great looking group of minis! 

Well done!

[fred]

That infantry section is great, lovely painting on some very dynamic figures

[Captain Blood]

Excellent.
Much nicer than the usual Warlord Games WW2 figures. Less grotesque. More natural looking. I like them very much. Bravo.

[JArgo]

wonderful project - well done

[tancrede]

Hi guys.

No painting for today, but some WIP of the coming minis :

- 75mm, 3D printed from https://www.jjgprint3d.com/. Painting in progress, but still some work to do :


- chenillette Renault UE with 25mm AT gun (minis from Mad Bob Miniatures, stowage from Rubicon Models) :



- UNIC P107 with 75mm gun. Vehicle converted from Mad Bob Miniatures model (stowage from Warlord Games and Rubicon Models, plasticard), but the driver and the 75mm gun are 3D printed by JJG Print :




Some work to do, but it goes in the good direction ! 

[Belisarius]

You are building a fabulous little collection, I’m enjoying this thread .

[fred]

Cool stuff, the Renault UE are so dinky are not they! And the wheels on the 75mm are huge, you wonder if they looked at the old spoked wheels and said, make one like that but with rubber tyres.

[tancrede]

Yes, the wheels are really big, but many 75mm guns were modified in 1938 to have rubber tyres on metal wheels (first pic : open metal wheel with a solid rubber band, or second pic : plain metal wheel with inflatable tyre). So they can be towed by trucks without using undercarriage (third image, very bad pic, I know).

So this gun represent a 75mm model 1897, with a gun carriage in service after 1933, and plain metal wheels and inflatable tyres.

[tancrede]

I've done some painting last days :

- 75mm gun :


- Unic P107 with gun :


- Renault UE



And a little pic, with the boys in the woods ! ^^

[Hang Tuah]

The woodwork on those ammunition crates is amazing. What's your exact technique?

[tancrede]

For the ammunition crates, I use a simple technic :

- base in brown (here, some GW "steel legion drab", but you can use some other brown)
- wash with GW black wash
- once dry, the panels are painted with basing color
- then, with a good pencil, you paint some lines with a mix of the basing color and beige/white
- next step is to add some beige/white to the mix, and add more thin lines on the panels, on and aside the first lines
- final highlight with some beige/white and a few basing colors on the upper edges.
- last step is a wash of the whole crate using a brown ink.

Said like this, it may seems very difficult, but it isn't, as you don't have to work with precision on the wood grain, and it can be done very quickly.

[Hang Tuah]

Thank you very much for the detailed instructions. I assume any normal pencil will do, and that you would only need one for the lines whatever their widths? And is the brown ink differing from the GW wash?

The weather on those oil drums is also very well done.

And by the by, did the UEs ever sport camouflage?

[tancrede]

As long as your pencil is in a good shape, and you work carefully, I think it's ok.
For my work, I use 8413 Raphael pencils, size 1.

I said brown ink, as I use whatever I can grab on my desk : GW agrax earthshade, AP dark tone quickshade wash, AP brown ink, PA,...
You can use different tones of brown and wash to add more variety to your crates.

For the drums, it's the weathering is done by "sponging" dark brown on the drums, then sponging a mix of the basing color with white.
Final step is a large wash of Army Painter quickshade wash, in dark tone. You can leave large spots or streaks of it here and there, and it finally gives this impression.
 

For the Renault UE, I've never seen a camouflaged one in french service (as technically, the supply vehicles are plain green) but it doesn't means that they never received some camo, especially the brown/green camo from the Renault factories, just as this one (but is it an original camo scheme or was the vehicle repainted after...).


This one is a modified version for Indochina, but only a handful were built (and captured by japanese army, if I remember correctly) :



But those in german services were repainted as the other vehicles, first field grey then camo.

[Hang Tuah]

Thanks again, tancrede! Really appreciate the detailed answers. I was indeed wondering about the unarmed carriers, and have to admit to being somewhat disappointed that the camo isn't as colourful as they could have been!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Brilliant thread! Excellent brushwork.