WWII french to WWI french

[King Tiger]

What are the major significant differences between WWII French uniforms, weapons, equipment etc to WWI French?, I wanted to do a late war WWI French force and wondered if the warlord French would fit close enough to work at 28mm.

I know great war do early

[Plynkes]

Depend how fussy you are I suppose. The MAS rifle bears a passing resemblance to the Lebel in 28mm. I think many people would say they are close enough not to worry. It is one of the more plausible and least jarring examples of using proxy figures around, I feel.

The FM24/29 LMGs would have to go, though.

[King Tiger]

I think a little conversion work would be enough for them, the basic shape at that scale and using the 3 foot rule would hide most sins I would hope

[Plynkes]

Yes, I think a competent modeller could probably convert those LMGs into something that could pass for a Chauchat at a glance. Being all fingers and thumbs I wouldn't put myself in that category, however. 

[former user]

I took a quick glance , I couldn't see any MAS-36, only Berthiers mle34 rifles, so You are fine with that.
(MAS-36 would be carbine length, and the respective lebel carbines were adapted in 1935 only, so nothing for fussies  )
Yes the Chatellerault would have to go though, unless You interpret it as some BAR prototype they got hold of;
the 75mm has the wrong wheels; I am not sure about the mortar - it could be the actual one introduced during WW1

no need to worry about the uniforms at all, the sculpts are so ugly that probably noone would recognize any minute details  

and You could probably use the belgian chasseurs as chasseurs alpins.
and probably the regular belgians too
never mind the mauser carbines, the berthier rebarreled version had a wooden part on top too

[Plynkes]

I couldn't see any MAS-36, only Berthiers mle34 rifles

Ha, I was just going by the spiel on Warlord's website, which talks of MAS-36s. I have no idea what they are meant to be, point is they don't look too different from a Lebel.

[former user]

as I said, IMHO opinion the sculpts are very poor, but I think I can recognize the one-piece stock and the clip magazine for the 5-round clip underneath = Berthier rifle
But You are totally right, the box art clearly advertises Lebel rifle and MAS carbine....

[Plynkes]

Not talking about the box art (I didn't look at that) but about what they say on their website. The only rifle they mention in the text that accompanies the infantry pack is the MAS-36. Myself I am unfamiliar with French weapons of this era.

[former user]

  and I don't read homepages 
well, I did regurgitate a bit about the frenchies, true....

anyway, the miniatures are just fine
although I'd go for Crusader Miniatures, seriously - they are also tagged WW2, but they have mousquetons Berthier old style and are IMHO better sculpts.

I can't tell if they are combinable though, since I don't do Adrian helmets

[King Tiger]

For the lmg I think simply cutting off the top mag, and putting a simple U shape underneath around the hand would suffice, the basic shape at 28mm doesn't seem that far off, and I'm certainly sure nobody would care as they'll be too busy laughing at the guns performance.

The rifles I saw very little issue with, at 28mm, en masse, 3 feet away on a table a rifle looks like a rifle, so long as it vaguely resembles it and the rest of the equipment does that's fine (I also agree with the quality of allot of warlord sculpts, but these are readily available models, stocked by numerous places, so its easy to get quantities of them to do a platoon if I go ahead with it)

For artillery I'll just use great war, you'd probably only have 1-2 75mm guns, so its not much issue really I suppose.

In essence they appear to be a viable alternative for a casual gamer with no interest in button counting, the paintjob is the main distinguishing factor I think to looking like they are from WWI

Shame getting French tanks in the UK is a pain

And I had forgotten all about crusader, they do indeed have far superior sculpts, and since north star do them my store could probably get them, I will have to make considerations and have a chat.

[former user]

Indeed, ignore the button counting, the only thing You need to worry about are the LMG actually, if at all

I am pretty sure by 1918 some french used other types
"Consequently in September 1918, barely two months before the Armistice of November 11, the A.E.F. in France had already initiated the process of replacing the Chauchat with the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle"
and
"As early as November 6, 1918 the French Government had approached the United States for the purchase of 15,000 Browning Automatic Rifles."

says Wiki about it.... there must have been some trial issues....
so You only need to reposition the magazine from top to bottom or simply use Belgian LMG...

or You could just wait a little bit until Victrix releases the plastic ww1 french...
since You are not peculiar about the quality of the sculpts  

[King Tiger]

While victrix usually are excellent quality (especially later kits) the issue is their schedule, they still have half a dozen kits to release, 2 of which should of been done the end of last year, I don't see anything else like that coming till 2015, and that's an honest guess

[former user]

I can't guess the urgence of your project.
I can only say that I have a job and no kids and that I can manage to paint around 15-20 miniatures a month to a standard that I find satisfactory.
You can assert Your own speed by experience and the magnitude of Your project and decide whether it is worth waiting the 12 months or not....
I know that with the usual WW1 wargaming a lot of miniatures are usually involved and that it might be worth waiting....

[King Tiger]

Oh I can get about 30+ models a week done, my record so far was 52 in a day, it don't take long with my way of painting

[former user]

oh wow ...