French 1944 to 1945

As you may have seen from my earlier post I have been working on a French 1944-45 Late-war army for Flames Of War. I'm using the Battle Weary Rifle Company from Bulge American and some of the French specific command cards from the Bulge: American command card pack to field them.

The Rifle Platoons are from the OP French Tirailleurs Platoon that came out many years ago with the 3rd Ed Road To Rome compilation. I've used Winter American for most of the other units with some Early War French officers and a few head swaps for Adrian Helmets and Kepis.

I've just finished a third Rifle Platoon and have a M4A4 Tank Platoon and a M1A1 105mm howitzer battery lined up to paint next.

Crimean French Line Infantry Battalion progress

One of my projects I’ve been working on for the last few years is building up some forces for the Crimean War in 28mm. It hasn’t been fast, but it’s been fun. As you may have seen in my recent posts I’ve started working on some French and British to pit against the Russians I have collected so far. At the moment I’m working on my first French line infantry battalion. 

It has been an interesting process looking into the uniform details of the French uniforms. These went under a number of changes during the 1850s and 1860s. The result of this research is that in the three major wars in 1854-56, 1859, and 1870-71, French uniforms had undergone changes for each conflict. One area of uncertainty was the colour of the Capote (Greatcoat/overcoat), which often in artwork is depleted as quite blue, but often described as iron grey or bluish iron grey. By the 1860s the Capote was definitely more blue, but still lighter than the blue of the tunic or veste (shell jacket). But the greatcoats from the 1830s and 1840s seem to be depicted in grey. In the end I decided to go with a bluish Iron Grey. I used the following colours:

• Base: Vallejo model color 816 German WW2 Luftwaffe Blue
• Highlight 1 Vallejo Model Color 903 Intermediate Blue
• Highlight 2 Vallejo Model color 900 French Mirage Blue 

These are Great War Miniatures. I still have a bit left to do on them to get them finished.

A good source for this information, apart from image searches on the internet, is French Infantry of the Crimean War by Anthony L. Dawson.

Another factor in the Crimean War was the French shipped additional overcoats to the theatre which became known as the Crimẻennes. These were double breasted with a shoulder cape and hood and could be Iron Grey, Brown, Dark Grey-blue and Green.

I’ve actually brought some Perry ACW union troops in caped overcoats and shakos, which I’m going to convert to French.

Here are some photos of my Russians.

I’m also working on some of the Warlord plastic Russians at the moment. More on them soon. When I get a chance I will get a bunch of photos of all my completed Russians.

Chosen Men Napoleonic Skirmish Gaming

I’ve been slowly putting together a French force for Osprey's Chosen Men Napoleonic skirmish game. My force is based on French light troops, with a mix of Chasseurs and Voltigiers from a light battalion. Added to this I have some Hussars and a commander. The Hussar unit has three of their five painted and the commander is sitting on my desk waiting. So far I have just three units of five infantry completed. Two of Chasseurs, and one of Voltigiers.

These first three units are a mix of miniatures made up of some Perry plastics, as well as some Victrix Imperial Guard Grenadiers with spare Perry heads.

Crimean War French Zouaves

I’m also working on French units for my 28mm Crimean War project. This is my first battalion of Zouaves. I plan to do at least two more to make a full regiment. I’ll also do a unit of Turcos as well.

These miniatures are Perry Miniatures plastic ACW Zouaves. They are a pretty close match to the French originals, only the water bottles are the wrong shape. I added an extra officer from the Foundry Old West range on the command base (I think sculpted to supplement the Mexican Adventure range). The plastic officer is on the flank.

Wayne

A New Blog, the first post

My current website over at www.khanage.net.nz has moved hosts and frankly the cost and hassle of setting it all up again has made me decide to move to a blog. I can do most of the things I was doing on my website on a blog. So this is where I'll be. The above website is likely to disappear at some point, unless the people at crazy domains convince me otherwise.

The theme of the blog will be my wargames projects. I'll update it with posts as I have something new and interesting to post. I have a few things waiting for photographs and I'll post those once they are done.

What have I been up to? Well, here in Auckland we had another Covid-19 lockdown over September, so I couldn't go to work or do much else other than paint. I've painted some 28mm 1870 Bavarians, started some 28mm Crimean War French Line infantry, and some 15mm 1944-45 World War II French.

You also can see some of my Flames Of War and World War III: Team Yankee projects on https://bigfour.flamesofwar.com/