From SylvainR: Tray 10 & 11 - French 1939-1940 - Armoured Vehicles (18 points)

 

Last week, I was away with my family for some winter sports (skating, cross country ski) in Waskesiu, Prince Albert National Park. In order to catch up this week, and keep pace with my "one tray a week" resolution, I present to you 2 trays of Blitzkrieg era French armoured vehicles.

 

1. My submission this week.

In truth, this week's submission brings me very little bang for my buck. Above, these are the models I painted. So let's get the points tally out of the way.

9x 6mm vehicles at 2 points each = 18 points

The rest of the vehicles were already painted and I simply created bases for them. But I would like to show them to you because I want to say a few words about a friend and a great painter.

 

2. Hommage to AndréD.

I already mentioned in previous posts that I am currently working on a huge collection of 6mm miniatures that was given to me. Since the 80s, my friend RobertR consciously "saved" other players' armies when they were not interested in the genre anymore. Among these players, there was AndréD, who I could only describe as a "genius micropainter". I don't know what techniques he used to paint some of his miniatures, but the result is just mind blowing. In this post, I want to pay hommage to AndréD's outstanding painting skills by showing some of his work.

For reconnaissance, here are 20x Panhard AMD-25 armoured cars, on "road pattern" bases.

Vehicles are numbered "1" to "20" and the turrets can turn.

Before AndréD painted the vehicles seen above, he drilled holes in the hull and turret, glued a plastic rod in the turret, pass it through the hull and then flattened the other end into a nice rounded knob. Thus, on all the models in this post, the turret can turn, except on those I painted. For my models, I just glue the turret.

A company of 10x Char B-1 bis. "bis" means it's the second model of "B-1". "Char" was the word used in French to designate tanks. The word "blindé" (literally meaning "armoured") is also used frequently.

Here is a close up on two of the Char B-1 bis. I am so impressed with the black line separating the two camouflage colors, the dust effect on the lower part of the hull and the paint chipping effect on some parts of the model. I would never dare do paint chipping effect at this scale.

Here is a company of 19x Somua S-35 tanks. 4x of them were painted by me, all the others by AndréD. Before the war, most French tanks were produced in batches in different, small to medium size, factories, and each factory would apply camouflage patterns as they see fit, thus explaining the wide variety of patterns available for French vehicles of the early period of WW2.

The vehicle in the background is my "attempt" at a 3 tone camouflage with black separation lines. For the models in the foreground, AndréD opted for a less common pattern with vertically parallel patches of colors separated by black lines, as seen on a surviving Somua S-35 kept at the Bovington Tank Museum. The roundels are not decals, they are free hand painted. How can they be so round?

Next in line is a company of 15x Hotchkiss H-39, a light tank designed as a successor to the renowned Renault FT-17.

AndréD used a simple but effective two tone camouflage pattern with perfectly measured weathering effect.

A company of 20x Hotchkiss H-35, 5x painted by me. The H-35 and H-39 are almost identical in their design, but the keen eye may notice a few subtle differences in the layout of the rear engine deck.

The H-35 in the background is mine, with a three tone pattern. The 2 vehicles in the foreground are AndréD's and use a two tone pattern. Note how the exact same colors he used on the H-35s and H-39s produce two visually different looks.

In the end, I like how the various camouflage patterns create a unique look for this batch of French vehicles. I will be able to field them on the tabletop battlefield as soon as I am done the German army of the early war.

 

3. Another game of 'O' Group.

Before I sign off, here is picture of a recent WW2 game using the 'O' Group rule system. The scenario pitted the Italians against the Greek forces near the Albanian border during the opening stages of the Invasion of Greece, in October 1940.

The Greeks (Curt and Jeremy), on the left side, were trying to hold their ground in the valley of Kalpiki. The Italians (Peter and Stacy), coming from the right, were able to capture the bridge and control one of the important crossroads..

We had a good game, and the end result was "plausible", although very few troops "died". There was an Italian platoon on the hill, in the open (lower right corner ) that was showered with bullets for many turns but kept on rallying. The rally procedure makes it very hard to kill troops or make them retreat. And we are still spending too much time browsing the rule book. We will see what the next game brings.

Thanks for reading!

Nice work on your own micro tanks here Sylvain but I am amazed by what your friend Andre achieved.  I keep away from 28mm tanks to avoid dealing with rivet details, came patterns and paint chipping effects.  I can't imagine doing it in 6mm.  Your basing is wonderful and does Andre's work justice.

I quite enjoyed the game on Friday night, other than everyone else whinging about not being to find things that I found easily using the Index!  Funny thing for me is that I love WW2 histories written at the battalion or higher levels, but find games at those levels rather dry and flavourless. Plus my eyes are too old for micro armour.