From SylvainR: Tray 3 - French 1939-1940 - Tanks (60 points)

 This last tray for my early French WW2 army is full of "early" tanks.

First, there is a company of Renault FT-17. The French army still had over 2,000 of them in 1940, although many were stripped of their guns to arm the next generation of tanks, like the Renault R-35 that I will present in a few minutes. Furthermore, many allies, including Poland, had FT-17 in their inventory when Germany invaded. For this particular company, I opted for a generic coding, allowing platoons to be organized in groups of 3, 4 or 5, just to have some flexibility with early allies armies.

In books about tanks in French, authors like to describe the Renault FT-17 as a the first "modern tank" based on the fact that, contrarily to the British first tanks, it has its engine in the rear and most importantly, IT HAD A TURRET. Cough * big deal * cough. In my humble opinion, the French engineers might have been a little too confident in their "excellent" one-man turret as they used it with only minor modifications on all their pre-war designs. In the meantime, German created three-man turrets, giving to the commander of the tank a role a lot more useful than loading and aiming the main gun.

 

 

The camouflage is inspired by the surviving Renault FT-17 surviving at the Musée des Blindés in Saumur. In the picture above, the track marks are clearly visible. In retrospect, I should have put some dirt on the tracks, they seem a little too clean.

In the picture above, I put a needle beside the tank just to give an idea of the size of a Renault FT-17 at 1/300.

 

Next is a company of 10 Renault R-35 "the next generation", with the camouflage similar to the one sported by the FT-17. In fact, each manufacturer that produced tanks in French would created its own camouflage pattern based on colors prescribed by the French army. All these variations in historical camouflage patterns make painting early French tanks very fun.

 

A close up on 4 Renault R-35. There is lots of similarities in their design with the FT-17. In fact, they were designed only 18 years apart.

Another picture to give an idea of the size of a tank at 1/300 scale. Because I used too much wash on my staff cars two weeks ago, I might have been a little too shy on the wash this time. Oh well, at this scale it's not something people will notice right away. It looks like the tank is hovering. I should have pressed this little fellow a tad deeper into its track marks. Oh well...

With this last batch of French elements, I can now declare that my early French Early WW2 army is completed. 4 armies done out of 28. Yeah!  At the core of each army, there is an infantry battalion, with all the support needed. At this rate it will take me at least 8 years to re-base the armies I inherited. I guess it will keep me away from bars and casinos... Also you know what kind of submissions to expect from me in the next eight Challenges.

Here is a family picture with all the trays I have so far for my early French Army. Lots of trucks in there, which makes me very happy. Once everything is consolidated, I should have about 7 trays all together.

Points claimed:

30 vehicles at 2 points each = 60 points

Total = 60 points

This will also count towards the "Really Little Guys" duel.

Thanks for reading!

Great stuff here Sylvain! Tiny tanks are tiny - that's a fact, and brilliantly illustrated by your pics with other small stuff for scale. Completing an army in any scale is an achievement to celebrate, and your early-war French look superb. I really like the groundwork on these bases and the camo painting is great too. Sixty points added to your tally!

Dallas