From FrederickC - Opening Salvo - A Platoon of Poilus (170 points)

On ne passe pas!

Completing this first project for AHPC XV took a bit longer than planned. Family holiday obligations had priority over painting. But now that the seasonal celebrations are nearly done, I hope this will be the start of a rolling barrage. 

First up for this year's painting challenge is a platoon of 34 Wargames Atlantic French Infantry of the period 1916 onward. It continues my love-hate relationship with multipart plastic miniatures. The box contains five identical sprues of seven figures each, with lots of arm and head options. In fact you get a choice of five different sets of heads. There are also additional sprues with sets of equipment and weapons to make the figures into early WW2 French infantry. On the down side is that each sprue has an officer figure, so five in total. Plus all the little pieces are very fiddly. 

I decided to assemble my platoon using the set of heads with Adrian helmets not wearing gas masks. I intend to use one of the officer figures with my WW2 French, and gave him a fancy kepi. (He will appear in a later post.) Of the remaining four officer figures, one was assembled as an officer with a pistol. I also gave him a map case left over from the Warlord Games Bolt Action Blitzkrieg German Infantry box. while the other three were converted into 'sergeants' by giving them a rifle and various pouches left over from the Warlord Games Winter Soviet Infantry box. Once everything was assembled I painted them following a useful video from Sonic Sledgehammer, with a few modifications.

 

A platoon of the 701st Infantry ready to attack 'The Anthill'.

 

Platoon Headquarters

First Section

Second Section

Third Section

Officer to Sergeant conversion

The points being claimed are as follows:

 

34 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 170 points

 

Thanks for stopping by.

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Very nice work on these poilus, Frederick, especially on the officer conversion. I've made good use of several of the Wargames Atlantic kits and find that, while the can be a bit fiddly, they are very good on the whole. Really, 20 years ago I could only dream that I could download multipart figures and print them off at home. It's a crazy world we live in. Anyway, nice to see you kick off your Challenge for this year. 

- Curt