Now to start on some Frenchmen

On ongoing plans for the year ahead should see us putting on quite a few WWI games pitting my Germans against the French.

Myself and Dave now both have good sized forces for the Germans, but we were somewhat lacking in Frenchmen with James just having a slightly reinforced platoon. That changed at Salute when Dave and I each purchased a good sized force of French each from the Woodbine Design Company range from those spiffing fellows at Gripping Beast.

Since getting home last weekend I cleaned up all the figures and stuck on the separate heads, mainly Adrian helmets, but a smattering of kepis, bare heads and bandaged heads.

The figures were then stuck on to Renedra bases, 25mm for the rank and file and 30mm for the Officers and NCOs before being taken out to the garage for a coat of Halfords grey primer.

Looking for s suitable colour for my Horizon Blue I settled on a Bondi Blue from a Saga paint set that I had (that seems to since  have been discontinued). All the other colours used were from the Vallejo Model Colour range.

From the grey primer the models were given pretty much an entire coat of Bondi Blue. The helmets were then painted German Grey as were a few pairs of puttees, some puttees were painted Neutral Grey while to represent Chasseurs some trousers and puttees were painted Dark Prussian Blue.

Some water bottles and their straps were left Bondi Blue while some were done Stone Grey and some more German Camo Beige. Likewise, some haversacks were done in Beige Brown, some in Stone Grey and some in German Camo Beige.

The rifle butts were painted in Beige Brown while the rifle sling, belts and pouches were painted in Chocolate Brown.

The faces were done in Medium Fleshtone, some hair and mustaches in Black and some in Beige Brown. Finally the shoes and rifle fittings were painted in Black and the bayonets in Gunmetal Grey.

Once dried the figures were given a coat of Vallejo Sepia Wash and left to dry overnight.

Starting with the Bondi Blue, this was watered down to a very thin consistency and re-applied then a little Pale Grey was added and an high-light applied. I then went over the German Grey again then added a little Neutral Grey for a highlight. The Neutral Grey puttees were redone and again a little Pale Grey was added for a highlight.

The Stone Grey and German Camo Beige were re-applied and then a little Pale Sand added. The Beige Brown was again re-applied then a little Dark Sand added while the Chocolate Brown was highlighted by adding a bit of Beige Brown.

The Dark Prussian Blue was repainted then a small amount of Intense Blue added for an highlight.

Flesh was re-applied and a touch of Ivory added for a highlight. The Black boots and hair were highlighted with Black Grey while the weapon fittings were highlighted with a mix of Gunmetal Grey & Black. The bayonet was repainted Gunmetal Grey.

I don't know if I am entirely happy with the horizon blue, it seems paler than that James used and also seems to have a hint of lilac. However, checking some photographs online plus a few books I have, even though we have different shades we both seem to have a good match for some of the images.

I have run out of the barbed wire and will have to add some to the posts at a later date.

Here is the matrix of colours and highlights:

• Coats: basecoat: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue & Pale Grey
• Most trousers: basecoat: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue & Pale Grey
• Some trousers: basecoat: Dark Prussian Blue, first highlight: Dark Prussian Blue, second highlight: Dark Prussian Blue & Intense Blue
• Some puttees: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue and Pale Grey
• Some puttees: basecoat: Dark Prussian Blue, first highlight: Dark Prussian Blue, second highlight: Dark Prussian Blue & Intense Blue
• Some puttees: basecoat: Neutral Grey, first highlight: Neutral Grey, second highlight: Neutral Grey & Pale Grey
• Helmets: basecoat: German Grey, first highlight: German Grey, second highlight: German Grey & Neutral Grey
• Some water bottles: basecoat: Bondi Blue, first highlight: Bondi Blue, second highlight: Bondi Blue and Pale Grey
• Some water bottles: basecoat: Stone Grey, first highlight: Stone Grey, second highlight: Stone Grey and Pale Sand
• Some water bottles: basecoat: German Camo Beige, first highlight: German Camo Beige, second highlight: German Camo Beige and Pale Sand
• Some haversacks: basecoat: Beige Brown, first highlight: Beige Brown, second highlight: Beige Brown and Dark Sand
• Some haversacks: basecoat: Stone Grey, first highlight: Stone Grey, second highlight: Stone Grey and Pale Sand
• Some haversacks: basecoat: German Camo Beige, first highlight: German Camo Beige, second highlight: German Camo Beige and Pale Sand
• Rifle butts: basecoat: Beige Brown, first highlight: Beige Brown, second highlight: Beige Brown and Dark Sand
• Rifle slings, belts & pouches:  basecoat: Chocolate Brown, first highlight: Chocolate Brown, second highlight: Chocolate Brown and Beige Brown
• Flesh: basecoat: Medium Fleshtone, first highlight: Medium Fleshtone, second highlight: Medium Fleshtone and Ivory
• Some hair: basecoat: Beige Brown, first highlight: Beige Brown, second highlight: Beige Brown and Dark Sand
• Some hair: basecoat: Black, first highlight: Black Grey
• Shoes: basecoat: Black, first highlight: Black Grey
• Weapon fittings: basecoat: Black, first highlight: Gunmetal  Grey
• Bayonets: basecoat: Gunmetal  Grey, first highlight: Gunmetal  Grey