It’s been a long time since I worked on Flames of War miniatures. To be honest, with the release of V4, my motivation has been lagging. This is mostly because many of the armies I was in the process of working on were not represented in the new books. That an excitement about other projects. However, while reorganizing my hobby storage room, I looked over a number of different things that have been sitting around “almost done”. One of these was a French Foreign Legion (FFL) company for Flames of War.
I had actually completed most of the conversions and painting quite some time ago and just needed to get to the basing (I am notoriously bad at getting models to this point and not getting back to them). So, I decided it was time to get off my rear and just complete the various models I have in this condition.
For this army, I used the Battlefront FFL Pioneer packs as the basis of the army. For some supporting models (crews and commanders, I picked up some old glory FFL packs. The Old Glory models are for a much earlier period, but I figured that as long as I kept the count down, they would be fine. For other models, I purchased the Battlefront FFL heads and converted a number of French Colonial Infantry models. I opted to leave a few models in Adrian helmet, to add to the variety. Since the available OOB also had colonial support, this worked out for those units also!
Th Paint job was based on a tan undercoat with all details painted on the figures. Once a base color was painted for all the details (and I glued them to their bases), I went back and just did a dip wash over all the figures. This proved too much for the white pants and hats, so I went back and hit those with a highlight to brighten them up. I did the same on most of the headgear for the other non Kepi Blanc figures.
For basing, I wanted something that would allow me to use them in French North Africa for the 42 campaign. I also wanted some flexibility for the the Maginot, Pacific Theater and even Italy. With that in mind, I opted for a very arid base that had some green on it to allow for the cross use. I decided that the Vallejo Desert Pumice would fit the bill. It also works well in filling in gaps (if you pile it one). Once that dried, I hit the bases with a Sepia wash and let that dry. A little drybrushing with Tamiya Dark Tan and some Iraqi Sand and that was done. I painted the edges with Dark Earth and applied some Scenic Express mixed green flock (which is a flock and static grass mix). Dull Coated all the models and everything was done.
I had a few green vehicles and guns and decided to just stick with Green for now, I I still have not decided what direction to go with vehicles (which are much farther back in the pipeline). For the scheme, I sprayed all the models with Testors Medium Green and then hit them with a heavy wash using the new Vallejo acrylic washes. In this case, I used the dark green tone. I like the effect this gives when painting 15mm tanks and will by trying it with a number of colors int he future. In this case just hit the models with some drybrushes and painted the details to get them finished. Good enough for these pieces!
Finally, I decided I wanted some French Air Support. I recently saw some old Axis and Allies pre-painted aircraft models and noted that they would scale very well for FOW. They are also very rugged and inexpensive, so fit very well for those looking for Aircraft options for FOW! I decided to go with the paint job they came with as a base. I did some work on the panel lines and cockpit glass. Went back and wet brushed the aircraft markings to make them pop a little more (they are a bit thin in tint, as they come). Hit the whole model with a Satin spray coating (I think this looks better than flat on aircraft) and stuck it on a FOW base, and done.
With all that, I now have a FFI infantry force that I can use for FOW!
- Mantueffel
Looks great! We need to head to the desert soon’