The Verdun Project: French Battalion Command (Part 1)

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? June and early July were pretty frantic for me with work, and I didn’t manage to blog anything and notably failed to keep track of everyone else’s fantastic blogs – so many, many apologies for that. It happens, occasionally, although this year has been particularly challenging in finding spare time to hobby in.

But, as all-round wargaming champion blogger and top bloke, Mike Whittaker, would say, “Never get off the bus, Sidney”. So I’ve been trying to keep the sacred hobby fires burning by painting up another section of French late war infantry and some very fine French battalion and higher command figures from Scarab Miniatures.

What you see here is at about a 60 per cent stage, with a lot of work left to do on the uniforms, helmets and metallic. I also need to add a few extras to the groundwork of all the figures. Barbed wire, shell fragments…..that sort of stuff.

The Scarab Battalion Command is a particularly nice set. I’ve combined a set of senior officer figures with a set of communication figures. I particularly like the pigeon being launched by the grizzled Poilu with a fine moustache.

I also painted up a small, prone Chauchat team from Brigade Miniatures. These have been fun to do, not least because the moulded face of one of the figures was….well, kind of melted and indistinct. You know the kind of figure – the one you see out of the pack and you think, oh dear, scrap heap for you old chap. However, one of the useful things about the French M2 gas mask is that it’s very easy to sculpt onto a figure. Basically a leather bag with two glass eye disks.

Making a mask for a figure is therefore pretty easy. Simply file down any features left on the face, add a blob of grey- or green-stuff for the mask, smooth it down and then add two small circles of grey-stuff for the eye disks and you’re just about there. The result isn’t Paul Hicks standard, of course, but it should pass muster at the three feet observation distance from the surface of the wargames table.

Next post, I’ll try to feature the scale comparison between 28mm French late war figures. I’ve got Scarab, Old Glory, Woodbine, Forgotton & Glorious and Brigade Miniatures to compare, plus a couple of extras. So fingers crossed for next time!