The Verdun Project: French Battalion Command (Part 2) and a New Blog Banner

I finished off the French battalion command and another section last week, so I thought it was time to post some photos of these. The command figures are from a couple of very nice Scarab Miniatures packs. Although a little chunkier than the Brigade Miniatures used for the Poilu, they actually fit very well together as these photos hopefully show.

The uniforms of higher commanders seems to have been the same Horizon Bleu shared by the troops in the field, so I used the same paint scheme for all of the figures (please see the late Great War French painting template on the Blog sidebar for more details).

I felt that the gas mask conversion has gone reasonably well, and I may do more of these in the future.

The Homme Soupe is a great addition to any range. Hopefully there’s a scenario we can think of to use this chap!

The battalion command group was a lot of fun to paint, and complements the one I have done for the British and the German forces.

I still want to try and produce a front line command group as these gentlemen are clearly not equipped for life in the front-line trenches! Standing close to the shell-damaged café, never to far from un croissant amandes and a fine cup of coffee seems somehow fitting considering their popular image in Paths of Glory, possibly sharing bon mots and illicit information with a war journalist from Le Bonnet Rouge…! (More of such intrigues in a later Blog Post, ladies and gentleman!) 

And finally, it’s time to change the Blog header to match this year’s French theme. I'e put some contenders below (one of which is very silly). Which do you prefer? Something plain, or something which is a little busier and with more going on? A border...or no border.  Alternatively, would you prefer something less “staged” from an actual game - troops attacking "The Anthill" perhaps? Please let me know – I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Here’s the contenders at the present time….the winner will be the banner until the end of the Verdun Project (which at the present rate is going to be sometime in the late Autumn).

I've put one of the banners up temporarily, although the colour seems to be slightly different - perhaps a Blogger gremlin.  I'll try and sort that out later today!