15mm French Great War - 150e Regiment d'Infanterie

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I've decided to start a new army.  I never got into Flames of War before Team Yankee came along - it pioneered the fourth version of Flames of War rules which were greatly simplified.  Battlefront is now steadily going through all their ranges and updating and simplifying them to the same V4 standard.  This is great news for an addict like myself.

I've already done a Cold War Polish mechanised battalion, and in anticipation of the release of Flames of War: Great War, I thought I'd collect a French infantry force from the 150th Infantry Regiment.

Since I have a good six months before Great War is released, I have time to properly plan this army.  It's going to be a company-sized force (64 infantry bases), and I'm going to take the time to make it realistic and eye-catching.  Let's have some pictures, shall we?

One section (a quarter of a company) of Tirailleurs Senegalese (colonial infantry).  For extra realism I changed the organisation chart to include two NCO file closers, which you can see on the front of the section.  They have a lieutenant in command, out in front on his own.  Note the Flames of War scenic bases - expensive but which look gorgeous.  I did some research to ensure the correct ranks were included, and all the officers and senior NCOs are white.

 

A half section.  I came up with a system to distinguish between different units - this section all have blue strips on the back.  Clockwise from top left: two gold bars for corporal, plain for rifle, single white line for Chauchat gunners, white dot for rifle grenadiers.

 

Some homemade barbed wire markers.  These are made from lolly sticks with snapped matchsticks, and premade barbed wire strung along between them.

Two French tanks, a St. Chamond and a Schneider.

A Hotchkiss machine gun platoon.  These aren't colonial troops, so they're in the familiar horizon bleu uniform.

Can you spot the homemade sniper?

Support platoons

Trench mortar section

In typically obsessive fashion, I bought lots of casualty packs from Peter Pig.  I intend to have enough to mark all my casualties - only for aesthetic purposes.

HQ support sections - 37mm Puteaux guns, and flamethrowers behind them.

The markings for the artillery and machine gun platoons.

I'm particularly pleased with my artillery officer and map table on the left.

The company HQ.

Regimental aid post (for use as an objective marker).

I had a really fun time converting these.  The whole thing is made out of cocktail sticks and No More Nails.

A converted HQ with a general.

Some more 75mm guns - these ones have been converted to look like they're in static positions.

Again, all made out of matchsticks, cocktail sticks and No More Nails.

I really liked working on the objective markers.

Another objective marker, with some wounded scouts in a shell crater.  I recently varnished this which has slightly frosted the water, so I'll have to go back over that.

Wow!  I suppose I have done a fair bit on them after all.  That's one section and all the HQ and support - it leaves me with three more full sections (16 bases each) and all the tanks to paint.  I hope you enjoyed this little update, and I will post more when I've done another section.

Ed