What's on your workbench?

[Willz the Wargamer]

A lovely looking selection of French.



Willz.

[Count Belisarius]

Very good.

Reminds me I must paint my Senegalese!

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Thanks. I think "Crusader Chin" could well become a thing.....

[Etranger]

Yes. I also splashed out on a four-can deal of rattle sprays from PSC, including British khaki for the French uniforms (sacrilege, I know - I believe that the French actually called it a different colour to avoid using the word "khaki"!). There'll be a British (51st Highland Division) platoon for the same period at some future date, so it won't go waste.

The rare colour photos that exist showing men from the two armies suggests that the colours are indistinguishable.

The original is a colour photo from Signal, which would have been Agfa film, but has faded.


Original from IWM - which actually looks to have a whole series of c1940 colour images, but which don't always appear in online searches. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item ... /205191612 and http://ww2colorfarbe.blogspot.com/searc ... %20Dunkirk


A nice view of scout carriers in the background!


British POWs after Dunkirk - the cut and details on the BD are distinctive, the colour less so. (And does anyone make a figure in BD with a knotted hankie on their head?)

[Shahbahraz]

Looking at the figure on the left in the first picture to me it looks like a greenish tinge in the uniform. As you say it's not at all dissimilar.

[levied troop]

That’s a very useful link Kerry, thanks.
I think I also want a figure swigging from a wine bottle while clutching a cup of tea!

[Shahbahraz]

Clutching a cup... contents unknown. I really wish there was a full range of BEF figures. The 1st Corps ones are a bit agricultural for my taste, and Warlord don't have enough variety for my liking. With all the other stuff in the paint queue, I suppose I can just wait till Empress or Offensive do a range.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

Thanks for the pics, Etranger!

Empress have said that they will, in time, extend their current late war British back to 1940. Eventually.

So perhaps for our children, or maybe our grandchildren......

[Shahbahraz]

Well, Empress do the 1930's British, plus the Late War ones, so there's a gap there it would be nice to see filled. As for children, not my problem

I would love to see the Perry's do a 'British Infantry' pack in plastic, with helmet, pack and respirator options to do 1939-45 (you could even do different SMLE varieties for purists) British in battledress. Useable for France 1940, Greece, Crete, North Africa, Siciliy, Italy and Normandy through to the Rhine.

Scruffy Brits in Greatcoats would also be nice. Norway, Rhine, Scheldt etc.

[RMD]

Trying to exactly match shades of khaki is a quick route to madness and they generally did come out of the factory quite green, but rapidly faded to brown when exposed to air and sunlight. Even in the 1980s/90s, with the benefit of late 20th Century dying technology, we would be issued with flying suits that came out of the packet a bright greyish-green, but within six months of exposure to the elements had faded to ginger-brown.