Third French Empire, part 3

Well, I finally got off around to painting some of my miniatures. Probably I was motivated by a combination of factors, one of which was purchasing a few new pots of paint from a local toy shop. Since I always confuse Mr Toys with Toys R Us, I'm not sure which one it was. Anyway because Subcommander Amelia's dance classes are nearby I get to drop in to the shop every weekend, and recently (3 weeks ago) I started bringing a few dollars with me and buying a pot or two each weekend.
The paints are Tamiya acrylics which a bit of research online indicated were designed for airbrushes. For normal brushwork it was suggested that they be thinned with an acrylic thinner due to their tendency to dry rather quickly.
So far I've picked up a X-21 Flat Base, XF-49 Khaki, XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-65 Field Grey, not a big collection, but enough to motivate me.

I've been talking about the Third French Empire a bit, so I thought I'd start with the Légion étrangère. I selected the Groupe de Combat that I'd previously tried out the new bases on.

I searched online for images of French soldiers to inspire me, and was tempted to try another camouflage scheme, something along the lines of this FELIN pattern:

I figured dark brown and olive drab overlaid on a khaki base would make a good approximation, so I started by painting the trousers and sleeves khaki. The plan was to paint the body armour an as yet unspecified monotone.
However after that suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to not paint a camouflage scheme. I wasn't really happy with the pattern I'd painted my Pnazergrenadiers and the thought of doing another camouflage scheme wasn't at all appealing. I know that on a modern battlefield the art of not being seen is one of, if not the most, important skill a soldier can master, and camouflage uniforms are a very important part of that. But the monotone uniform just speaks to me sometimes and tends to stand out a little better than cam.
I can always revisit this later after I've practised some more cam paint schemes, but right now I need some miniatures ready for battle.

Anyway, I thought the khaki looked alright and wanting to use the new paints, I decided on field grey for the armour and helmets. The latter was possibly influenced by a picture of a Legionnaire in 'Force on Force' (page 162) wearing what appeared to be a grey/green jump suit of some sort.

 This was is the first test figure

You! YES, YOU!! Get on that keyboard, NOW!

 Mmmm... I feel a bit exposed out here, like I'm not wearing full uniform.

White is the Tamiya X-21 Flat Base which is very greyish and watery in the pot, but when dry appears white and has a slightly powdery feel to it, no doubt this helps the paint actually stick to the model better. It does seem to work well.

 

Cpl. Le Clerc here "volunteered" to be first painted, I took multiple shots of him from different angles. After reviewing the images I discovered that I can get a much better view of my figures through the camera lens than I can through the magnifying lens I use to paint with. Handy to know.

 Ok.. Caporal... Give me a slow turn....

 That's it...

 Shake that thang!.....

 Uh... sorry.... won't happen again, Caporal.

At this stage I've got most of the basic colours on them.

 I used bright white for the kepi, Humbrol 67 (Tank Grey) for the weapons, with black for the foregrip, and again for the kepi brim and kepi? camera.

Black again for boots, belts, slings, vision gear and the face mask. Silver for the face mask visor.

 Witht he SAW I used black on the central ridged section of the weapon.

 on the GMS/P I used black on the sights and the side and top protrusions

 For flesh on the hands and the few visible faces I used Bisque with a coat of Skin Tone once it had dried.

After I applied some red to the optics gear, I hit them with a dark wash.

 Ah.. now I see,

Legionnaire Latrine, one of two ranga's in the Group

 Before hitting them with the wash I changed the gogles on the Kepi wearing Legionnaires to black rather than silver as modelled by Legionaire Tourette here, (the other ranga in 1 Group)

I thought the wash would make them a little shiny, but they have dried without much shine. The next thing to do is decorate the bases and then seal them with a matt finish, to protect the paint and also reduce the any shine.

I'm thinking of adding a French flag to the right sleeve. But I think I'd have to practice a bit before applying it to a finished model. Maybe Caporal LeClerc will "volunteer" again.

Five Alpha, out