Painting French WW2 Questions

[BurtWolf]

Just got my latest order from GHQ with a bunch of packs of French WW2 tanks, soft skins and infantry. Finally going to embark on May 1940 stuff!

Looking for advice on paint color specifics (I use Vallejo acrylics but will branch out…) on base colors as well as camo. Any help would be appreciated!

[Gazza]

Ammo by Mig do a set (A.MIG-7110 French Tank Colors).
which includes the following paints:
A.MIG-060 Pale Green
A.MIG-061 Warm Sand-Yellow
A.MIG-062 French Blue
A.MIG-063 Pale Grey
A.MIG-064 Earth Brown
A.MIG-065 Forest Green

They are acrylics that come in the same type of dropper bottles as Vallejo.

Here's the blurb:
'Acrylic water based paint set for painting French vehicles from 1916 to 1940. This set includes the six most common colors used by the French military with scale reduction effect which allows you to obtain the correct color on your models.'

Of course, you might want to lighten them further given the scale difference between 1/35th and 1/285th models.

<EDIT>
I forgot to mention that AK Interactive do a set for WW2 French Uniforms (AK11633 WWII FRENCH UNIFORM COLORS)
which includes the following paints:
AK11427 Green Uniform Base.
AK11436 Uniform Light (Canvas Tone).
AK11435 Field Drab.
AK11422 Ocher Khaki.
AK11111 Dark Brown Leather (Burnt Umber).
AK11120 Leather Scuffs (Mud Brown).

[BurtWolf]

Thanks Gazza! Good stuff!

[Gazza]

Bookwise, a good start would be the Squadron Signal book #6101 Blitzkrieg - Armor Camouflage & Markings, 1939-1940 by Steven Zaloga. You might also want to have a look at the Trackstory series of books on French AFVs.

I must admit that when I painted my early French I used the same paints as I did for my late Germans, Humbrol 83, 86, and 160 (IIRC).

[madman]

When I did my '40 French I used Humbrol enamels so I will be of no help that way. I also used the Squadron book and lots of pictures from the web. Only a few of the larger or more known tanks received the three tone paint scheme. Most just had the base green with blotches or squiggles of one of the secondary colours. In fact I painted all my equipment (except some left over WWI guns) a base green. Then secondary colours. I had 10 of each (many from Scotia as their selection is very extensive) so mixed which secondary colours I used. I left softskins just the base green as I never found a picture (in my searches) with them in multi colour schemes. Usually just one but sometimes a third colour but a mix of them for each model. Hope that helps.

[BurtWolf]

Good information Gazza and madman, good to hear your experiences and I likely will purchase the book just to get a better idea. I have very little background with French forces so it’s an interesting learning curve.

[madman]

Other then the clarity of the images in the Squadron book most can be found on line. I didn't need to find the profiles so didn't look. You may find all these as well. The images I found gave ideas of the layout of the different colours. The three tones are almost never the same locations or amounts from one tank to the next. I also alternated which colours were secondary and tertiary. The black outlines varied as to which colours were defined (some or all separated). which I also left some armour in plain green without any additional colours. I didn't make that clear in my original post.

[BurtWolf]

Yes the Internet is wonderful and usually I go to source, but I’m old fashion and still enjoy looking at books. I’m afraid with many of the French models that I will not do camouflage only because they’re so small. When they’re that small I think the camouflage tends to hide the details, and that’s what I really enjoy but GHQs models. So hearing about a monotone scheme is good as a good portion of my models will probably not have camo.

[PolishGI]

Very cool endeavor BurtWolf!

Cant wait to see how this turns out. Yeah, books are books! Love it.

[BurtWolf]

As you suggested, I bought the book “Blitzkrieg” - great reference!! Got it cheap, has a lot of good material and a bunch of OOBs that I wasn’t expecting. Thanks again!

[madman]

Somehow I got it in my head someone mentioned the base colour as a sand or khaki. It is green, I used WWII RAF dark green. For browns I used dark earth, a dark brown (Brown Bess or chocolate), brick reds and a sandy khaki.

[BurtWolf]

Okay thanks and good to hear. After reading that particular book I got the impression that the base should be a green.