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Friday 20 March 2020

Airfix WW1 French Infantry

Having enjoyed a couple of WW1 games set in the early war years, I thought it might be interesting to have some actions involving French troops. Unfortunately the Airfix WW1 French, unlike the British and German offerings, are dressed in the later uniform wearing a helmet.  I clearly needed some in the older red breeches and kepi style.

I could have opted for figures from Hat or Caesar, who both do early French, but I was keen to use Airfix if possible.  So, I set about lopping off heads and attaching new ones sourced from ACW figures.

Here are the results:




I quite like the results and I reckon they will look OK on the table

I have ordered a few pieces from Irregular Miniatures and some Hat artillery figures.



28 comments:

  1. Nice conversion they look great!

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  2. The conversions have worked well , I always wondered why Airfix did later war French , most annoying .

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    1. Me too, and why they didn't add cavalry and artillery for all nations. Maybe the commercial return would have been too small.

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  3. Great! You could shave the havelocks off Foreign Legion figures too. A tip from Battle magazine circa 1978!

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    1. That's a good suggestion Jef, although I am rather loathe to chop up my small FFL collection!

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  4. They look splendid Bob, a proper old style conversion.

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    1. Thanks, it is interesting to see ho many comments this conversion has attracted - we must all be Airfix lovers at heart!

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  5. Agreed! I wouldn't have known had you not mentioned it. What did you use to pin and glue the heads to the bodies?

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. Hi Stokes. I drilled about 5mm into the body, inserted an ordinary dress makers pin and cut it off leaving about 2mm produding. I then drilled a similar hole into the head and attached the two using contact adhesive.

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  6. Very nice Bob...

    I remember doing the same... but I used the as Franco-Prussian War.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. I remember painting some Germans as FPW figures, but never got around to doing the French. The Germans were then needed to fight the Zulus a bit later on!

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  7. What great conversions, well done!

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  8. They look really good. I remember head swapping with Napoleonics back in the day- had quite a mania for it!

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    1. Many thanks for your comment. It was the only way back in the good 'ol days. I remember the Airfix magazine SYW project, using Japanese WW2 infantry!

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  9. Excellent! When I first saw the thumbnail I thought "surely he didn't" but yes and done very well indeed.

    Somehow, these look better than the originals.

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  10. Thanks Pascal. Some good suggestions and some useful information in your comments. I do have helmeted British WW1 infantry from other sources. It was a shame when Airfix released their WW1 sets where they mixed up Tanks with 1914 infantry in trench warfare. I think at one point they were considering releasing some 1916 figures around the time of the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, but the idea was abandoned. They used the original sets instead.

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  11. Hi Paskal, thanks for your comments. I accept that the puttees were a compromise on these figures, but painted black and seen from a couple of feet away they look OK.

    The information about the French helmet is very interesting too.

    I have painted some of these figures as WW2 combatants too.

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  12. Thanks. I have used the gun from the Revell WW1 set for my French troops. I too have used the pigeon man and observer as gun crews.

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  13. I will try to find them. I think that they are painted in Khaki though.

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