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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.



22 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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  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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