French 1905 uniform - test complete

Australia 35 - Scotland 34...If nothing else this result got me to pour my despondency into my painting! So much so that I actually completed my test painting of my Black Hat 54mm c. 1890 French Infantryman. Every cloud has a silver lining I suppose.

So here's the result (unvarnished)...

There are certain parts of my interpretation of the uniform that I am a bit unsure about - reference material of this exact period being somewhat scarce or ambiguous - but hopefully experts will find my soldier a spirited attempt.

Next I will give it a coat of varnish and then work on completing the construction of the rest of his regiment.

Postscript: About the rifle - The French rifle of the time should have been the Lebel Model 1886 rifle, which this 'toy' soldier clearly doesn't have. I suspect that Black Hat have produced a 'generic' model of a rifle which it uses for all it's late 19th century 54mm soldiers.

I think this model is based on a British Lee-Metford judging by the magazine. Perhaps I should have filed off the magazine and painted a fake receiver to make it look more like a Lebel?

French 1905 uniform - colour tests

A bad case of the blues!
Time for a little break, I'm journeying west leaving the misty mountains of Molatero behind me and saying hello to the land of the Belle Époque as I start to plan the painting of my Black Hat French Infantry of the Line.

It took me some time to track down some pictorial reference for the French infantry uniform of the 1900 period, but eventually I came across a lovely lithograph (left). The trouble with lithograph reproductions is that the colour tints are a little 'washy' so they really don't give a true representation of actual colour intensity.

Take the blue of the tunic, for example. The artist's interpretation of the colour suggests that - overall - it is a mid-blue. This is due to the semi-transparent nature of the colour medium used and is also an artistic 'impression' of the colour to emphasis that the tunic is, indeed, blue.

So, while this illustration put me on the right track as far as the general colour scheme for the French uniform of time is concerned I was a little suspicious about the trueness of the colours. I'd much rather have some photographic reference to go by. And once again I got lucky as I came across a rather nice photo on good old Wikipedia...

The cadets of the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French military
academy, still wear the blue and red uniform of the French army before 1915.
Source: Wikipedia (ironically, on an article on the colour 'blue').

"Cadets of Saint-Cyr wear in full dress (grande tenue) a special uniform, derived from the 1845 Regulations Infantry Officer Dress. This dress incorporates a dark-blue tunic, red trousers and a shako with red and white plumes. Facings are light blue, as is the képi worn on less formal occasions. Red fringed epaulettes are worn by cadets and yellow by cadet-officers. This traditional uniform was worn by both cadets and instructors at Saint-Cyr from 1845 until 1914 and then again from 1930 until 1939." Wikipedia

As you can see from the above photo the French tunic's 'blue' appears almost black and is very similar to the 'blue' of the British Police dress uniform in it's darkness. Neither is the red of the trousers a vidid red (nor a scarlet) but rather a subdued crimson (what the games paint ranges likes to call 'blood red'). It just goes to show that artists cannot be trusted! ;)

Vallejo paint equivalents
I had been rather enamoured by Tamiya acrylics because of their opaqueness, but they are rather difficult to work with. Vallejo acrylics are - I have found - a lot more user friendly and have a far wider range. I'd much rather work with a colour straight out of a bottle instead of mixing a colour, it makes it easy to replicate the same colour across numerous toy soldiers.

So I've been looking through the various Vallejo acrylic colour ranges to get the nearest equivalents to the photo reference I have. Unfortunately it look like I will have to bite the bullet and do some subtle mixing as the darkest Vallejo blues are still probably a bit light.

Colour and scale (and distance)
Ironically, after much consideration, I find myself considering taking a leaf out of the lithograph artists's book and tweaking the colour for 'effect'. The problem is one of scale and distance - that while Vallajo's 'Night Blue' might seem to be lighter than the blue Saint-Cyr cadet's tunics one must imagine the colour painted onto a 1/32 figure which will be mostly viewed from a distance of about 5 feet or so.

Magnificent old Britains French Field Artillery set. The photo at
this scale gives the impression of very dark - almost black - tunics.

Skipping the dreary diatribe about colour theory (or am I too late) - the only way I will really get a sense of whether Vallejo's darkest blue 'fits' is actually to see it on a test figure. (And then to view that test figure at the desired distance.)

Left: Just in case I checked Humbrol's acrylic paint range too. I'm not a fan of Humbrol and in any case the closest blue they have is a gloss.

Should you really want to look into colour scaling theory then I recommend you click here: Cybermodeler Online's  Scale Modeling Magazine Scale Effects in Modeling By Michael Benolkin. 

So, the punchline is - if I paint my French soldiers with a the visually correct shade of midnight blue they will to all intents and purposes look like they are dressed in black tunics at arms length!

Suck it and see - my initial painting test
OK, enough talking - let's have a test. First things first, I apply a primer coat - matt white AutoKote...

Second job was to go out and buy the paints that I had chosen. As it turned out none of my local stores had them! (After all that!) So I ended up buying a small collection of what the shops did have...

Swatches
Top row: Dark Sea Blue, Imperial Blue, Dark Prussian Blue
Middle row: Dark Prussian Blue with addition of small amount of black.
Bottom row: Scarlet, Bloody Red, Flat Red.

Not perfect...I'm still going to have to do some mixing to get the 'midnight' blue I have in mind. The best mix seems to be the Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue with a dab of black in it. The crimson is a mix too, a 50/50 combination of Vallejo Bloody Red and their Flat Red.

The result...

Still only partially painted, but the tunic and trousers are done.

Well, it looks like the blue and crimson in the 'Saint-Cyr' cadet photo above (I think), but the blue was tricky. I would still prefer to get the colour I want straight out the bottle as the idea of having to mix this deep blue consistently across 20 figures makes me nervous. (For some reason this mix seems to dry quite quickly so mixing up a large batch isn't feasible.)

The crimson was, however, a success and is really easy to replicate. (Phew!) My interpretation may look a little too vivid but that may be because of my cameras flash.

'Saint-Cyr' cadets again, be a nice future project to do a unit of these gentlemen!
Source: Wikipedia.

So, should I keep on looking for that perfect blue? I want to get this right and I'm in no hurry - my options are to investigate the Tamiya Royal Blue and also to see what Humbrol have to offer. Though straying from Vallejo means I have to order online and I like being able to pop down to my local model shop for stuff like this. (My town has just lost another model shop so it's becoming ever more important to shop in what local model stores we still do have!)

In the meantime I'll continue on with this test piece and finish it off - glossing may have a part to play in what I decide.

Gotcha! French 1905 uniform

A reference note to myself!

There is no doubt that French army uniforms of the period between the end of the Franco-Prussian War (1871) to the start of The Great War (1914) are something of a puzzle. As a period of relative peace this era is not covered by the usual reference pamphlets - like Osprey's Men at Arms - and what useful material that might exist is - as you might expect - written in French!

A bit of a bugger really as I am interested in French uniforms between 1890 and 1910. My Black Hat Infanterie De Ligne do not seem to fit into the uniform styles which are covered by the mainstream reference material and this has been a cause of some frustration. I just could not seem to find a historical example which depicted the uniform modelled by Black Hat's Frenchies!

Well, hopefully, I finally solved the mystery of this particular toy soldier when I came across a very nice set of French watercolours online. They depicted the history of the 147th Infantry Regiment of Sedan and the example of a soldier of 1905 caught my eye...

Left: Soldier of the 147th Infantry Regiment (1900-1905). Raiment: shorter tunic with red collar and a row of buttons with flap facing in 1899 that lasted until the first world war. He is equipped with a Lebel rifle.

This illustration is the closest thing I have found that is similar to Black Hat's French toy soldiers. The Black Hat toy doesn't have the webbing kit or back-pack but otherwise is a nice representation of the 1905 pattern French infantry uniform.

Historical note - French Shakos versus kepi

Bit of a 'note to myself' really here...

When I bought the samples from Irregular Miniatures one of the heads I ordered was the 'EMH 4 1850's French/Italian/Austrian shako 50p'. I had thought (or hoped) that this was the same type of hat that my other French toy soldiers wear wearing (the short kepi), but it wasn't.

Instead I got a very tall shako - see left - which, I believe, is completely inappropriate for the French army of the period that I am interested in (1890-1910).


Well, I acquired Osprey's 'French Army 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War 1 - Imperial Troops' today and it seems that the French army began to replace this tall shako with the shorter kepi around 1868.

Left: French Grenadier, 1853.

From it's adoption the French kepi has evolved, from the early bec de canard (duck bill) - what we would recognise as the type worn by both sides in the American Civil War - to the pattern 1876 with a rounded visor, to the 1884 pattern which was the type used by French soldiers up to the First World War.

And so, in building a French regiment using Irregular Miniatures I have to decide whether to use their 'EMH 1 Kepi' (duck bill) or make my own heads with the later French kepi.

Wonderful vignette called 'Last Bullets' -  This shows the early 'duck bill'
kepi typical of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)

I still have to research the various different models of kepi of the 1880-1914 period to understand the nuances in the differences, but unfortunately Irregular's 'duck bill' does not seem to suit this period (it's represents the type similar to that used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71).

Right: Pattern 1876 kepi with rounded visor.

For my little French army I would favour versions of the kepi of the 1876 pattern and later 1884 pattern.

This all sounds a bit pernickety I know, and I don't count myself as being a 'button counter' when it comes to toy soldiers - but, the headgear is perhaps the most immediately identifiable item of dress that gives the toy soldier his unique identity so I would like to feel comfortable that I have that right at least.

Left: The 1884 pattern kepi with kepi covers. The covers are another thing that confuse the issue as they give the hat a slightly different look and shape!

The 1884 kepi remained with the French soldier right up and into the early years of the first world war. This is a good thing for me as it means I can use early WW1 French toy soldiers - like those made by Dorset Soldiers - knowing that the general French uniform changed little from that of the turn of the 19th century.

LOL - I am sure experts in French uniforms will find fault in my logic though!

What is 54mm? Scale conundrums

Now I have collected three samples of metal toy soldiers from different manufacturers I have a chance to compare the details including scale...And here we have a problem...

From left to right: Dorset Miniatures 'Chasseurs a Pied' Band Major, Irregular Miniatures 'Fusilier Marin' and finally Black Hat's 'Infanterie de Ligne' (all circa 1900-1914).

All of these toys are described by their manufacturers as being 54mm! But, as you can see somebody is fibbing. Dorset and Irregular look fairly compatible, but Black Hat soldiers will not mix with the other soldiers at all.

Dorset Soldiers French Band Major

In height and stature the Black Hat soldier is closer in scale to one of my Armies in Plastic 1/32 soldiers. Though that's sort of academic as 1/32 is supposed to be the same as 54mm as far as I can find out.

Quality of figures...
Anyway - scale aside all the manufacturer's toy soldiers display the features characteristic of traditional toy soldiers and are simplified or stylised appropriately as such. You might say they are all caricatures of soldiers rather than any serious attempts at authentically or historically recreating period soldiers.

All are fit for purpose, but I rather like the modular 'multi-part' format of York's Irregular Miniatures. They have a wide range of heads in a variety of military hats, different tunics and webbing and weapons - all designed to be mixed and matched so you can make practically any uniform up that you might want.

Irregular Miniatures allows you to mix and match to make
a multitude of different national uniforms.

French Fusilier Marin 1900

Take my French 'Fusilier Marin' - he is made up from their Empire range's new French sailor's head, a suitably antique looking Martini Henry rifle and their 'EMB 18 Sailor in landing kit marching'. And looking through their online lists I could make up a good many of the French regiments from the period that interests me.

Last words on '54mm'
Well, that was an interesting exercise. I got a chance to have a look at what's on the market for French military figures from the turn of the 19th century and see what kind of compatibility there is between makes.

I can see me making a return visit to Irregular Miniatures, and maybe even a proper visit to their shop as York is within easy travelling distance...So I may be coming back with more goodies.

But this inconsistency between 54mm models does concern me. It seems that the scale is somewhat open to interpretation. This make me all the more determined to start making my own models.

Links to manufacturers:

Black Hat: www.blackhat.co.uk

Irregular Miniatures: www.irregularminiatures.co.uk

Dorset Soldiers: www.dorsetsoldiers.com

Making a traditional 'tin' soldier

An interesting day today - I started cleaning up my very first metal toy soldier. The Black Hat c.1900 French Infantry are what I would describe as traditional 'tin soldiers'. The are caricatures of soldiers and hardly realistic, but as I explained in my previous posts they are not meant to be.

That said, today's work gave me a chance to examine the quality of these metal toys in more detail.

The main thing with cast figures is moulding marks, seams and any imperfections in the metal itself. Being multipart toys complicates matters as each component must fit snuggly onto another appropriate part. So how does Black Hat fair up with fit and quality?

Well, to be honest I have to borrow a phrase from my wife - who is a teacher - and say 'could do better'. They aren't terrible, being metal one should expect a little work to make things fit, but the parts hardly snap into place!

That said, and bearing in mind - again - that these are supposed to look like toy soldiers the fact that there are noticeable joins between components may actually be a positive thing.

Likewise other details are probably purposely simplified. Take the rifle, it's hardly what you could call an accurate historical representation - it's neigh on cartoonish in it's construction. And the shoes of the little soldier are like a pair of blocky clogs!

Now...It may be a bone of contention as to whether Black Hat are being clever and doing these things deliberately, or are just a little - er, how do I put this - 'naive' in their toy making, but it actually doesn't matter. The end result is appropriate.

There's plenty of routine file work to get ride of seams - you can see one of the main seams on the head in the photos - but again, if you are of a mind to recreate the traditional tin soldier look you may even want to leave in these seams. Remember the real thing was a factory cast and painted mass produced product, and things like seams and slap dash painting were the norm.

Trying to capture this authentic tin soldier look will be a challenge, but Black Hat's metal models have given me an excellent start with their model - it's now up to me to finish this model with an appropriately traditional paint job.

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Historical notes on Black Hat French Infantry

Having examined the general quality and components of my new Black Hat French infantry it was time to do a quick bit of research, primarily for the colours I should use to paint the uniforms.

Left: Chasseur a pied. Bugler, full dress (1885). This illustration appeared in L'Armee Française by Jules Richard, illustrated by Édouard Detaille, first published in 1885. Source: Wikipedia

As usual my first port of call was the Osprey web site to see if there was a specific book that covered this unit. The bad news is that there is a bit of a gap in Osprey's inventory for the period of French military history I am interested in (1890/1900). This is due to the fact that Osprey is chiefly concerned with specific conflicts and campaigns.

The most important campaigns close to 1900 that are featured by Osprey's range are, of course, The Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and then the First World War. There are a couple of books that cover French forces at the turn of the century - notably the Boxer Rebellion and a History of the Foreign Legion from 1872-1914 - but they don't really cover home regiments in any great detail but rather colonial interventions in Africa and Asia.

I am sure there are books somewhere that illustrate the French army during this period but I have a sneaking suspicion that they are probably French publications in French.

However, a search of the internet did net me some very nice historical illustration from my target period and also some photos of other toy soldiers by Hiriart of the very self-same infantry regiment that Black Hat have modelled.

Hiriart catalog set 1188 INFANTERIE DE LIGNE, 1890.
Source: Toy Soldier Forum

I am unable to pin down Black Hat's chosen French uniform exactly. Certainly it differs in it's look from the infantry of the line of the late 1890s, specifially in two specific details - the tunic buttons and, importantly, the unique French infantry hat.

Left: Contemporary hand Colored Lithograph from 1889 showing French Infantry of the Line.

To be fair to Black Hat the have neither said that their model is specifically Infanterie de Ligne, just that they are a rather generic 'French Infantry' and also they do not mention a period for their model.

If you look at French uniforms from 1890 to the beginning of the First World War there is a evolution in both items I mention - tunics did change, in some cases, from double breasted to single breasted, and the 'kepi' hats changed from the early form depicted in the attached plate to a more modern version which we are more familiar with from pictures of the Foreign Legion (more upright).

So, Black Hat's soldier might be an example which represents French uniforms closer to 1914 than 1900. But is this important - remembering that these are toy soldiers?

Well, probably not so much although questions about accuracy does make it difficult for you to pin down exactly what colour scheme to paint your soldiers (Black Hat gives no hints). The temptation is to paint your Frenchies a generic colour scheme similar to the pictures above, the Hiriart toy soldiers do seem to accurately depict the historical plate so may be a good template.

The one example of 'a' French uniform that is similar to the Black Hat
depiction is this set of toy soldiers from Soldier Pac. These apparently are
'recast from Britains' and so, I guess, may have been the inspiration for
the Black Hat ones.

I guess the only way to really know what Black Hat had in mind with their model is to email them and ask them, otherwise - unless you can track down an obscure French reference - you are left guessing!

(One theory I have, looking at the Black Hat range of toy soldiers, is that they have cheated a little bit and used the same generic body for quite a few of their soldiers. They just change the heads (and hats) to depict specific regiments and nations.)

French Infantry Band in Full Dress, 1914. CBG Mignot - European Armies Of
World War One

Magnificent old Britains French Field Artillery set. I just include this
because it's superb!

Contemporary Uniform Plates of the French Army 1889 Hand Colored
Lithographs. Click to enlarge. Source: www.warflag.com/

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Métaux lourds! From Black Hat

My first foray into the world of FLWs was - and is - being made via modern plastic toy soldiers. They are cheap and easily sourced and if things go wrong you haven't lost much (quite important as I hadn't painted plastic soldiers before). In fact they are the ideal introduction to the world of FLWs.

But very soon you start to cast an envious eye over those who take their hobby to the next level. At Triples I saw a table decked with regiments of metal soldiers and that little devil that sits on one's shoulder started whispering in my ear...

Now don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with plastic soldiers. I am not of an age where I remember 'tin' soldiers being the norm (like my dad, who incidentally would have loved this hobby) as even when I was young my bedroom floor was awash with Airfix plastic soldiers. So the attraction is more an aesthetic than nostalgic.

...So I ordered a few...

The Black Hat soldiers I received today exemplify the aesthetic that I am talking about. Were you a collector of fine historical miniatures you might be tempted to scoff somewhat at the naïveté of the craftsmanship of these figures, but to do so would be to miss the point of these soldiers and the ethos of H.G. Well's Funny Little Wars.

These are toy soldiers - not collectors statuettes, and the harken back to a golden age of toys for boy.

Take the French infantry of the Line that I ordered. If you take time to study the proportions with which they are sculpted you will discern - if you have a keen eye for historical fashions - a certain Edwardian cut of these little figures.

With their barrel chests and finely turned legs which descend into improbably small feet these charming little toys epitomise all that the Edwardians cherished about a 'manly figure'.

Black Hats British artilleryman - a strapping chap to be sure.

Likewise the poses are typically regimented and parade ground, just the sort of thing that a young chap would like to line up in ranks as he troops the colours on his bedroom carpet!

My French Infantry are all slopped arms and marching - no dynamic action poses here, no firing positions or going prone. The very idea. No, these are all about parading ones 'power', and by power I mean numbers, for what a splendid thing it is to see soldier resplendent in their dress uniforms formed en masse ready to take you salute?

Yes, you can say that I am taken by the Black Hat miniatures and there will be more purchases in the future as I have a mind to assemble a second FLW army, but this time a more historically accurate one based on Army Horizon Blue.

Sadly, Black Hat do not do a French standard bearer and so I bought the
British Rifle Regiment one instead and will convert it by changing the head.

I'm not converting from plastic to metal - but variety is the spice of life.

  > You can view all the posts in this project here - link to all posts in this series.