Once upon a time, the only French AFV kits were the rather dated and very basic Heller kits, which were aimed at a rather small domestic market, so perhaps it's understandable that the major manufacturers weren't terribly eager to offer any figures to go with them. Heller's own modern (read 1960's-70's period) figures were poorly proportioned and the sculpting was very basic.
But in the last few years, we have been inundated with postwar and modern French tanks, self-propelled guns, armored cars and APCs. So where are the styrene figure sets to crew these marvels? We have plenty of US and Russian/Soviet figures, and we have modern German and British tankers, and even a few British infantry types. But no French in styrene, and only a few in resin (some not very impressive items from Blast). Dragon's little set of Desert Storm era French paras hasn't been reissued in many years, and they represent troops from almost thirty years ago. Though not well publicized on this side of the pond, French troops have been involved in peacekeeping in the Balkans, as well combat against militants in Afghanistan and West Africa, so there's plenty of diorama potential there. Any idea if Miniart or one of the other makers has French figures in the pipeline?
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Where Are The French?
GeraldOwens
Joined: March 30, 2006
KitMaker: 3,736 posts
Armorama: 3,697 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 01:16 PM UTC
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grunt136mike
Joined: November 24, 2012
KitMaker: 1,896 posts
Armorama: 1,858 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 04:17 PM UTC
Hi; Gerald.
The problem is that there is just not A lot of info; or photo's of French combat troops; Its hard to find period photo's other than the minor U.N. issues in Africa. Also there is not A lot of interest in the Hobby as of yet for Infantry or Special Ops of French origin.
Our Main problem is if its Not News Worthy its Not going to get much attention in the media !
CHEERS; MIKE.
The problem is that there is just not A lot of info; or photo's of French combat troops; Its hard to find period photo's other than the minor U.N. issues in Africa. Also there is not A lot of interest in the Hobby as of yet for Infantry or Special Ops of French origin.
Our Main problem is if its Not News Worthy its Not going to get much attention in the media !
CHEERS; MIKE.
GeraldOwens
Joined: March 30, 2006
KitMaker: 3,736 posts
Armorama: 3,697 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 06:00 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Hi; Gerald.
The problem is that there is just not A lot of info; or photo's of French combat troops; Its hard to find period photo's other than the minor U.N. issues in Africa. Also there is not A lot of interest in the Hobby as of yet for Infantry or Special Ops of French origin.
Our Main problem is if its Not News Worthy its Not going to get much attention in the media !
CHEERS; MIKE.
And yet, somebody keeps buying all those (empty) vehicle kits. If the market weren't there, we wouldn't have 1/35th scale Leclerc main battle tanks (from two manufacturers), VAB armored cars, AMX-30 main battle tanks (from three manufacturers), AUF-1 self propelled guns (from three manufacturers), EBR-10 armored cars, VBL armored cars (from two manufacturers, with and without missile launchers), AML-60 armored cars, AML-90 armored cars, AMX-13 tanks (from three manufacturers), VBCI armored personnel carriers--well. you get the idea. If things French were unpopular, companies wouldn't be sinking large amounts of money into producing all these AFV kits, and dealers wouldn't stock them. So if we have the kits, why no figures to go with them? Should be a no-brainer.
young_sven
Joined: May 14, 2010
KitMaker: 749 posts
Armorama: 743 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 06:15 PM UTC
Check out Blast Models and/or Djiti Production, there are quite a lot of French figures there, including vehicle crews.
Frenchy
Joined: December 02, 2002
KitMaker: 12,719 posts
Armorama: 12,507 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 06:31 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Check out Blast Models and/or Djiti Production, there are quite a lot of French figures there, including vehicle crews.
Don't forget Reedoak :
http://reedoak.com/#!/1-35/c/14693251/offset=0&sort=normal
H.P.
Bonaparte84
Joined: July 17, 2013
KitMaker: 338 posts
Armorama: 331 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 09:25 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Hi; Gerald.
The problem is that there is just not A lot of info; or photo's of French combat troops; Its hard to find period photo's other than the minor U.N. issues in Africa. Also there is not A lot of interest in the Hobby as of yet for Infantry or Special Ops of French origin.
Our Main problem is if its Not News Worthy its Not going to get much attention in the media !
CHEERS; MIKE.
Have you ever tried searching? There's loads of information available, whether online, in magazines, books etc. ... Just saying. It might require to use another language than English, though.
stephane
Joined: October 10, 2005
KitMaker: 432 posts
Armorama: 429 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 09:30 PM UTC
Nemrod/Historex has a few resin excellents Modern figures ...in resin.
I too hopes that Miniart or Masterbox will do some modern french tank crew and infantry.
Personnaly i owns a few Dragon box for Famas and converted US troopers fjgures.
Our flak jackett since mid 2000's is similar to the US one. French SF units uses the same helmet as the one uses by SEAL.... And HK416 is the new rifle in use with SF.
There're thousands of pics and videos available via google for Balkans/early Afstan or more modern french troops.
I too hopes that Miniart or Masterbox will do some modern french tank crew and infantry.
Personnaly i owns a few Dragon box for Famas and converted US troopers fjgures.
Our flak jackett since mid 2000's is similar to the US one. French SF units uses the same helmet as the one uses by SEAL.... And HK416 is the new rifle in use with SF.
There're thousands of pics and videos available via google for Balkans/early Afstan or more modern french troops.
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Blainey
Joined: October 02, 2019
KitMaker: 4 posts
Armorama: 4 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 10:11 PM UTC
I agree there is very little post war French figures considering the the following theatres: Indochina Algeria, Chad, Balkans, etc. To compliment the number of vehicles that are now available we need figures!
there is definately a gap in the market.
I emailed Miniart hoping they could come to the party but they were non commital. I guess we just keep discussing the issue and hope someone will come to the party.
there is definately a gap in the market.
I emailed Miniart hoping they could come to the party but they were non commital. I guess we just keep discussing the issue and hope someone will come to the party.
bison126
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 11:10 PM UTC
Valuable information is probably too much disseminated over the internet to be easily usable by manufacturers. Within less than 10 years i.e the Afghanistan campaign the French battledress has been changed no less than three times not to speak of the body armor and the helmet. So releasing an accurate set for a precise time-frame is a real challenge.
Olivier
Olivier
Tank1812
Joined: April 29, 2014
KitMaker: 1,112 posts
Armorama: 886 posts
Posted: Monday, February 17, 2020 - 12:41 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Valuable information is probably too much disseminated over the internet to be easily usable by manufacturers. Within less than 10 years i.e the Afghanistan campaign the French battledress has been changed no less than three times not to speak of the body armor and the helmet. So releasing an accurate set for a precise time-frame is a real challenge.
Olivier
While I agree that does make things harder, the US Army has had similar number of changes and manufacturers have made different figures to match as I recall. The popularity/sales is probably different between the two to make that easier.
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RobinNilsson
TOS ModeratorJoined: November 29, 2006
KitMaker: 6,693 posts
Armorama: 5,562 posts
Posted: Monday, February 17, 2020 - 02:28 AM UTC
If anyone wonders where their posts have gone.
I took them out since this thread was starting to go off the rails. Some were responses which themselves were acceptable but now they were totally out of context so they were removed to avoid confusion and spin-off effects
Keep it civil guys
I'm watching ......
I took them out since this thread was starting to go off the rails. Some were responses which themselves were acceptable but now they were totally out of context so they were removed to avoid confusion and spin-off effects
Keep it civil guys
I'm watching ......
vettejack
Joined: November 23, 2012
KitMaker: 1,277 posts
Armorama: 1,254 posts
Posted: Monday, February 17, 2020 - 02:34 AM UTC
There are some nice WW2/modern era French tanks/vehicles available. Detailing improvements abound as well.
Not on the scale of Tigers/Sherman's (not bashing either) etc., but yea, there could be better representation I suppose. Popularity plays a role in this too. While not as "glamorous" as the 2 types mentioned, but personally, French vehicles deserve an equal showing on modeling shelves.
Not on the scale of Tigers/Sherman's (not bashing either) etc., but yea, there could be better representation I suppose. Popularity plays a role in this too. While not as "glamorous" as the 2 types mentioned, but personally, French vehicles deserve an equal showing on modeling shelves.
blacksad
Joined: September 07, 2009
KitMaker: 198 posts
Armorama: 192 posts
Posted: Monday, February 17, 2020 - 11:06 AM UTC
I think that blast model's range of figures is of very good molding quality and their subject range covers quite a few eras, more specifically recent theatres in the Middle East and Africa. Reedoak figures looks very good too, but the owner seems to be more focused on airforce figures; I've already asked him if he planned to do maybe french afv crew members but I never got an answer; maybe if other people ask the same question he'll jump in...
There is still a lot of improvement to do figure wise and vehicle wise.. The Leclerc from heller is outdated, and the tamiya one too, by current standards. A VAB would be very well welcomed and with so many different versions existing it'd be very profitable for a company to make multiple uses out of the same base mold. Still waiting on tiger model to release their erc-90 sagaie, I'm not even sure if they are still in business... Don't forget to check Model Miniatures too, they have a lot of stuff but in braille scale mostly.. already asked her why she (Julie Ludmann, the owner) doesn't do more 1/35th stuff and she replied that most of her customers ask for 1/72 instead.. go figure... I personally think she's missing a train here but that's just my opinion..
There is still a lot of improvement to do figure wise and vehicle wise.. The Leclerc from heller is outdated, and the tamiya one too, by current standards. A VAB would be very well welcomed and with so many different versions existing it'd be very profitable for a company to make multiple uses out of the same base mold. Still waiting on tiger model to release their erc-90 sagaie, I'm not even sure if they are still in business... Don't forget to check Model Miniatures too, they have a lot of stuff but in braille scale mostly.. already asked her why she (Julie Ludmann, the owner) doesn't do more 1/35th stuff and she replied that most of her customers ask for 1/72 instead.. go figure... I personally think she's missing a train here but that's just my opinion..
bison126
Joined: June 10, 2004
KitMaker: 5,329 posts
Armorama: 5,204 posts
Posted: Monday, February 17, 2020 - 08:31 PM UTC
For your information the Dragon set for Desert Storm / operation Daguet is partly wrong. The French soldiers are wearing the training NBC suit and not the operational one. Right now I don't remember the differences which could be in the pockets.
Olivier
Olivier
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