I have seen several B&W or long distance photos of this vehicle, does anyone have a clearer one that shows how the camo pattern was applied? Also, was this an accurate painting of a stand of trees or a more Impressionistic painting? The colors seem to be just blobs of color and some brown lines to look like tree trunks and limbs.

Also can some one direct me to the site that listed all the Char B1s with their units? My hard drive died and all the list of saved favorite sites is gone.

Both your answers in one

chars-francais

EDIT: Revell include markings for Fantasque in their reissue of the Matchbox B1bis, however they obviously looked at the colour artwork in Steve Zaloga's old 'Blitzkrieg' and copied that. This means the name is in red and the serial has a white outline. Both of these are unlikely.

David

Agree with David. Some good shots here: http://www.chars-francais.net/archives/b_1bis/archive-b1bis_fantasque.htm

one more :

Pierre: My university French ;language skills have sadly mostly faded. I recall reading somewhere where "Fantasque" got various bits and pieces attached to its surface to aid in concealment. Is there mention of that in the accompanying text to the photo you attached?

Jim Dodson: See that it's "Fantasque" and not "Fantastique"

Yes Roy, it does. but rather translating all the text I scanned something else from the book " Trackstory : Les chars B " . It talks about the same thing :

PIWI,
Thanks for the pictures. This makes it a little clearer what it looked like. I hope the last coclor picture is fairly accurate to the colors used orginally. None of the pictures show it wearing any of the hi contrast French roundels or any other markings, even the name on the turret and the tactical number on the side are subdued. Did it have any unit marking on the front or rear as the other B1s did on the web site.

I wonder if the material was to give the surface some texture like the Zimmerit did on the German Panzers?

One more question. The fenders in the Tamiya kit, are they the correct ones for this tank or should I look into the Voyager narrow or wide fenders in PE?

According to the text in Pierre's second post, the flocking technique was tested because of its nonreflective property...

HTH

Frenchy

Jim: Photos show Fantasque with the narrow fenders -- those that stand off from the hull side. If you thin the Tamiya kit pieces at the front and rear, they're pefectly acceptable IMHO. The PE replacements are nice but I don't feel are essential. I'm using them for "Tunisie". I'm using the Archer dry transfers for this vehicle.

Here's mine

Frenchy,

Well, I'll be flocked! That is the same stuff they spray on some toys and decorations to make them look fuzzy. I miss read that as being like a material that was applied and then painted like dacopage(?), where you glue material on an object.

I must say that the pattern looks like it would have provided the best camoflauge of all that I have seen on the B1s so far.

Does any one know if the orginal Fantasque was repaired by the Germans and reused or converted to some other use?