MG armed French FT-17

[Terry37]

After making a decision to go with a more avant guard look to my Weird WWI American army that I've been working on, and realizing that American FT-17s had the card markings on the turret as opposed to the rear hull sides as the French did, and absolutely loving this scheme I decided to create it for my army. My first blush thought when I found this scheme was that it was a French mid 30's scheme, and it does bear some resemblance - except that  by that time those FT-17s still in active service had a unique, usually three color, wide band horizontal striped scheme. But, the Americans adopted schemes in the early 20's that included some of these color shades. Therefore since my army based on the book "By the Blood of Heroes"  which takes place in 1921, it seemed a perfect fit.


Looks to be a six color scheme edged black.

So today I converted one of Leon's FT-17 models to be armed with the machine gun instead of the 37 MM cannon. I will be painting it in this scheme, and will some how figure out how to do the heart in a diamond marking for the turret - the diamond is easy enough, it's the heart that will be the challenge. I was hoping the one I am copying would have been an American produced FT-17, but it is not, being a French made model. Still will be another very colorful addition to the army.

Terry

[d_Guy]

Not my area but did see one at the AAF museum a while back. It was not in dazzle camouflage, rather monochromatic really.
Apparently this type of camouflage was thought to be effective?

It will look great on a wargame table, effective or not.

[fsn]

All I'm going to say is that if you look at armies with very camouflaged tanks in WWII (French, Italian, Japanese) and those that were fairly plain (UK, US, USSR) we can see who the winners are.

When did the Germans start to lose? 1943 when they switched to a 3 part camo scheme.

Coincidence? I think not.

[Orcs]

For the heart I suggest you start with two small circles with the circumference touching, then paint a v underneath touching the two outer sides of the circles, then fill it in

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Looking forward to seeing the great work

[Terry37]

Thought I would share a picture of the model to give an idea of how the conversion part turned out. It's primed and ready to paint, which I plan to start today.



More to follow,

Terry

[JeffNNN]

All I'm going to say is that if you look at armies with very camouflaged tanks in WWII (French, Italian, Japanese) and those that were fairly plain (UK, US, USSR) we can see who the winners are.

When did the Germans start to lose? 1943 when they switched to a 3 part camo scheme.

Coincidence? I think not.

But in the earlier period the Brits were camouflaged. I'm inclined to think a key factor for the Germans changing was their loss of air superiority, that's when you really need to hide.

[fsn]

But in the earlier period the Brits were camouflaged.

And when they were camouflaged ... they lost.

[Techno]

Looking forward to seeing it progress, Terry.

Cheers - Phil

[Ithoriel]

German camouflage and losses started around the same time as this gem, which I got from a German who'd been in armoured units during WW2, came into circulation:-

"If it shows up blue, it's British. If it shows up white, it's American. If it doesn't show up at all it's the Luftwaffe!"

[fsn]

From Normandy "When the RAF turn up, the Germans duck. When the Luftwaffe turns uo, the allies duck. When the USAAF turns up everybody ducks."

For clarity, I think that technology, tactics and industrial muscle have far more to do with determining the overall result of armoured warfare than the pretty camouflage schemes or ... dare I say it ... tactical air power.


And bless you Techno for trying to re-rail this thread.

Why are threads "derailed". Why aren't they "dethreaded" or "dis-needled" or "mis-hemmed"?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Perhaps the threads are training?

[toxicpixie]

Perhaps the threads are training?

No, the German tanks are training, because they break to quickly on road marches!

[d_Guy]

No, the German tanks are training, because they break to quickly on road marches!

Similar to low-end BMW's?

[toxicpixie]

Plus ca change

I doubt they were concerned with fiddling emissions tests, mind