Great War French Clavery's Chargers (GFRAB01) Spotlight

Hello All

Today we are going to have a look at the new French Clavery's Chargers (GFRAB01) set for Great War. One of our local gamers Robin Spence painted these for us and so I will hand it over to him to explain the rest.

First off the list, you get the options of either Reluctant Veterans or Fearless Veterans, the points jump a lot between the two and this box set can be anything from around 1600pts for RV and a whooping 2200pts for FV.
In game with the French special rules for re-rolling failed counter attack rolls I would be tempted to go defensive and add some artillery to the army with the Reluctant Veterans and enjoy the points break.

In the box you get 2x Infantry platoons, the HQ with 3x Flame-thrower teams, 2x 37mm mle 1916 gun teams, a HMG platoon with 4x Hotchkiss mle 1914 HMG teams, 4x 76mm Stokes mortar or 58mm Type 2 mortar teams, a Schneider Tank and a Saint-Chamond Tank.

The infantry and gun teams were ok to paint but I was happy to see that the French great three different officer models unlike the two that the Germans and British got. They were clean with no flashing upon them. I sprayed them Humbrol Gray primer, again mixed Vallejo blue, I used Games Workshop Nuln Oil which I then washed the figure with. Next stage was a lightened blue dry brush followed by a very light white dry brush. I painted the equipment black then used various Browns and Beiges for the equipment.

Ben had asked me to paint them in what I assume is the early uniform Colour blue. Having been to Bovington and seen the waxwork figures and tanks I suspect that after a couple of weeks the whole uniform would have turned to brown mud so very little of the blue would have showed at all.

Basing. I used normal Polly filler on the bases with a little grit sprinkled on top whilst wet. I inked the bases then dry brushed with US Drab, Camo Beige and finally white. I used a very small amount of green flock.

The tanks were the best part of the painting. Interesting vehicles. As it happens I had just been to Bovington Tank museum when I was painting them so I had more of an understanding as to what I was painting. Construction wise both were very easy to build, just the bottom of the tracks and MG's to add with the Schneider having a molded on gun and the Saint-Chamond needing the gun stuck on.

To paint them I used a Humbrol Gray primer spray, then airbrushed the whole tank the pale blue which I mixed from Vallejo paints. Once that was dry I hand painted the camouflage with Vallejo Camo Beige, Olive Green and Brown. I then lined the camo patches with black paint. Dry brushed with games workshop Rust and did a wet brush on the lower parts with Tamayo Mud stick.

Overall this is a great set to get if you are looking at starting Great War, for £65 you get anything from around 1600pts to 2200pts depending on if you go for Reluctant Veterans or Fearless Veterans. The first buy afterwards would be some artillery if it was me and maybe some FT-17's but I think the tanks would be down to personal choice.

Thanks for reading

Robin - http://robinspence.webs.com/