More 15mm Char Bs

 The final bit of the missing QRF order which eventually turned up was a pair of Char Bs. 

And here they are, either in action intimidating the Germans, or parked up waiting to refuel.

Simple yet quite imposing models. Not as heavy as the PP one as they have a lot less metal in the hull. Just the two tracks to stick on, so simple assembly, and a bit of flash to clear up. The 47mm barrel is quite thin, which is fine, but may be vulnerable to damage, so I'll need to keep an eye on that.

There is a reasonable amount of moulded detail, although the vulnerable radiator grill on the left side is a very faint moulding. The only oddity is that the track links look a bit narrow to me. I know there were two variants of Char B track, so maybe this is the earlier one. They look OK painted up though. 

I've already got two Char Bs in three colour camo, so I thought I'd try this insanely complex five colour camo scheme instead. Ochre, red brown, light green and mid green with each area of colour edged in dark green. Halfway through it looked pretty awful but adding the edging with a fine brush transformed it. The design is straight from my copy of Vauvilliers 'French armoured vehicles 1914 to 1940'. 2nd DCR I think?

I added a few markings but they seemed to be fairly sparse on Char Bs, apart from 4th DCR with its huge roundels. Once the basic paint job was thoroughly dry, the whole thing got an ink wash, some mud and then a tan drybrush.

Side by side with the BPM one. The hull dimensions are identical, but the BPM turret (which looks suspiciously like a Somua turret) is a bit taller. The BPM tracks look more like the the ones commonly seen in photos though.

The two QRF ones on the left, the BPM one on the right and the Peter Pig one in the middle. The PP one is definitely overscale, but close enough. It weighs as much as all the others put together as well. The PP one is actually in German markings to stand in for Panzer Kompany 224, so perhaps now I've got some actual French Char Bs I should finish the conversion to a flammpanzer and add the fuel tank on the engine deck

So, rather like the Somuas, I think I've got more Char Bs than I'll ever need, although funnily enough I just came across a scenario calling for four companies of them, so who knows...