Vichy France had many different old or at least obsolete combat vehicles in their colonies. While more than half of Metropolitan France was occupied by the Germans, under the Armistice of 22 June 1940, Vichy was still obligated to defend its unoccupied lands as a neutral state.

As such, while Vichy was denied armored units, she was allowed to have integrated combined-arms units in the colonies – forces that had armored vehicles. These Vichy tanks and armored cars would play a role in Operation Torch in November 1942 against US forces in Morocco (and Algeria as well).

My last post covered two older (by November 1942 standards) armored cars used by Vichy forces – the White-Laffly AMD 80 and the Schneider AMC P16. Vichy also had tanks in North Africa, one of the most common was the WWI-vintage Renault FT-17.

For this post, I will discuss the venerable Renault FT-17’s that I built and painted up for my Operation Torch game of What a Tanker that I ran at HISTORICON 2025.

3,000 FT-17’s were built by France between 1917 and 1919. Indeed, she had so many old FT-17’s that the development and acquisition of newer tanks was negatively affected. Simply put, the French budgetary bean counters saw that the French Army had plenty of tanks available on paper, so why build too many more expensive ones? This would not bode well when May-June 1940 came around. Of course, French military doctrine was as least as equally to blame for the Fall of France (read BG Doughty’s The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine 1919-1939). After that debacle, Vichy did have many FT-17’s still in her colonies.

For my game, I had to have some FT-17’s. Historically, some were armed with the Puteaux SA18 37mm cannon, others with machine guns and even a very few with a short-barreled 75mm howitzer. For my game-design purposes, I decided that all should be armed with the 37mm cannon. I did have one completed 15mm/1:100 scale metal FT-17 from Peter Pig that I could rebase and use – it was described in my blog here.

To augment that, I purchased a 5-vehicle FT-17 platoon on eBay from jacobsminis (aka HobbyHouse&Miniatures.LLC). The tanks were nice crisp resin models. I ordered them on April 8th, and they arrived on April 14th. I started to work on them on April 28th (while concurrently working on all of the other vehicles for the project).

As I was working on many other vehicles, photo time got to be rare for me. Therefore, I do not have much in terms of WIP shots. I adopted the same airbrush painting pattern as I used for the Peter Pig model. The only difference was that I did not add a lot of mud to the tracks.

Then it was on to the decal and basing phases, which were like those that I employed and shared in my last post. I did end up with similar numerical decals on different tanks – but I did vary the sides and the other decals. Each one had a distinct name.

As an example, here is “MARECHAL PETAIN”. Each steel base is 1½” x 2″.

I’m sure that you’d like some better “eye candy”, so…

FT-17’s

“REIMS”

“MARECHAL FOCH”

“MARECHAL PETAIN”

“TYPHON”

“TOMBOUCTOU”

Group Shots

Below are all my FT-17’s, including the Peter Pig model on the front right. It has no name – but it does have mud!

Another view of the opposite side of the tanks – the Peter Pig model is on the bottom right here as well.

With terrible armor – yet the same 37mm gun as many other Vichy French AFV’s – these antique FT-17’s did indeed engage the US in battle in November 1942.

And an Instagram link for a video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DMwIOgMNcpD/

I do want to dedicate this post to my good friend Leif, who adores the FT-17 more than anyone else I know. When we play, it’s an easy choice as to which side he wants. He also helps me immensely at conventions – so this post is for you!

To all of you, thanks for looking! I will have share more Vichy vehicles soon. I eventually painted up 31 Vichy – and so far I’ve covered just 12 of them (6 FT-17’s, 3 White-Laffly AMD 80’s, and 3 Schneider AMC P16’s). More to come as I catch up. And there of course will be US vehicles. As always, if you want, I’d love to hear any feedback – feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

For all of my posts on WWII games and projects – there is a consolidated list of posts and their links located here.

Next up – Hotchkiss 35’s, 39’s, and Renault 35’s. Until my next post!

MATERIALS USED

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS AND FLOCKING USED ON THESE FT-17 MODELS:

1. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
2. Green Stuff
3. War Games Accessories Steel Bases Number 23 (1½” x 2″)
4. No. 19 x ½” flat head nails
5. Neodymium magnets (⅛” and ¼”)
6. Gorilla Glue
7. Vallejo Surface Primer “Black”
8. Wooden Blocks, steel bolts, steel washers, nails, magnets, steel screws
9. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
10. Vallejo Primers “NATO Green”
11. Vallejo Premium Color “Yellow Ochre”
12. Hataka “Vert Fonce”
13. Vallejo Model Air “Tire Black”
14. Vallejo Model Color “Dark Sea Grey”
15. Battlefront “Oxide Red”
16. Army Painter “Dark Tone” (wash)
17. Vallejo Mecha Weathering Effects “Dark Rust Wash”
18. Vallejo “Mecha Varnish Gloss”
19. Microscale Industries “Micro Set”
20. Microscale Industries “Micro Sol”
21. Microscale Industries “Liquid Decal Film”
22. Flames of War French Decal Set (FR940)
23. Peddinghaus-Decals 1/100 2181 “World of Flames French tanks early war”
24. Citadel “‘Ardcoat”
25. Vallejo Surface Primer “German Green Brown”
26. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
27. Citadel “Agrellan Earth” (texture)
28. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (shade/wash)
29. Reaper MSP Core Colors “Blackened Brown”
30. Vallejo Flow Improver
31. Vallejo Thinner
32. Vallejo “Matte Polyurethane Varnish”
33. Printed labels on card stock
34. Gamers Grass “Tiny Beige 2mm Tufts” (flocking)
35. PVA Glue