WWII French

Recently I visited Larry at Pegasus Hobbies in Montclair. He gave me a couple sprue of his new World War One and World War Two French figures. These are test sprues but are essentially done. They color will probably be darker than this color.

Most of the figures are two parts, a body and an arm with a weapon. There are also some that have a separate head or other separate part.

These sets are very nicely detailed. The WWI set will also work for WWII.

WWII weapons sprue. Mostly rifles, naturally, but also a machine gun.

These are flash free, and fit together easily. Thanks Larry for giving me these so I can post the photos here. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Embassy

I added two figures from the Caesar Undead set to the Romanian embassy staff. Often, various nationals will take refuge into an embassy during wartime. They will work for those Weird War Two scenarios.

Here is a view of some of the women of the embassy. One has a firearm as capture by the Russians was not pleasant for most women. Click to enlarge the photo.

The main embassy defense team, 1/72nd scale plastic figures.

Embassy staff, including the ambassador, military attache, and important citizen.

At a time of fuel shortage, the horse is an important means of transportation. I used civilians, medieval figures, WWII figures, military figures, and even undead for this project.

Romanian Embassy

As part of my Battle of Berlin project I am building various embassy staff. This is the staff for Romania. The Romanians switched sides to the Russians as the Communists were overrunning the country. There were some Romanians who stayed loyal to the Germans, mostly Romanian Iron Guard members.

I took some Vlad Tepes figures from Lucky Toys and cut off their headwear to give traditional headgear to the more modern figures.

Some of these are the Caesar Miniatures Partisans in Europe set.

These are Prieser and Dapol figures that I have modified with traditional headwear.

The team includes a few women as secretaries and office staff. It is fun to resort figure sets and with a few head swaps and changes to the bases makes the figures part of a more cohesive set.

Pegasus IG 18

This is the new 1/72nd scale Pegasus 75mm IG 18 in hard plastic. The crew is in soft plastic.

As you can see, the sprue for the guns is very good. It has tiny, fragile parts that fit together perfectly.

There is a choice of horse drawn spoked wooden wheel or rubber tired wheel.

The guns' instructions are very clear and easy to follow for a very advanced kit. Use great care in taking the bits off the sprue. It makes a good solid wargame piece despite the tiny parts that make up the model.

Kit comes with one extra shell and an ammo box.

ERR Opel Blitz

I have the old and new Roco Opel Blitz trucks, military and civilian versions. I also have the Wiking Opel Blitz trucks but it is still nice to get even more variation, so a couple years ago I got this truck from Wespe Models.

The kit is nearly all resin with wire for the axles. The parts are pretty strong for resin and almost no flash.

The instructions are rather weak, but the parts fit together well. The cab is one big part.

Wheels are a hub and then the tires go on the hub. They fit very tightly.

I used Zap-A-Gap CA glue for most all of it.

Here we see a Luftwaffe man getting into the recently completed truck. I suspect this truck will be part of my Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg.

Bf 109

These two guys look more like NSTB investigators at the scene of a plane crash than actual workers helping put these planes together.

Each little stack of bits is one plane model, removed from the sprue and the flash and tabs trimmed. Then the bits are glued into sub assemblies. You can see the propeller and spinner assembly has been done and the cockpits are being worked on. The bits are moved into the center work area as each section is completed.

Here you can see larger bits, the wings are done and the fuselages are being readied for assembly.

Here are four completed planes undergoing final inspection prior to their factory test flight.

Paints in the background are for the pilots and the cockpits. Aircraft exteriors and decals come later. I like to paint in large masses so that units have more integrity of color and batch and markings can be consistent.

Plane Construction

These guys were helping me build the Bf-109 squadron.

Here the parts are ripped from the sprue and the flash trimmed.

Crew training is very difficult, but this late in the war, almost everyone passes.

A few parts are cut off the sprue using a special tool.

A good sturdy wrench is sometimes needed to tighten up some of the parts.

Aircraft Mass Building

As part of my Battle of Berlin plan, I am building Bf-109 aircraft. These are the Heller kit, 1/72nd scale plastic. Did I mention I was going to build ten at a time?

These worthy volunteers have chosen a career in aviation. The Heller kit does not come with a pilot and I like pilots in my planes.

These pilots came from several walks of life, including being Kibri people. Kibri kits sometime have rather mannequin type figures.

Building ten kits at once is it's own skill. First I build one as a training exercise. Then I build another for more training and incorporating shortcuts that I came up with during the construction of the first one. Then I build a third one using all the shortcuts and making annotations to the instructions.

A photo of the practice ones along with a couple others from Matchbox and Hasagawa.

GWB in Combat

A front view of the Imex Radio Operator. 1/72nd scale glue able plastic. I use regular model glue. He has a carbine, it was popular with the Germans and was a replacement for the pistol. That makes it a good weapon for the radio guy.

Another view of the Thomson gunner with US Army backpack.

A small unit of George Washington Brigade soldiers. Note the bazooka launcher team. The large bag is the ammo for the bazooka. Note also the panzerfaust man has a rifle next to him. In my rule set you only get the weapons the figures have. So to allow the panzerfaust man to shoot someone, he has to have a rifle.

New Product Line

Very soon I will make a very special announcement about a new hobby product.

George Washington Brigade

The next George Washington Brigade soldier is an Imex WWII German in 1/72nd scale plastic. He has had his belt enhanced with an American style entrenching tool. It was taken from an Imex WWII Easy Company paratrooper. The glueable plastic is great for making figure conversions. Just use regular model glue.

This soldier has had an American rifle placed on his leg. He will be the #2 guy for the bazooka man.

This advancing soldier has been given a US Army backpack. I had to trim down his back to make it flatter to fit the pack.

This submachine gun armed soldier has a GI backpack. The German gear had to be cut off to make room for it.

This is a side view of the standing pistol shooter conversion.

More GWB

This is a pretty good rear view of the Thompson gunner. Note the combination of GI and German kit on his back. The Thompson was well respected by the Germans.

This Imex WWII German officer in 1/72nd scale plastic has been altered to be an American serving in the Waffen SS in the George Washington Brigade. I only did a small number of these guys but I figured they were intended to be more of a cadre than a typical squad and so included an officer.

The original figure is kneeling and firing a pistol. I cut off some of his German kit and replaced it with an American pack.

His firing arm was removed and I gave him a walkie talkie radio instead. This way the other radio guy has someone to talk to! I also added an American rifle to his left hand.

This one was very difficult. The standing German rifleman on the right, firing the rifle was altered to take the pistol from the American paratrooper in the center. A rather tricky conversion but it turned out well. I wanted these guys to use a good cross section of American weapons, yet retain their overall German appearance.