Italeri AT Set

An anti-tank set with an actual anti-tank guy. This WWII German is from the Italeri Anti-tank set. He is similar to the Italeri Soviet figure in a like pose. He also does not have the sight up on his panzerfaust. One wrong figure is a bad figure, two bad figures is poor research.

Too bad such an excellently sculpted figure is marred by such a foolish error.

This German figure also has a panzerfaust. He is holding it in an unlikely pose, the arming bar and the sight is not in the upright position as it would be to fire. The back end of the rocket launcher seems to be under his arm, which would burn him if he did fire in this pose. Another beautiful figure, badly researched.

This would be a great figure if he were holding an assault rifle or if he had the panzerfaust in the correct position.

An anti-tank set with a machine gunner. The Germans used vast numbers of different kinds of anti-tank weapons. Grenades, mines, at least three kinds of panzerfaust, magnetic mines, rockets, hollow point projectiles on grenade launchers, anti-tank rifles, wire guided missiles, all sorts of weapons, so why we are given a moving machine gunner I can't imagine. Machine guns can be used to cause tankers to button up and to help blind them by shooting the vision blocks, but they really are not anti-tanks weapons as such.

This is a great set, with some fantastic poses, but the research is poor and we should have gotten better from them. Now we will be seeing these poorly researched figures in the shops for the rest of my life. Molds of this kind last for 40 or 50 years, so they really should spend a few more weeks on research to get the pose and weapons correct.

Italeri AT

This is the back of the Soviet light machine gunner. This is one of the figures from the Italeri Anti-tank set.

A kneeling Soviet panzerfaust man. One flaw in the set is the sights are not up. When the sights are folded up it arms the weapon. You can't fire it with the sights down. Apart from that error, these are very nice figures.

A PPSH submachine gun on the back of this figure. It is good to have a second weapon on this figure. In my rule set I allow troops to fire any weapon that they have moulded on them.

Another exciting figure, this time a German firing his MP40 submachine gun. Just like in every war movie and TV show! Well done!

The back side of this figure shows the great moulding they did on him. Note the depth of the details. A great soldier figure.

Italeri Anti-tank

The rather strange Italeri Anti-tank Team set has finally made it to my loccal hobby shop. This guy is a WWII Russian soldier with a German Panzerfaust along with his rifle.

A very nice soldier figure in the padded jacket so common in Communist armies. The Russians kept German panzerfausts in production after they captured the factory.

This Soviet officer is a great figure, but has no real connection to anti-tank weapons. Still, a very good figure. Soldiers are plastic, 1/72nd scale, but a bit stocky.

The officer is calling and waving, a good way to encourage the troops.

An action packed soldier with a light machine gun. A very well sculpted figure, in a terrific pose. Again not much anti-tank in the pose, but still great!

NSKK Marine Figures

I took a set of the Airfix 1/72nd scale Luftwaffe Ground Crew and replaced their heads with heads from the Revell 1/72nd scale German WWII Naval figures.  The man with the big bar is an AA gun cannon barrel.

These figures look like they will make good sailors, there are many items that need to be repaired on a working warship.

The blue on is the sailor who donated the heads.  The welding man kept his head.

These three are the last of the coversions for my NSKK Marine unit.

Marine NSKK

I set this Roco Minitank up as a light boat support truck. The plastic sheet will allow me to remove the load and use it as a stand alone at dockside.

The crate is from Eagle Games. The coiled rope and anchor give it a real nautical feel. I added two oars from a old Fujimi Swimmwagen.

This old Roco Assault Boat has been dressed up a bit. The oar is from an old Roco raft set, and the life ring from the old "Alligator" kit. The gas can is Fujimi.

A couple little bits really dress up this old boat.

The boats are designed to stack and with these extra items they won't stack anymore. I will only do this to a couple as command and control boats, or as repair boats. This one and the Opel Blitz are for my Marine NSKK unit.

Opel Trucks

Modern armies run on fuel. And that means fuel trucks to carry the important liquid to the vehicles in the field. Roco Minitanks makes an accessory set with a little fuel pump and fuel barrels. I mounted one on a sheet of styrene plastic. I used styrene that has a wood board pattern so it looks like a floor of a truck or even planking or the floor of a room. The plastic is the size to fit inside a truck bed for maximum flexibility.

Like civilian vehicles, military vehicles break down and need roadside service. Using the same kind of plastic I have made a small set of repair parts and tools. Tool box, jack, and tire to fix a roadside flat tire.

A tow cable in the repair vehicle and a small barrel of motor oil to keep the vehicles running.

A specialized vehicle here. An entire engine, fuel, and other marine parts for small boat repair.

A barrel full of small parts and a fuel barrel with pump. Engineers use small boats for bridges and small boats are used to patrol lakes, streams, rivers and they all break down once in a while. A repair truck like this gets the work done to repair them and put them back in action.

NSKK Fuel Trucks

Much of the NSKK was used to support the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe often used big tanker trucks to haul fuel around. The Army did not use tanker trucks much, they used barrels and fuel cans.

This is a Wiking truck that originally had a cargo body. I removed the body and from the spares box I found an old Airfix British fuel truck body.

This big Mercedes Benz fuel truck with two troops, one from Italeri and the other from HaT.

The Italeri motorcycle with tanker truck. This type of truck would be used to service an airfield. The truck goes to the nearest railhead and fills from a railway tanker car. Then it returns to the airstrip and refuels the airplanes.

Sometimes smaller trucks loaded with barrels and fuel cans can be used to fuel planes at subsidiary fields.