USSR FDC

The Roco M577 model comes with a big plastic antenna. I took one of those and made it into a ground mount for my Russian artillery. The base is flocked sheet styrene, the guide wires are thread stiffened with superglue. This gives me a big long range radio for contacting forward observers near the front. Note the Airfix former infantry have been transferred to the artillery. I put a bit of plastic on the base of the running SMG guy and removed his gun. He stands up much better now.

A tiny bit of wire cleverly whipped into a pair of scissors telescopes. It is mounted on painted sheet plastic with minimal flocking. Another item to place near the fire direction center for the battery, or can go with the forward observer team. In the back you can see I took a couple 55 gallon drums and glued down some styrene plastic with a wooden board pattern on the top. It makes a nice map board.

Here is a good close up of the Airfix soldier and the map board. I often glue maps and other papers on them for more authenticity. Sometimes an SMG, radio or other bits add some extra realism.

Considering the advanced age of these figures they are not too bad. The weapons were the worst part and without them the figures are much better. Artillery crews are often scarce and and expensive as well, so retraining these guys when I replaced them with the Esci, now Italeri, Russian soldiers seemed a economical alternative.