German Gold Miners?

I love the new plastics. Imex and Pegasus are using a rather hard glue able plastic. While I would prefer it was a tiny bit softer, it glues very well, and I like it a lot. I took the Imex WWII German Infantry set and combined it with the Pegasus Gold Rush set. The Imex set has a few poses that I don't care for, a prone dead guy; a man standing, being shot; and a kneeling man, firing a pistol, while turning. The kneeling shooting man is not bad, but you get way too many in a box. So I have harvested these figures for heads/ helmets, weapons and equipment, and boots. These three figures have been converted from gold miners to WWII Germans. The German Army was so short staffed that they took men from almost anywhere they could get them. Late in the war they did not always get traditional uniforms.

My wargame units have as many of the support troops as I can field for them. That includes troops who are preparing meals, washing dishes, moving supplies. These gold miners are now dishwashers. The draft animals in the background have been drafted into the Wehrmacht. I added a mortar shell box to the back of one load and a Jerry can to the back of the other load. Little strips of styrene are used to hold the box down.

This man has a machine pistol on his lap, a pack and new head. Now he is washing dishes in the German Army, rather than panning for gold.

The cobbler has a supply of old boots that need repair. A pair of boots is valuable and troops often got them repaired rather than replaced. The high top boots were particularly prized.

This gold miner has been transformed with new arms from the kneeling firing man. He has a new head too. He is now an armorer and he is repairing and cleaning a Luger.

A little work on figures can pay off with new poses, new tasks, new variety for your wargame army.