Tanks and People

Old men and young men unfit for front line service clear the rubble.

The tanks move slowly, don't break a track, or create wear on the transmission.

The mighty 88mm gun is still a potent weapon.

A mother worries about her little girl.

The American bombers did not come today, but the British may come tonight.

Who is the man in the trench coat, is he Gestapo?

Embassy Figures

Dapol makes a lot of great figures for WWII.

Some of the figures are Subbetto soccer players, some are ancients, some are even cowboys.

Alamo Mexican hat on a WWII German makes a Spanish officer.

Spray primer for everyone!

Each group got an official photographer too.

Some even got children.

Painting

When painting figures I often use white spray primer.

Line up the figures and spray outside, downwind.

I have a tray on top of a stool, so I can turn the tray around as I paint.

The paint must cover the yellow helmet, the white base and grey body.

The figures should be a uniform color.

Troops

Germans ready for painting.

My collection has well in excess of 100,000+ so I generally only paint my troops one single color.

These guys are no exception.

These Dapol civilians are great, generic civilians for the first half of the 20th Century.

This type of simple conversion allows me to make all kinds of figures not available commercially.

Troops

The accordion is common for German troops in WWII.

Waving.

Leaning.

Lunch or ammo box?

A platoon of soldiers.

Troops

Another German with a new base.

These guys will be painted over all one color.

I am not much of a painter.

Sometimes I drill a hole at about the elbow and add a panzerfaust.

Other times they get a machine gun.

Troops

Trim down the head on the figure.

That way the helmet fits better.

Put a daub of Goo rubber cement on the head.  Then press down the helmet.

 This guy is from Ykreol, I replaced his base with a new one so he looks more like the rest of the troops.

Add a few weapons here and there.  I use those from the Fujimi German Infantry set.

People's Army

Nazi Germany finally organized nearly everyone by the last few months of the war.

I use the two Dapol civilian figures sets to represent some of these men.

Many of these were essential war workers who were enrolled to defend their local community as the war approached their factories and homes.

Often they had a hat, or a helmet, perhaps an ammo belt along with their armband to show they were members of the armed forces or armed forces auxiliaries.  

This was important because it gave them legal protections under the Geneva Conventions as lawful combatants and if captured, as POWs.

Dapol

These figures are from Dapol in 1/72nd scale.

Some of them get the bases cut off and a new bit of headgear put on them.

The original base figures get pith helmets.

These guys are being used as OT troops for Europe or with sun hat for Africa.

It's one way to get troops no one actually makes.