.30 Caliber Machine Gun

Armies often find similar solutions to similar problems.

The .30 caliber machine gun used by the US Army was not too different from the German machine gun.

I have taken the American water cooled machine gun and placed it on a German tripod.

The Germans used a lot of captured equipment, but I have no evidence for this particular combination.

Still, I think it is a reasonable combination.

I have given it to my George Washington Legion troops.

I placed the American machine gun and mount on the German machine gun tripod.

I suspect that the Germans could have done this.

It would not be a very difficult conversion.

Shown here with a German using a .45 M1911 pistol.

Photo Techniques

Black and white version.

Since most of what we see from WWII is black and white, taking black and white photos makes them look more real.

This was taken in color, but the figures, terrain and base are grey.

It makes it look almost like a black and white photo.

Play with the settings on your camera, and try different lighting techniques.

You may be surprised at what you find out.

Geo. Washington Brigade

This figure has a US Army bazooka from an Esci hard plastic Marine set.  Figure is Afrika Korps in hard plastic from a Matchbox kit.

I changed the right arm of this figure, and gave him a Thompson SMG.  Many of these figures are Imex WWII Germans and US Army Paratroopers Easy Company.  They are molded in a glueable plastic that made the conversions much easier.

US .30 caliber water cooled machine gun on a German MG-34 tripod.  Figure in the back has an M-1 rifle.

.50 caliber machine gun on tripod.

The whole unit together.

George Washington Brigade

This is the well known PaK 38 37mm anti-tank gun, withe the large shaped charge projector on the end of the barrel.

Here is the same shaped charged projectile on an American 37mm anti-tank gun.  Note the troops are wearing US packs.  I got a set of US Army from Valiant.  They were listed as 1/72nd scale but I think they are too big.  I kept the packs but got rid of the rest.  The packs found their way to these guys.

Bazooka with loader.  Bazooka is American and the loader has an M-1 rifle.

Another soldier with a US Army pack.

A captured Sherman tank.  Jerry can rack and Jerry cans on the rear hull.  Side skirts added, and an MG-42 is mounted on the turret.  The Germans captured a lot of Shermans and used them for their own.  Typically they did not do this much conversion work on the tanks.

Geo. Washington

There is no evidence that this unit ever existed, but there is proof of service in the German military of at least a few dozen Americans, including at least one deserter.  So my plan was to keep this unit small, basically a heavily armed platoon.  Here are two troops with a .50 caliber machine gun.  Gun is from Roco and mounted on sheet styrene for greater durability.

I mounted this Roco air cooled machine gun on a German MG mount.  I replaced the air cooled barrel with a water cooled barrel, the air cooled one was broken.  I added ammo can and water can.

Figures have American packs, but German weapons, including a panzerfaust.

The standing figure has a new arm from the Imex US Paratroopers, so he is firing a Colt .45 M1911 pistol.  I gave every figure in this unit at least one piece of American equipment to identify him as belonging to this brigade.

The officer got a new Imex arm.

Grenade thrower and seated soldier.  Some of these troops may serve some of the crew served weapons.  This little group has a lot of weapons, but not really enough to service them all at the same time easily.  I wanted variety but not large numbers.

Troops ready for primer job.

Geo. Washington

These Airfix Germans have been converted into Geo. Washington Brigade SS troops.  German 37mm AT Gun with hollow charge projectile.  Note, more in the box.

They also get a captured US 37mm gun with the same hollow charge on the end of the barrel.

American bazooka and #2 with extra rounds.

American flame thrower from the Esci US Marines set.

Mounted on a Matchbox figure from one of their vehicle sets.

Geo. Washington Brigade

In WWII the Germans tried to get units organized from all the nations of Europe and other nations as well.  They had a small unit of former British soldiers, and a few thousand troops from India serving together as the Indian Legion of the SS.  This is a small unit along those lines.  It is formed by Americans living in Germany when war started in 1939, German / Americans who returned to Germany before the end of 1941, and a few POW's and defectors to the German side.

These are mostly Imex German Infantry with various American bits of equipment.  These first two have Thompson SMGs.  The French deployed the Thompson and the Germans captured many of them.  Both of these figures have American packs and entrenching tools, from Fujimi.

Seated figure is from an Airfix kit.

This guy has pouches and pack from Valiant.

Another Airfix figure from a kit.  He has a .45 from an Imex US Army paratrooper along with the American canteen.

"National" armies often got at least some weapons, equipment or uniform items from their original nation.  French SS troops wore some French uniform items and decorations; former Soviet troops in the PLA carried many Soviet weapons.