Every now and then I buy a model and it comes with a few styrene plastic troops.
Or I buy a collection and it has a few styrene troops in it.
Or I buy a set of styrene troops.
Then every few years all those miscellaneous troops and bits and bobs get collected for a little work.
I pull out the sheet styrene and make bases for them, sometimes I add an oil drum or other items to make unique troops.
This horse is from the Hasagawa 1/72nd scale Stuart tank kit. I cut the lower half of the rider off and add the upper half of some other troops and I get some WWII US Army horse cavalry. In Italy and France the US made a few ad hoc horse cavalry units. Most just picked up a German horse for a few days, but others were actual units. There were still lots of real cowboys in the Army in those days.
The soldier with his back to use is holding a pair of binoculars. I add a carbine and an ammo can and now he is the third man in a three man machine gun team. I my rules set a three man machine gun team can fire indirect fire, something machine guns can do with a little preparation.
I give my loaders a weapon, in my wargame rules crewmen get a pistol, but can use a secondary weapon if it's mounted on their person or on their base. This way if the enemy destroys the MG these guys can still fight.
