More Figure Conversions

I needed some special figures for a lost world adventure game. The game was set just after WWII with an American civilian team using war surplus weapons and equipment. No one makes these kinds of figures in 1/72nd scale plastic, so I made my own. These green guys are a mixture of Revell WWII US Army and Esci / Italeri US Army figures. I cut off their heads with a sharp X-Acto knife and cut the heads off of a few Revell Australian Infantry. I drilled a tiny hole in the neck part of the torso and the bottom of the head. I then inserted a 6mm long bit of guitar string into the hole in the body. I added a bit of gap filling superglue and pressed the head onto the body. A bit of bending and tweaking made the head sit properly. The gap filling glue made the join look right.















The two orange color figures are American Indians. I cut a kneeling one in half and a standing one in half and bonded the upper half of the kneeling guy to the lower half of the other figure. This gave me the standing bow and arrow figure in buckskin. The original standing figure was bare chested. I also removed a canteen from a Revell US Army soldier and using the pin and glue system stuck it to his waist. The other Indian figure was a standing rifleman with a lever action rifle, which I cut off. I cut the M-1 Garand off a Esci / Italeri US Army soldier and then bonded it to the firing Indian. This gives me an Indian with an M-1 Garand rifle. By adding the canteen and M-1 I update the two Indian figures to WWII era civilians.

Making figure conversions is pretty simple and fast. One of the key elements is to try and match up the sizes and shapes of the two poses you plan on grafting together. New heads make a big difference, you can change unit types, time frame, and season just by swapping heads. These conversions were done using the old non-glueable plastics, the new glueable plastics make things even easier.

37mm Gun For WWI

The French 37mm cannon was used on the FT-17 tank and on tripods during the First World War by both the French Army and the US Army.
















The HaT First World War French Early set in 1/72nd scale comes with a tripod mounted Hotchkiss machine gun. It provided great fire support to the French.















I took a 37mm gun from the HaT US Army WWI set and mounted it on a tripod rather than the Hotchkiss gun. This gives my French troops some added firepower. These early war soldiers uniforms were phased out about the same time as this weapon was phased in, so they would not have used these guns for very long. Still it provides an interesting weapon they otherwise would not have. They can also be used with the HaT / Airfix late war French infantry set, if you cobble together a crew for it. It only takes a crew of two, a gunner and loader. They can be seated, kneeling, or prone and there are several figures in that set that will work for crewmen.

Tractor Conversion

Despite the vast numbers of commercially available model kits there are some things you just can't get. In the 1950's the old WWII Dragon Wagons were retired and a new truck was used to tow and transport tanks and other very heavy military loads.















My friend Wayne sent in a couple pictures of a heavily modified cab with a scratch built side by side winch assembly. This truck was used in the 50's after the M26 was retired. There are over a hundred some parts in that model. It's pictured in the Standard Catalog of Military Vehicles.















This model started life as a Roco Minitanks 5 ton tractor truck. It was modified to have the big winch and to accept the Roco Dragon Wagon trailer.















M123 seen with the vehicle it replaced, the M26 Dragon Wagon. The key with conversions like this is to search your library to get good photos of the target vehicle and take your time. The model does not have to be exact, or perfect, it has to look like the original from about arms reach away. Most people are put off by making conversions because they seem too hard. Start with an easy one, like combining two models to make a third, and go from there. You will be surprised how easy it can be to do. Many vehicles will never be made by the big companies because they are too rare, so making a conversion is a great way to go.



Thanks Wayne for the photos, and great job!

Soviet Naval Infantry and River Monitors

In World War Two the Soviet Union operated river monitors to patrol the many inland waterways of their nation. I made these two models out of wood and Roco Minitank parts about ten years ago.

















At last I finally got a crew for them. The Pegasus Soviet Naval Infantry set. Shown here is the 82mm mortar with two man crew. The mortar can be assembled without a base but I prefer to mount crew served weapons on a little plastic stand for more wargame durability.















The Naval Infantry set has two sprues of figures and two sprues of mostly arms with weapons. There are 16 poses and apart from the prone guys they all have bases. Set includes a nice selection of weapons including two prone and advancing light machine gunners and a two light mortars. There are also two officers waving. All the sailors are wearing caps and square rig. and with weapons swaps could probably work for any navy of WWII.















There is also the dead guy. Larry Pegasus knows how much I loathe dead, and wounded guys and so he calls them the "sleeping" guys. They are not dead, they are just sleeping. They are ambush guys, playing possum ready to spring up and attack. Yeah, right Larry.

Soviet Naval Infantry were there at Stalingrad, Sevastopol, and all along the Black Sea and Northern waters too. They conducted commando style raids along the coasts and fought as infantry too. A few head swaps with more traditional Soviet infantry will make twice as many Soviet Naval Infantry because they looked more and more like regular army soldiers as the war went on. They also fought in the East against Japan and they looked like Sailors again as they were new units from the Siberian Fleet area.