Power to the Plastic ! ( 1/56 figure kit bashes )

[ultravanillasmurf]

Very nice. The tank riders are really good, I like the use of the ammo boxes. Do you just place them on the rear deck or are they pinned?

That Half-track looks suitably busy - getting them in the right location must be a pain, a 3d jigsaw. I am having trouble getting the Marder crew positioned (photographic evidence to follow ^__^).

I am going to dig out a PSC Soviet heavy weapons sprue and see how they can be upgraded (they show the downside of straight upscaling).

Not helped by some uninspiring painting on my part  (Crooked Dice's Pandora for scale).

[ripley]

The 2 riders a glued to the boxes which can be placed on any of my  T-34s . I probably should have done the same with my other tank riders but I glued them to the rear deck . Live and learn .  The PSC  troops  are in need of a reboot IMO , from what I've seen of them . I think maybe the Heavy Weapons crews might work better for kit bashing than the regular troops  . I've only got their AT gun set , and those troops don't inspire me , just a head or arm swap is possible  . Although I did make a couple into snipers .  I added a new BA arm and head to each and gave them a gauze gilli suit , still needs some Battlefront Poison Ivy bits and some dry brushing

this guy was the gunner and the guy below is one of the loaders
[/url                         Now that the  add on sets for my 2 SdKfz 250s has arrived , I'll have to see what I can do with the figures from the kits

[ultravanillasmurf]

I did wonder if they were discontinued as they are not n the 28mm World War 2 link (Rubicon models only), but they are linked via World War 2 then Russian then 28mm.

Now, I would not buy any of the infantry, but I got mine way back when.
http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/plastic-soldier-company-28mm-russians.html

[Jimmy_P]

Just to say, there's some really great inspiration in this thread thanks guys!  . I'll admit to not pushing as far with my plastic WWII conversions attempts (compared to my old *cough* 40k *cough* stuff), but definitely more tempted to get on with converting up some tank/vehicle riders out of the spare Russians I have left (been the plan for ages but just always been pushed down the list of things to do - until now!). Really like the Airborne medic too, didn't realise the FJ sprue could be so handy for building yanks!

[ripley]

Thanks Jimmy . Try your hand at some tank riders , you can use the kneeling guys and a couple of the standing types without any real hacking and slashing . I like to pick up BA sprues for kit bashing when they have their 1/2 price sale or last month they had a buy 3 ,pay for 2 sale . Its not a pain in the wallet to mess up a figure that set you back about .75 cents .   Here's my 251 with the crew bailing out . My inspiration was the  Tamiya model box cover from the 70s

The guys inside had legs cut and bent to put one foot on the seats . The guys jumping over the sides had their legs removed and sutible ( whatever worked  ) legs added . IMO its not the legs but its the arms you really have to worry about

It's getting them to look as if they are captured in a second of motion

You can even get away with a bit of a strange look to the legs , if you've ever seen an athlete in slow motion you know the body moves in weird ways , at least that's my story ....

[ripley]

Its taken quite a while but I finally figured out which BA Russian  figures I used as tank riders . I probably built these guys 2 years ago and they've gone through a couple of up grades and changes . When 1st built each tank had 6 , now # 43 has 5 , plus  2 guys in the act of dismounting and # 44 has 8 , and I have an extra guy who can ride on 43 if I just want to show it in motion







1. figure # 25 2. # 20 3. #33 4. #31 5. # 25 with # 21 left leg

[ripley]

Tank # 44








The figures 1. # 31 2. # 20 * 3. #24 * 4. #33 5. # 20 6. # 20 * 7. # 33 * 8. # 19 *  ( the * means I hacked up the legs to make the figures sit  ) That part is a lot of trial & error , with just minimum glue to see if the figure will work . You can hide mistakes with carefully placed pouches and packs , and green stuff becomes a very handy as well . If I had to do them over I would probably glue them together as one group of 8 or 2 groups of 4 , making them removable ( magnets ? )  instead of  gluing them onto the tank  If you look carefully . you will notice figure # 4 has a quilted jacket and regular arms   . After 2 years I notice this  . The clear vodka bottle is a shortened  1/35 Tamiya part  , you never know what you might find in the parts box 

[ultravanillasmurf]

Excellent work Ripley, inspiring.

PSC heavy weapons sprue here:http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/psc-soviet-infantry-heavy-weapons.html

BA russian infantry sprue here:http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/warlord-games-kv1kv-2-tank.html

[ripley]

I can see a few of those PSC figures that might benefit from a arm swap or two , but a lot of them look like way too much work to get a viable different looking figure . You got your work cut out for you .  Nice work on the KV I . What do you think about the ki tand its mistakes ?

[Tracks]

I really like how you have the German infantry (passengers) jumping out from the side of the half-track.
Are they removable or are they permanently fixed?

[ripley]

They are removable . I managed to get 4  full guys in the half track ( plus a dwarf driver  ) and then added the 2 jumpers .  I have a couple of guys I can have at the rear that look like they exited the rear doors .  As well my 251 / 10 with the 37mm gun has 4 crew plus driver and my 251/ 7 Engineer's track has 3 plus driver . All  figures in the HT rear can be removed to show a knocked out  vehicle  , and they ( mostly ) can be switched around to another HT . . Hoping at some time to build some dead figures for the HT rear .



You'll find more pictures of these on my German Troop Transports thread from about a year ago .

[ultravanillasmurf]

Nice.

On the subject of persons of reduced stature, I did find a use for the passengers included in the BA 251D kit as drivers for the half tracks. It still required Mechanicum level modifications to get them to fit.

[ripley]

My drivers are the JTFM resin half track crew . While they look great , they' re not 28mm heroic in size , so they looked out of place next to BA figures  , maybe could pass as HJ  ?  Being a nice soft resin it was easy to cut and file them down to fit in the driver's seat .

[ultravanillasmurf]

Not a WW2 model but.

I found Warlord Firelock Storming Party and Parliamentary  infantry box sets while looking for something else in the loft.

I am building a pair of small skirmish forces and need some dashing heroic types to command them.

This is the start of the sword arm for one of the officers.


This is being built with the left arm from the drummer and the drawn sword, both from the Officer sprue.

[ripley]

Would it have been easier to just cut off the sword hand or is the sword going from a right hand ( Officer arm ) to left hand ( Drummer arm ) ?