You are so right; no option but to convert and then some!
I’m almost resigned to it - I now no longer have any qualms about the need, and set to with Magic Sculp, card, tape and lead foil - not forgetting Hornet Heads, take a deep breath and tackle the dearth.
The result are never brilliant, but as I say, I’m getting used to it now!
(I must add that if a manufacturer ever saw fit to introduce a series of figures in NBC suits - both NATO and the opposition - he’d retire a millionaire in very short order).
Valkyrie figures are very useful, but seem to be quite rare these days; they are also fairly expensive, not that I particularly mind, but even if located, it might deter some.
Red Zebra do a set of AFV crew figures sans respirators:
Red Zebra has some very nice and useful stuff. Would be great if someone made ‘44 pattern webbing system so I don’t have to correct the back pack and canteens for my Suez Paras!
I know I shouldn’t complain to you Brian given how many times you’ve had to scratch build personal gear!
I must be the sadbloke, I recognised the VRNs of all the Warriors from the Gren Gds. I was the REME Armourer Full-Screw for Queens Coy, I was known as Cpl b’stard. I was digging my heels in at the time, not to be a L/Sgt…(why pay Sgt’s mess bills on my Cpls wage)…finally ordered to do say after 3years. Apart fom that, I really enjoyed my time spent with the Grens, best posting I had.
I was on recon before the exercise and we’d stopped at the lip over a valley that would be a huge Engagement Area (kill sac). While glassing the area and picking out reference points, we heard but did not see (for a wee bit) a fast-mover. A few seconds later, a Panavia MRCA/Tornado of the German Fliegerkorps burst over the ridge line, aileron-rolled 180*, and began a descent into the valley. He wasn’t 50m of the ground. He rolled back upright, and followed the terrain into the valley as if making an attack run. At the far end, he crested the valley ridge, rolled inverted again, and disappeared down into the next terrain feature. It was the most incredible feat of flying I’d seen.
He and his WSO must need wheelbarrows to walk to the aircraft.
That reminds me - and I really shouldn’t start a sentence with that!
1975 I think; Goldgrund training area - itself part of the Sennelager matrix. Div HQ due to start the day by sorting itself out and moving to its designated locations. We’d arrived the previous day after a harrowing journey from the UK, and were in a sort of assembly area. The Corps exercise hadn’t started yet.
Despite the fatigue most of the soldiery immediately hit the town - Paderborn - intent on consuming their own body-weight in alcohol, and refreshing long-forgotten German phrases upon the local young maidens. All to no avail - natch.
So there we were, come the morn, bodies everywhere, some not even in sleeping bags (that zip was just too difficult after eleventeen beers.
Despite the comatose state of most, and the soon to be realised monstrous hangovers, over the treetops, and that may be an underestimate, let’s say at antennae height, screamed 3 Luftwaffe Starfighters, with the most ear shattering din one could imagine. To us recumbent young soldiers, it seemed that the very grass was lifting. We just trembled, puked and whimpered.
We found out later that they were of the recce variant and had decided to take pics; the General Officer Commanding the Division was less than amused at the result.
It was a bit embarrassing: parked up vehicles and trailers and bodies everywhere. Those sort of slightly hazy images often used as evidence of a war crime somewhere or other.
