Quick question. Is it possible, and relatively easy to convert German WW2 great coats to American great coats? I currently have neither on hand, but I do have some (US) on order. Americans in great coats seem to be relatively rare, while Germans seem to be available in every pose short of doing cartwheels.
Of course any help would be greatly appreciated.
David
it might be quick but I suspect the answer may not be given the variations in wartime production; I would suggest you Google both and then compare, something like “WW2 US Army greatcoats” and then “WW2 German Army Greatcoats”. With the images available I’m sure you’ll be able to make a decent assessment.
Good luck!
Both are double breasted, so that helps you. The most noticeable change will be the collar and lapels. Going from US to German would be a piece of cake. German to US not so much.
Off the top of my head I’d say a good starting point might be the Tamiya Generals set, which includes Rommel with, if I remember correctly, comes close to the correct collar/lapel arrangement. You may have to alter them a bit. Of course it’s meant to be leather, but that won’t play any role n the end result. A little lead foil for pocket flaps if necessary, and some buttons…
With persistence and skill, you can convert plastic figure just about any way you can imagine (to include scraping and filing away all of their clothing and sculpting new).
If you’re new to the task, I might suggest that you look up some of the work here done by my old friend @JRutman . He “specializes” (if that’s the right word) in doing just the kinds of conversions you’re asking about. It’s well worth taking a look at how he approaches the job and what can be done (a lot more than you might think).
As Boots also suggests, an important part of the work is the research. So, I’d suggest following his advice and collecting the information on the details while you study some of Jerry’s work.
Thank you guys. Great ideas, one and all. Brian, I followed your advice and googled both great coats. Excellent idea. I also learned that the 1940 coats were reissued because the '43s were in short supply in Dec. '44. Bravo18 - I greatly appreciate your pointers, but I think that heavy collar/ lapel is a plus. Heck, add a scarf and you probably wouldn’t even to remove the German collar. Just lose some buttons, and fix the back strap. We’ll see. Now I’m thinking just adding a coat to any existing GI is doable. Micheal. Thanks for your input, and, yes. JRutman has been a long time favorite of mine. His mods and conversions are remarkable.
Or get this set that has the two soldiers on the left in great coats.
Thanks, Gino. I’m normally focused on Vietnam subjects (which is why I enjoy your work so much). This foray into WW2 is just something I’ve always wanted to do. There are many “unbranded” figures on eBay featuring GI’s in greatcoats, so I warily picked up a few, but they haven’t yet arrived. I bought a set of unbranded VN figures but found them to be a little under scale. With this project I reasoned that if all the figures are of the same unbranded scale then it won’t really be too noticeable. We’ll see, I guess.
No problem. I’m sure they will come out great too.