lookinâ good! now, how do you make those helmets? (at least the strips.)
Cheers!
L
thanks. The strips are cut from facial tissue I painted first.
J
Now that Jerry is pretty much spot on; the helmet just might, might, need a little more depth ie the fit seems just a tad shallow, but that is almost to carp on what is a splendid figure. 12 SS eat your heart out - up against such a sterling Corporal youâve no chance!
Thanks man. I agree. This helmet is actually a lot further down from the kit position already! I shouldâve gone more.
Eats the Hun for lunch he does.
On my next one coming up you will see I finally got the correct colors down for the 303 bandoâs.
J
As always, Jerry, wonderful work. Along with everything else, your figuresâ hands are perfect.
thank you Sir!
Great looking Sten gunner youâve got there Jerry. I have to agree with you about MB figures- they are very good straight oob. I think you have the arms and the hands set just right on the Sten and the sling sits well too. The paint-job certainly brings out all the details too, particularly the faded, worn and dirty areas around the knees.
Thanks for your comments as always buddy. Nice to hear from youSir!
J
I was recently intrigued by the issue of varying sizes of figures by the different plastic model companies in the biz right now.
I am of the view that you can use these together anyway because of the corresponding variation in the sizes of real humans!
I wanted to do an exercise
to help show this. Here is something I pieced together last night.
Left side shows Bronco legs and head,Tamiya torso and arms. Right side shows Dragon torso, arms, boots and Hornet head. Bronco,Tamiya, MB and Miniart tend to run small while Dragon is bigger. I think if you use the same gear on both it should work to show the human differences.I am using the excellent new Miniart ammo pouches here.
If the Anatomie of a figure is right, itâs not a great problem. Not every soldier in the army is 175 cm, just donât mix parts lik ammo pouches and gear when the figures are in the same sequence. Itâs possible that here the difference and quality are a issue.
On the picture you have a guy of 160 and one of almost 195, and the quality of the small one is much better, personal I donât gonna use both in the same sequence.
Yeah man. Not my first rodeo.
This is after all the very first step in this project.
J
Donât forget a lot of British WW2 soldiers were not that tall. They had gone through the Depression as youngsters with poor diet and in the case of city dwellers, not much sunlight. My Dad, who was born in the Derbyshire coalfields in 1926 had rickets and polio as a child. He was classified as C3 when he was called up in 1944, the lowest grade they would take and couldnât serve abroad! It has always struck me how ironic it is that armies expect their âcannon fodderâ to be in peak physical shape! I think Iâm right in saying one in four British soldiers examined were rejected on physical grounds. Even the Germans were shocked at the state of the teeth of Tommies they captured at Dunkirk. Iâve often wondered about the Nazi âSupermenâ; after all, most Germans had gone through the same thing. The SS may have prided themselves on not taking a recruit with a single filled tooth pre-war, but these standards soon fell away once they experienced the attrition of the Russian Front.
I guess you never read about General Barber? Or âtinyâ as his nickname was given.
This exercise was undertaken to show that you can use figures from different companies alongside each other as long as you use the same gear. I have seen pics lately on FB in the history sites showing Commonwealth troops lined up or walking or resting and the size disparity is very evident.
But you are correct about the Brits vs the Germans in the interwar period. The Germans managed to get the average future soldier a bit better diet. Through the various NSDAP socialist programs like the various youth ones or the mandatory national work service. These programs got the youth out in the air and although much of the time the work got hard, the food was usually wholesome and ample.
J
My dad was drafted after Pearl Harbor and he shouldnât have been-when he was about 12 he got a foot in a grass mower on the farm and it was cut clean off except for the Achillesâ tendon. The doctor was called and he sewed it on right there in the yard! After that he walked funny-not heal tow as normal-but Uncle Sam needed his ass for a couple years until he was discharged.
He had quite the stories about the quick growing army of 1942.
General = member of the upper class, plenty of good food fresh air and no hard graft down tâpit! (This is written slightly tongue in cheek!) Yes, itâs ironic that the Nazi dictatorship had a much better social programme than the democracies! KdF cruises for the masses and state supplied health. The UK had to wait until post war, the USA is still waitingâŚ
Brilliant work as always JR .
Thought you would like these scrawney , disheveled warriors that actually look like brothers . Always hold on to your weapon even between your thighs âŚ
Whatever, thanks Jerry for giving me a big belly-laugh with your last image, I needed that. I could see the caption immediately: Jerry Rutman abandons realistic figure construction â modelling world in uproar 
I think the nurse nearest the camera is saying " I see youâve aggravated that old wanking injury againâŚ".
Cheers,
M
To which the the soldier might reply. âMaybe youâd be a good lass and give me a hand?â