It starts with this set, which includes a German Polizist, which come with a Shako helmet as well as a steel helmet. The Shako was by West Berlin police postwar, changing color t black by the 50’s. Mike Freeman was kind enough to send me one as well.
The problem? East Berlin cops retained the WWII style of uniform and even the same collar Litzen, claiming the real heritage of the German military and police would continue in the East.
In the West, the police adopted a “friendlier” look - civilian style collars and lapels, with a necktie. although interestingly the jackboots remained for a number of years. So the figure in MiniArt set has the proper breeches and helmet, but the wrong upper body.
General George S. Patton to the rescue:
One of the few instances where the old Tamiya figures actually work with others. Usually they are too anemic. Old George is actually pretty stout - I’ll have to reduce his rear delts quite a bit. Right now he looks like a gym rat.
I’ve posted a request on the Buy, Sell, Trade forum to see if anyone can spare a Patton figure. I can trade Monty, Rommel, and MacArthur in return.
Nothing wasted in the civilian figure set. I modified this one to be one of the kids waving to the plane in my Berlin Airlift dio. He’ll only be seen from the back, so I don’t even have to fill in that gap in his neck caused by turning his head:
Looking at the original photo, some of those West Berlin Polizei are a little on the hefty side. I’ll need to try and copy that in addition to the some what hunched over pose. I’m hoping one of these will work:
That’s exactly what I do prior to a project: hunt around figure sets for suitable poses, often using Scalemates or my, these days, every vulnerable memory, but that way I can earmark all the moving parts required for a project. As long as the pose is there I can, just about, turn it into anything - using Hornet Heads, weapon sets, Magic Sculp, lead foil, plastic card etc - it makes life so much easier than say, “I’ll build so and so then find some figures (fingers crossed)”; I’m not saying Armorama afficionados operate like that, but I’m sure you get my drift.
Before the wall, there was just the white line guarded by East German police. The woman had just escaped to the West, much to the chagrin of the East Berlin police, hence the standoff. It almost appears that the “Wessies” are doing a form of “Red Rover” and linking their arms to prevent the East Berlin police from coming to grab her - not that they would.
If my skills still hold up, I plan on using a highly modified figure from this set:
Poor old Frau Mix; but a very useful figure. I hope to amass (a relative term - but at least more than 3) a collection of German civilians watching an M75 trundle past - and she’ll be one of them(!)
Funnily enough, I have recently procured the same set - for my forthcoming Cold War masterpiece “Sticking the maps together”. You saw it here first folks.
You’ll be a bit underwhelmed I’m sure, but I also recall you’re a great proponent of models “showing soldiers doing what soldiers really do”.
At Div HQ (and others) we would prepare the mapping required prior to deploying on an exercise; this was quite involved and us clerks took over the HQ conference room where nice big shiny, flat tables facilitated the task of sticking together around a dozen sheets or so for each battle-map.
As it happened on one exercise in Schleswig-Holstein, I and an oppo were tasked to do this in the middle of a German forest. I will try and portray that in 1/35, and the kneeling figure in the Miniart set will lend itself well to one of the figures.
Not anytime soon – I’m a tad preoccupied at the moment.
Some East German Polizei arrived at my house today. Seems all they needed to do was dust off their uniforms and remove a few emblems. The shift from serving one totalitarian regime to another was quite easy for them.
Since no one has pointed it out yet - the photo is a scene from the Italian drama Oggi a Berlino (also released as East Zone, West Zone ), directed by Piero Vivarelli.
But the uniforms are correct for 1962. The White Line demarcation did exist prior to the Wall’s construction, just not quite in the same way. Still, a worthwhile scene to me/
I remember the officer going to stand in front of each of the guards and giving minute head signals for them to shift slightly to stand in the exact correct stance. It always makes me wonder what they did to displease the sergeant-major, to get assigned to this.
