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Two 1/35 conversions or "How to make Finns out of Huns"

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  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:58 PM
I suppose the same thing could be done for late WWII French troops as well. I have seen photos of them wearing US uniforms and web gear, along with the French crested steel helmet.

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by the doog on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:42 PM
Very nice work! Really an odd, interesting thread! Big Smile [:D]
  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Uppsala, Sweden
Posted by bultenibo on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 5:05 PM

Stikpusher:

I haven't tried any Hungarian or Romanian conversions yet, only Finnish, Swedish and Polish (the latter quite similar to the Swedish uniform from the 30's).

The problem with the oddly shaped Romanian helmet would be easily solved through buying one of the Hornet helmet sets.

The ordinary Hungarian uniform doesn't seem to be such a big challenge either. But trying to replicate their huge tankers oversuits, if one would like to build one of those, (they are as big as the British tanker oversuit from 1943 onwards) would be difficult though. Then one probably had to sculptue the whole thing from scratch, which is beyond my ability (some japanese modelers actually build the whole figure that way).

Then again it's the question about the finer details, as the webbings, poches and bags. That could also be tricky. One idea is to find an equivalent piece in some ordinary plastic kit. One time I found that an modern US ammo pouch looked exacly like the Polish gas mask bag from WW2! Have to have some luck.Wink [;)]

Some yars ago I managed to make a Hitlerjugend out of a Italian Berseglieri, packing a Panzerfaust in the battle of Berlin. That was was mighty fun!

One easy conversion is to make Polish resistance fighters from the uprising in 1944 out of ordinary Germans. Not a big challege since the Poles mostly used german weapons and uniform pieces.

/Tony

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 3:29 PM
Very nifty idea! Are any of the other Axis army unforms, such as the Hungarians or Raomanians an easy conversion like this as well?

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Uppsala, Sweden
Two 1/35 conversions or "How to make Finns out of Huns"
Posted by bultenibo on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 2:12 PM

In one of the postings on this forum by stikpusher - about what kind WW2 1/35 figures one would like to see out on the market - I said that I would like to see some eastern European allies - Romanian, Hungarian and Finns.

That reminded me that I actually had done some work in this regard, converting Germans into Finns, so I thought I would give a brief description of how to do it and present two of my own figures.

The conversion work is reatively easy, considering the high resemblance between the German field uniform (m/36 or m/40) and the Finnish m/36 uniform.

The hardest part is actaully to make some new poited flaps for the breast pockets. I used lead foil for this.

Both the ordinary German m/35 helmet (and even the old WWI m/16) can be used as is, since the Finns used both.

The German m/43 field cap with two buttons is almost identical to the the one the Finns used. Just remove the German eagle and paint a round blue and white cockade in its place.

The Finns also used the same kind of high boots as the Germans. These ought to be black, but especially during early years in the war all kind of civilian boots in different brown colors was used, since the Finnish army was not fully equipped.

The belts should be brown or light brown leather.

The bread bags used by the Finns are almost identical to the german ones.

Regarding the weapons a whole range can be taken from German and Russian kits:

* Mosin Nagant rifle would be the most common weapon (different models: 1891, 1930, 1938)

* Mauser 98k would also work fine.

* PPsh 41 and Degtyarev DP-27 LMG were both captured by in quite large amount from the Russians.

* Stielhandgranate m/24 .

* Lugers - for the officers.

The hardest part of the paint job is the rank insignias, where the Finns had an intricate - and colorful! - system of collar tabs, indicating both rank and arms insignia. This site gives you an idea of the system:

http://www.mil.fi/varusmies/arvomerkki/index_en.dsp

http://www.mil.fi/varusmies/arvomerkki/laatat_en.dsp

Here's a site devoted to the Finnish m/36 uniform:

http://mosinnagant.net/finland/FinnishTunicsectionrevised.asp

Here's a Finnish re-enactor group with good information regarding uniforms and equipment:

http://www.kevos4.com/Member%20Requirements.htm

I hope that this info could be useful if someone is tempted to do some conversion work.

And now over to my own two figures. Both are essentially made out Tamiya figures.

The first one is an engineer with the rank of a lance corporal (The pink collar tab with white pipings indicate the service of arms = engineer. So does the pink pipings on the field cap. The single yellow stripe inside the tabs = lance corporal). His wearing the blue-grey m/36 wool uniform (the color differed quite a bit). He has a Russian PPsh 41, a Swedish field tool, a German Stielhandgranate m/24, and - of course - a bottle of "Koskenkorva" (Finnish vodka) stuffed in one of the pockets of the trouser. Obviously, he is checking out a Russian bag, looking for something useful or edible.

The second figure is a lieutenant belonging to the infantry (Green collar tabs with white pipings, and two stars). He is wearing an dark grey officer uniform and is equipped with Luger in a holser and a Swedish m/26 steel helmet (made out of an helmet from a russian kit). The reason the figures are equipped with some Swedish material is because Sweden sent quite a lot of miltary equpiment to Finland during the winter war - and because I'm quite familiar with that stuff. Wink [;)]

And here they are together...

 

/Tony aka bultenibo

 

 

 

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