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 [;)]](/emoticons/icon_smile_wink.gif)
And here they are together...
/Tony aka bultenibo