A little
amuse-bouche for you...
I'm building and painting some Perry plastic Zulus at the moment, and it suddenly occurred to me that with a bit of kitbashing I could produce some more semi-clad soldiers for the Western Desert (not to mention some African troops for the Commonwealth forces). In many contemporary WW2 photographs from North Africa, you see bare-chested troops in shorts, on both sides, but particularly the Germans. Whereas the Perry DAK set - brilliant as it is - has the figures all fully buttoned up in tunics, long sleeves, and long trousers or breeches.
So this chap is a Zulu body and arms with skirt trimmed off, with an Afrika Korps head, cap, boots and rifle. Shorts, sand scarf, and rolled down socks added in Green Stuff.
Given that the Perry plastic WW2 sets are avowedly 'true 1/56 scale' - so smaller and slighter than most 28mm wargames figures - whereas the Zulus aren't, I did wonder if they'd fit together okay. Actually, it's a perfect fit. I guess because the Zulus are modelled as fairly lithe, they don't have the bulk of most 28mm figures, so the two sets are very compatible.
I call this model 'Run Willi, run!'

