Finally done almost all the Nazi conversions using mainly Copplestone Russians as the base. I now have something no one else has - Copplestone Nazis!
They're actually a mix though. There's a couple of 1:48 COMBAT figures in there, a single Scarab 1/48 miniature (most of those were terrible, sadly), and my Feldwebel was a Stalingrad promo figure by ebob (I modified his Russian ppsh 41 into an MP34) in. Most of the heads are GW (Empire or IG), though a couple of the infantrymen retain their original Copplestone heads. The tall valkryrie second in command is a DUST tactics figure with a GW Dark Eldar headswap (will be repainted to a conventional scheme instead of the Afrika Korps outfit the figure comes with). The leader is an Artizan figure. The stahlhelms are press molded off of the one good one I could find. The motorbike crew are Tamiya (they will both be fully removable) and once you swap the weapons, heads and arms/hands, the Tamiya bodies actually fit very well, though the detail's a bit shallow. The gear is all Warlord Bolt Action stuff, from the Blitzkreig plastic set (sadly the infantry were far too small for me to just use the damn plastic set and be done with it - sure would have been easier!).
The only thing outstanding so far is that I want to have a machine gun team, and I'm trying to see if I can source the two prone gunners from the Tamiya 1/48 german infantry box without buying the whole thing.
All told, I plan to have:
- Full infantry platoon mainly armed with Kar98s plus one MP36 (let's say they get some prototypes to play with *handwaves away the problem of the MP40 not really being widely introduced until the war had almost started*)
- NCO with MP34
- One MG34 machine gun team
- Gebirsjaeger Leutnant serving as wilderness & terrain expert as well as the team's sniper.
- Motorbike team with one MP36 (driver also technically has a Kar98 and I can replace him with an infantry figure if he dismounts)
- Officers, comprised of Oberst (Leader), Sonderführer Oberstleutnant (Sidekick), and clerk/secretary/translator.
They would cost too many points to field all at once (probably be close to 20 points), except in a really big game. But as recurring villains I want them to have plenty of play options and of course there's always a possibility that I can do a big scenario where they're all in play.
Were I to do it all again, I might have just gone with Tamiya bodies, GW heads (still using press-moulded or otherwise sourced stahlhelms), and Warlord arms and gear. Would be all plastic and fairly easy to assemble. The Tamiya stuff in particular is a dream to assemble and I dearly wish they had more 1/48 motorbike kits (this is literally the only one they make).
It's worth noting that of all the German weapon sprues out there, the Reaper 20th Century Weapons pack actually has the best-scaled ones to match Copplestone figures. Unfortunately you only get one Kar 98, one MP40, and one MG42 on it. Of course I wound up converting the existing weapons on most of these figures because that was far easier than any other option (this mainly meant cutting off the front half of the figures' Moisin-Nagants, and using wire and putties to make them look like Kar98s, as well as bending down the bolt. The end result is pretty decent - at least as good as the average Copplestone-sculpted gun).
I also have a couple of additional figures who will not be playable characters, but may serve as objectives or perils - a camerman and a fellow digging a trench (or, as is more likely in pulp, doing an artifact excavation), maybe a sentry or two. They don't need to be converted, but they're not based yet.
Finally, I am also heavily modifying a Matchbox 1/46 Bedford truck into some full scale transport for them, an Opel Blitz with all sorts of added-on bits and special modifications.
I could have just bought a Blitz kit, but the Bedford was only £9 shipped, whereas model kits are $35-$40 CAD and I figured I would be in for some heavy modification work ANYWAY, so what the hell why not. Fun fact: Both the British Bedford and the German Opel were based on a Dodge truck, using the same license-built engine. In fact, the three trucks were similar enough that during WWII, the allies could restore knocked out Blitzes by using Dodge and Bedford parts.
The dodgiest part is when I decided to lower the cab roof (as you can see here) to give it a profile more like the Blitz and also to make it look a little more in scale. Could have ruined the whole thing, but I've glued it now and it's turned out perfect! Once I get the grille sorted the rest should be easy goings. I'm also thinking that since I've gone this far, I may well add a driver. We shall see!
Oh, and to reveal the mystery from earlier, my Feldwebel is supposed to be Franz Leibkind (as played by Kenneth Mars):
As an added bonus I found out that "Pigeoneer" ("Brieftaubenmeister") was an actual real specialty designation in the wehrmacht...
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