Whilst most illustrations of the Danes show them wearing their greatcoats, period photos show a mix, with many carrying theirs wrapped (upside down) around their back pack. The basic uniform is similar to the German one so I decided to try and convert some of the Warlord plastic Blitzkrieg Germans.
Unfortunately all the Warlord models have the anti-mustard gas cloth pack across the chest which kind of defeated the object of the exercise as this needed removing (and caused a lot more work than planned). I made one backpack with rolled greatcoat out of Green Stuff and used Instant Mold to create some more. I also tried that with the helmet, but this didn't work so in the end I have made these from scratch each time, using the German helmet as the basis, filing the angle by the ears and building up with Green Stuff. The Kar 98 rifles were modified slightly with Liquid Green Stuff to give an approximation of the Krag-Jørgensen's the Danes used.
Overall I'm quite pleased with how these have turned out, I've three more almost finished and am trying to summon the courage to convert a Bren into a Marsden lmg. I have yet to decide whether to convert the rest of the section from the Warlord plastics or use something else (maybe the BTD greatcoated Germans).
2014 Painting Target: 180/1000
Very interesting! The very short Danish campaign is rather interesting and see far to little table-top action.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Great idea, too; unfortunately for me I lack the imagination and patience to explore anything further than the main stream conflicts...
ReplyDeleteMatt Hingley from Elheim figures is doing 1940 Danes for me in 20mm. You might check his out for inspiration with the 28mm project.
ReplyDelete- GHB
Hi. I am keen to make a Danish squad for my Bolt Action/Konflikt 47 army. I saw your great custom figures. Gothic Line Miniatures now have some Romanian figures that have helmets similar to the Danish ones - http://www.gothiclineminiatures.com/apps/webstore/products/show/6774260 . I have never used green stuff to alter figures so was wondering if these would be suitable? Cheers.
ReplyDeleteThey look like they would give a good approximation in 28mm. The Danes also had a side cap like the Germans so you could have some figures with that to save some expense.
DeleteHi Steve, Thanks for the quick response. The owner of Gothic Line just told me he does have Danish heads so I am going to buy a few sprues of them. Any suggestions on which would be the best figures to put them on? I have watched the trailer for the movie April 9 and the Danish soldiers have very distinctive square backpacks. I am not very handy with chopping things off figures (e.g. gas masks containers) so that is a consideration for me. I am using the figures for K47 so the uniforms could be quite different but I'd like them to be as close to the 1940 uniform as possible (don't ask why, but I suspect fellow gamers would understand why!). Cheers, Andrew
DeleteThe early war German uniform is nearest in cut, just with the rolled up trouser legs over the top of the jackboots. The backpack is rather unique. I made one out of greenstuff then moulded it in some Instant Mold which gave me some reasonable copies. The design is pretty simple if taken in stages.
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