Welcome
To My Gebirgsjager Backpack Changes Page.
This
page is about how I am going to make some changes to an item that I bought loose
recently, which is a German gebirgsjager splinter camouflaged backpack. It was
made by a company called Figures Home, and a picture of the boxed figure is on
the right from which the backpack came from. I have found out very little
information about the company itself, also in the picture it has a company name
but so far I cannot find any website for it. But because the backpack is
different with the camouflage, I had to end up getting one loose. Since the
only other 1/6th version of this type of backpack that I know of, was made by Cyber Hobby
with the Konstantin Korda figure which are very rare loose
now.
The pictures below show the backpack as I got it,
and what surprised me as a modeller with it is the different standard of the
work that has gone into making it. As the straps are sewn on uneven in length in
places, plus the mounting points for the straps at the top seem to me to be very
basically put together, also when I compared the workmanship to a Toys City or a
DiD backpack. I found that I would possibly have a lot of work to do.
Figures Home Backpack
Toys City Backpack
With the Toys City backpack as shown above, I
began to wonder if I could with the help of a spare set of 'Y' straps that I
have, make something with
them and a rucksack that might have been made as a 'Field modification'.
Note: A very
interesting forum post was made by Patrick (Heeresbergführer)
about
gebirgsjager
backpacks
In the pictures on the right which were very
kindly sent by Patrick
to help me, I can see the metal frame that the real rucksack has, which is
missing from the Figures Home backpack. So this is an item that I will have to
build onto the back of the pack, and
out of
the two rucksacks as shown on the right. It looks like the one with the
Brown straps is
the closest to the model pack I have.
Top Straps
When I looked at the various reference source
pictures I have gathered of Gebirgsjager backpacks, In picture one above decided
to cut the top straps off of the Toys City
backpack, as it was easier for me to do this rather than try to scratchbuild
another new set of straps. This is when I got confused with my reference
material, and I sewed the leather straps across the middle wrong, and it was not
until I had sewn the top straps in place. Did I realise that they should have
been crossed over and not laying straight down as they are. But seeing as I have
now got them in place, I decided to leave them as they are. In picture two, the
centre straps were sewn in place at the bottom corners of the pack, along with a
pair of leather straps that I am going to use to connect to the main shoulder
straps. I also sewed a pair of buckles onto the straps for the adjustment.
Note: As made the different straps up I
firstly painted them with some Burnt Umber acrylic paint, as I wanted all of
them to be the same colour.
With the Toys City main straps they were missing
the extra 'D' rings like the normal German 'Y' straps, so In picture three above
I cut some thin pieces of pleather material and sewed the rings onto them. I
then made two small rivets out of some stretched sprue, similar to the way that
I made my Lift Dots. I then put two holes in the main straps and then put the
rivets through the main and the side straps, to hold it all in place and I used
my cigarette lighter to melt the end of the rivet on the back of the strap to
hold them all in place.
Metal
Frame
In the picture on the right, I have assembled the
metal wire I am using for the frame in place on the back of the pack, and then I
sewed the main shoulder straps into place trapping the wire in place. The wire
was then bent into shape by hand so that the bottom corners as shown below left
could be sewn into place. I then made a centre pad for the bottom of the
backpack out of some thin leather material, I also made three rivets for each
end of the pad which I fitted the same way that I did for the extra 'D' rings on
the shoulder straps.
The pad was then sewn in place, making sure that
none of the threads are seen from the front of the pad. The purpose of this that
from the front it looks like it is riveted in place. The last three pictures
above right, are of the front, side and the back of the finished backpack which
I test fitted to a figure.
This section is continued on
Page Two
