This figure is one that I have been putting off making for quite a while now, mainly because of the work that I feel is involved in making it. As it is based around the picture on the right from the cover of one of my reference books, Weapons and Equipment of the German Mountain Troops In WW2 by Roland Kaltenegger.
And not only do have to kitbash the figure, I have to also make the diorama that he stands on as well.
To give you an idea of the size of it as a diorama and kitbash, the base it will all stand on is 10″ x 10″, the figure is 12″ tall and I want him to stand on a ledge on the side of a mountain. So the rock face that I will have behind him will have to be at the least 17″ tall. So that when the rock (cork bark) is in place, it will hopefully look like the picture as shown here.
The pictures below are of my very basic layout of the cork bark, base and the figure. And from this I have to make the flat sides for the rock face out of balsa wood, similar to the way that I made the diorama for my Climber kitbash.
Note: Another idea that I came up with is regarding the rope that the figure will hold, which is going off the edge of the ledge. As I want it to go over the edge and through the base. To do this I intend to drill a small hole in the base, thread the rope though, enlarge the hole underneath so I can knot the rope. Then bring it back up through the figure’s hands so that I can keep it as tight as in the reference photograph as above.
With this diorama because I have had to put so much work into it, and also try to keep this page to a reasonable size, I have made another webpage about how I constructed it – cork bark. Basically it is the same as the other mountain page that I made, but this time I have got a bit carried away with it and it is a lot larger as shown above. With the top of the cork bark I have cut this off flat, and put some balsa wood on top painted the same as the sides. Also as shown in the last three pictures above, I have the top part of one side of the rock face wrapping around the balsa sheet side, whereas at the bottom the sheet is over the top of the rock. And because of the height of the cork bark that I have used, I have had to assemble some internal stiffeners to help support the balsa wood sides.
Headsculpt and Body
I have changed my mind about the body I am using with this figure, because I found that the diorama still lacked something. So now I am using the Soldier Story Panzergrenadier one that I obtained loose, as it has a very well moulded shouting head which hopefully will look like the soldier is shouting instructions down to the climber he is helping. And as usual the head has been given a pastel wash, and afterwards a drybrush of some Flesh coloured pastel chalk.
Hands
With this figure I found that the Dragon hands can be easily used with this body, because the pins for the wrist joints are the same size as the Soldier Story one’s. I can also use the DiD hands with this type of body as well, by replacing the DiD wrist pin with a Dragon one. I have also found that the after market resin fist hands I want use, can also be adapted for use with this figure. By just sanding down the diameter of the wrist pin on the hands, so that they are a tight fit into the wrist joint.
For the correct look of the grip of the hands on the rope, I am using some resin fist hands that I bought loose some time ago as shown below. But because they are solid hands I have had to carefully drill through them so that I can get the look of the rope being held by the hands.
To do this I used my model drill to make a small hole on each side of the fist, this is to make sure that the exit holes for the rope are in the place I want. After I have the two holes I then carefully used a 2.0mm drill the same size as the scale rope to join them together, so that the rope can be threaded through the fists as shown above. I found that I had to enlarge the holes very slightly to get the rope through. Note: I dipped the rope end in some superglue to stop it fraying, wiped it and wound it tight between my fingers, so that I had a solid end to pass through the fists. It was a tight fit to get the rope through, but once I had done it I have the tight grip look to the rope that I wanted.
The picture on the right shows the figure in the planning stages, and how I have placed the rope through the hands and around the figure. As I needed to work out the pose for it on the base, plus I wanted to see how the rope would look on the model. And I am very pleasantly surprised, to find out that the fist hands will hold the rope just like the reference picture above. Plus with the holes in the hands being slightly tight on the rope, I can get a tense look to the rope around the figure’s arm and shoulder, which also helps to pull down onto the figure’s uniform as well..
Boots
For this figure I have used a pair of Toys City boots and puttees, which as usual have been altered from the new factory look they had, to a pair of boots that have been worn for a while. I again also replaced the laces as the one’s that they come with are too short for me, as I cannot get the loops in them.
I did find that with the Soldier Story body the ankles are very narrow, and as shown above there is quite a gap between the boot top and the ankle. So to make this smaller I used a pair of socks I had in my spares boxes, which has helped to bulk out the top of the ankle joint.
With most of my figures, I prefer to have laced boots, which can be a lot of work at times. They have been wrapped tightly around the boot, and with the sock it has helped to fill the gap. The laces have been tied off into a small bow, so that I can get the puttees on the figure better. I have also taken out the thread at the bottom of the trouser legs, and then sewn the bottom of the trouser leg together. Which allows me to get a tight look to the the puttee tied around the boot.
Uniform
The tunic is from the Dragon Hans Leiter figure with the white collar tresse that I got loose, the gebirgsjager trousers are also from Dragon. I have also used a Dragon Alfons Robmuller M43 cap with the mountain insignia on the side, I do prefer to use these as they are smaller, plus the material is also thinner than the caps made by other manufacturers which to me is also more in scale.
These pictures show the Toys City boots which has also been drybrushed, to help bring out the laces detail. The uniform on the figure, which I have given a drybrush of some Tamiya Light Sand weathering powder to help bring out the edges and creases. I also used CVI collar insignia and the Dragon shoulder board, with a Toys City pip to show the rank of Feldweb (Master Sergeant). The head and neck connection I am concealing with a scarf, the Dragon M43 cap was again drybrushed to bring out the edge detail. Also above is the Toys City belt with the detail brought out on it, by painting over it with some black acrylic paint, when dry i used a damp tissue to remove some of the paint in the detail.
Equipment and Weapons
With the equipment for this figure I have had kept it to a minimum, so that the figure looks close to the original reference picture. As it looks like the soldier is training, so the equipment that he would carry would be a little as possible.
So for this kitbash the only pieces I have used are the belt and what looks like a pistol and holster. I have also altered both the belt and the holster, in a similar way. I first painted them with some Model Color 540 Matt Medium to remove the glossy look to them, I then used a Brown pastel chalk which I ground up to a powder, and brushed it into the edges and gaps.
The ropes I have used came from Misken Models and for the main rope I have used the 2.0mm Beige size, for the rope holding the piton hammer I used the 0.4mm size.
Note: If I have done my calculations right, the scale equivalent of the 5 meters of 2.0mm rope in 1/6th is just over 98 feet in length.
1.1 size – 5 metres = 196.86 inches = 16.405 feet, 1/6th size – 196.86 inches scaled up to 1/1 = 1181.16 inches divided by 12 = 98.43 feet.
Scale Conversion Calculator and Measurement Converter.
Because of the size of this project and to help the pages load faster, I have had to spread the information over two pages.
Continued on Page Two – Mountaineer Page 2
Thanks to Patrick Kiser for all of the superb pictures, and the very detailed help with this Gebirgsjager figure.
I would like to thank RogueJK for his excellent help with my future German figures.