My German Ski Alterations

This page is one that I have wanted to make ever since I started making Gebirgsjager figures, and after seeing the 85th Gebirgsjager Living History Group at the Detling show in 2011. I realised just what was missing from the standard models of the ski’s as made by Dragon.

So to give me something to do, I have finally decided to see if I can add some more detail to the model ski’s.

Some of the items that I noticed that are missing, one is the green stripe on the top of the ski, the locking clip on the binding for the skier’s boot and the groove on the underneath of the ski. Also missing is the piece at the tip of the ski, which has a hole in it the purpose of which I am unsure of, as well as the thin metal edges on the underneath of the ski.

Update – I have had some help from a fellow modeller Ludger Zikking, and he has explained below about the hole in the front of the ski.

I can shed some light on something: you mention your ski alteration page: “Also missing is the piece at the tip of the ski, which has a hole in it the purpose of which I am unsure of, as well as the thin metal edges on the underneath of the ski.” Maybe I can shed some light on the use of the hole: with alpine touring, to make progress going uphill, you use skins, and some brands use a hole in the tip of the ski, to attach it to the ski. You don’t see it that often anymore these days, since most brands use a steel cable for that purpose.

Ski’s and boots

In the pictures above shows one of the straps that are used to hold the ski’s together, The next picture shows the bindings for the ski boot, And it shows how the bindings are adjusted to the different sized boot for each skier.

These pictures from the left, show the boot on the ski, with the rear clamp (A) attached to hold the foot in place. On both sides of the ski, there are two hooks (B), which allow the wire to pass through to hold the foot in one of two positions. Above right, shows the ski boot in position, with the wire for the binding not connected to the side of the ski. Because from what I understand of it, only the toe of the boot is fastened to the ski.

I believe that when only the front hook has been used, it is so that the skier can bend his foot up as shown, to ‘walk’ with the ski.

If both hooks are used to hold the wire, this holds the boot closer onto the ski, there is a lot less movement of the foot and the boot is now fully secured to the ski for more control when skiing as shown in the middle, the right picture shows the rear boot clamp in place.

In the picture above left, I was shown the bottom of the skis, shows the metal edges which are used to help the skier turn as the metal strips dig into the snow. Above right, I was shown an adjustable metal plate, which is used to replace the front of a ski if it gets broken.

1:6 scale ski alterations

The first item that I added to ski was the centre groove on the underneath, which I was told helps to giude the ski over the snow, this I did carefully with a round needle file sanding a central groove into the base.

Although I did this freehand the groove is almost straight, but looking back I should have first measured the width of the ski, drew a line on it along the length and then used that as a guide for the sanding with the needle file. I started to sand the groove, using a round needle file, shows the length of the ski’s with the groove, and shows where I have sanded the middle underneath the ski to remove the moulding line that was there. To check that I was keeping the groove straight, I used a pencil to colour it in as I did it, and that did help to keep me the line straight.

The picture on the right, is of the liquid model glue that I used to on the sanded groove afterwards, this helped to make it all smooth.

The pictures above show the completed grooves, I sanded the underneath of the ski’s to make sure that surfaces were smooth. As mentioned before by Ludger Zikking, I also glued a small piece of plastic to the front of the ski’s, when dry I sanded it to shape, to replicate where the ‘Skins’ would be fitted to the ski’s

These pictures are of the repainted ski’s, the underneath was painted in a Brown colour to replicate the wax that is usually applied to the underneath of a real ski. The top was painted White, and when dry I masked off a line at the front, to paint the Green line as shown. I was told, that this is to aid the skier on the snow, to see where thefront of his ski is. The plate for the boot and rear boot strap was repainted in Gunmetal paint.

Also, along each edge of the bottom of the ski’s, I painted some masking tape with Gunmetal paint, and when dry I used a long flat metal ruler to cut a strip out, and placed it on the edge of the ski’s to replicate the metal edges. And pressed firmly on it, to keep it in place.

Boots and ski’s

On one of my ski’s I have placed a Toys City Gebirgsjager boot, to see how it fits onto the ski. On the Dragon ski, It is actually very good, as they have actually used some wire for the clamp for the boots. The toe cap strap, I replaced with some thin leather material and a small buckle, which willl be repainted Brown to age it.

Also on the front of the model ski, is the adjuster for the front of the wire, which can be raised at the front slightly to move the wire in or out, to fit the Toys City boot in place, so it holds onto the back of the boot. Also on the sides of the model ski, are the hooks to put the wire through to further hold the boot in place.

This is to me a very nice addition added to the ski’s by Dragon, as it will help to support a figure actually wearing the ski’s.

Ski poles

This is a continuation of the ski page I made about how I altered the Dragon German ski’s, and with the help of Patrick Kiser (Heeresbergführer). I have had a go at trying to see if I could follow his excellent tutorial about improving the Dragon ski poles as well.

Note: I found out afterwards that for the wooden poles it would be better made from Basswood, since it is stronger than balsa wood.

Pole alterations

For the poles I want to use with my figure I am basing them on the reference pictures above, with the method by Heeresbergführer about how to improve the baskets at the base of the poles. The hardest part I found with making the changes, was finding a supplier of the cane for the basket itself. I did find a couple of suppliers in the UK, but they would only supply the 1.5mm round cane in bulk, but I did find a company in Dorset, UK that would supply the cane in 8 foot lengths instead of by the kilo in weight.

Glue for the baskets

30 – Humbrol Liquid Poly Glue – This is the main glue I use for any plastic repairs on my figures and weapons, although I do also use Superglue at times. But I prefer to use this type on any plastic parts as it ‘melts’ the parts together making a stronger bond.

31 – ‘Poly Glue Mix’ – This pot is a mix of the poly glue and scraps of plastic such as sprue added to it, the purpose of this is that the glue melts down the plastic over time to make a liquid plastic. I found out about this many years ago and it has helped me enormously with my 1/35th and 1/48th scale models, because when it is brushed onto a joint seam and smoothed down with the normal poly glue. Once it hardens it becomes part of the model itself, and I have found that with 1/6th scale weapons if I have broken them in some way this glue can repair them far better than Superglue ever could.

32 – This is the new packaging for the Humbrol glue, whereas the other smaller bottles are one’s that I have had around for years.

The pictures above show the steps I have used to make the cane rings for the basket, the first thing I did was to soak the small strips of cane I cut off in hot water so that it can be bent without snapping. Then in the left picture I curled a strip up into a ring similar to the way Patrick did it, and I then held the ends together and measured across the ring to make sure it was 30mm in size. I then used some small bulldog clips to hold the ends together and left it all to dry. Once it had been left aside for about an hour I have removed the clip and the cane has kept part of the ring shape.

I have tried to use the method of glueing the cane together in a ring with wood glue, but when I tried it I could not get it to hold the ring together. So I have above left I have used my ‘Poly Mix’ glue instead, which I painted on with the brush from the bottle onto the edge of the cane inside the ring. I then wound the ring back tight again making sure that it is 30mm across, and I then put the bulldog clips back in place to hold the ring together.

The next picture shows the ring after it has been left to dry overnight to make sure the glue has set. When I checked the ring it has become very stiff and the cane has glued together well. Note: To make sure that glue has set I then used some of the regular poly liquid glue to fill in between the cane ring, which has again helped to set the poly glue mix. I have sanded each of the ends down to fit onto the ring, and I have used some thin fuse wire to make the three metal clips.

To make the clips for the cane rings I started with a staple, which I then straightened out with my pliers. I have placed the staple in my tweezers and I then bent each end around the sides of the tweezers, while I had the staple held I used my side cutter pliers to cut each of the legs down to a smaller size. to make thinner staple that fits around the sides of the cane ring as shown above right

I have carefully crimped both of the ends around the cane ring to complete it, and make it look like it is holding the cane ends in place rather than the glue that I used. I then repeated this for the other two metal rings.

Making the pole spikes

I was going to use the Dragon plastic poles with the baskets removed, but after looking at my reference pictures again I didn’t really like the look of them, so I have made some new poles out of Basswood. With the base I have cut the spikes off of the bottom of the Dragon poles, and I have made a hole in the bottom of the Basswood, so the spike can be fitted into it as shown above. I then cut a thin strip of masking tape and put it around the base of the wood, I then ‘painted’ over the top of with the ‘Poly Mix’ glue, so that when sanded it becomes smooth like metal. The completed is shown right, spike after I have used some Brown wood dye and Brown shoe polish on the Basswood, the spike has been painted with some enamel Gunmetal paint.

Attaching the pole baskets

Looking at the reference pictures again, I have used on my baskets here two thin strips of leather material to make the cross straps. On the left, this shows one of the leather straps laid over the cane ring, making sure that it is long enough to wrap around the ring edges. Then some of the plastic rivets that I made from stretched sprue

The picture above right, shows the one strap fitted onto the cane ring, the rivets were pushed through the holes I made, and by squeezing the material together I cut the length of the rivet down slightly and then used some heat to flatten the end. I also cut a slit in the middle of the leather strap so that I can push the ski pole through it. I then did the same for the other strap to form the ‘X’ shape.

On the right are the finished ski baskets which have been slid down the poles, and to keep them in place I have used another piece of leather strap with a slit in the centre. This was then slid down onto the top of the baskets and each end was wrapped over the ‘X’ straps.

I then made a hole in both ends of the top strap and through the ski pole, I then made another longer rivet to go through the straps and pole. I again placed some heat onto the other end to flatten it, and now this has trapped the basket in the position I wanted.

To finish the baskets off I am going to sand the rivets ends slightly to get them flat, they will then be painted with enamel Gunmetal paint. I will also give the leather straps a covering of some Model Color 540 Matt Medium paint to lose the shine.

Making the pole hand straps

The last parts I have to make to finish off the ski poles are the hand straps, and I have found these to be the hardest part to make. And based on the reference picture below. I not only had to replace the straps from the Dragon ski poles, I had to make them again out of some thin leather material.

I had to also try to work out how I was to fix the straps onto the poles, so once I had made them from leather using the Dragon buckle. I decided in the pictures below to use some masking tape to wrap the end of the strap to the pole, and then with the ‘Poly Mix’ glue I spread it over the top of the tape to seal it all in place.

As I want to try to replicate how the straps are held in place in my reference picture, and as it dried I added another coat of the ‘Mix’ to make sure it was sealed tight. And once the poles had been left to dry overnight I gently sanded the cover slightly to smooth it, and I them repainted it with a Brown acrylic colour along with the strap as well so it all matched.

Once all of this was dry I then painted a strip of masking tape with Gunmetal enamel paint, when dry I cut a thin strip out and wrapped it around the bottom of the pole covers.

The picture above right shows the finished pole end and hand strap, once the glue had dried I added the creases to the pole cover by hand. I also used a staple wrapped around the pole and cut to length. The strap and cover were then given a wash of diluted Black acrylic paint, and once dry I gave it all a drybrush with some Tamiya Light Sand weathering powders. I also did the same to the basket at the bottom of the ski pole.

Various pictures of the skis and poles