Schutzen Trupp, 7.Schutzen Bde, May 1940

[egonzinc]

Schutzen Trupp
7.Schutzen-Brigade
7th Panzer Division
XV Panzerkorps (Hoth)
Belgium, May 1940


This is a group of figures I just made to use in outdoor dioramas with the offense in the West of 1940 as time frame.

These are Schutzen, which later became Panzergrenadiers and had the same grass green waffenfarbe.
To be correct for the period the figures have bottle green collar on the tunics, correct litzen and breast eagles, grey trousers, high boots, no Y straps, no loops on the ammo pouches, double decal helmets, few medals (only those won in Poland by a few of the group) and mostly Kar98, even for the Unterfeldwebel Gruppe commander. The MP came at a later time.
The second liutenant is the Platoon (Zug) commander has an MP-28 machine gun.
All bodies are from DML, reduced, and with various heights.
Used what I call Type1b HS from DML. These are early HS with more of an orange finish, but have more details than the earliest DML HS which I call Type 1a.
Litze, breast eagles and rank insignia are from CVI. All equipment and uniforms are from DML except the officer tunic(Toys City). Officer’s boots(DID) and the MP-28 ammo pouch(yellow submarine). Shouldertraps are all recent DML vintage with correct piping color and officer shoulderboards are from Patrick Breaux (Nomad). Ileft the NCO tresse on the collar I had made from athletic tape, when back when.
The uniforms are from the early Bruno figure. Helmets are the newer metal double decal with separate liner. I enlarged the liner on most of the figures as it seemed to tight and since I apply wash to all the HS I did not want the liner to scratch the wash if I decide to pose without the helmet in some situation. I had made a small group many years ago(include image below) and initially was only going to update them a bit. Eventually stripped them completely (I could not believe I had not placed breast eagles on their tunics!) and remade them all, changing some HS and updating the field equipment with leather entrenching tool cover, newer version of the gas mask can, wrapped the gas cape around gas mask can with strap. Left off the mess kit as it seemed to much. For France/West offense 1940 there were VERY few Y straps so I left them off.

Here some images of each figure, medals were placed after these images:

Zug Commander 2nd Lieutenant:

Unterfeldwebel Gruppe Commander:

Obergefreiter MG gunner:

Obershutze gunner #2:

Schutze A:

Schutze B:

Schutze C:

Schutze D:

Schutze E:

Schutze F (Prime mover driver is why he has less equipment):

My original 1940 small group:

 

[pzrwest]

Very nice excellent group. I believe your officer is wearing post war bundy boots they are same as these boots http://www.wephaus.com/products.php?cat=15 But dispite that one small detail you did a fantastic job on the men. They would look super in a diorama setting.... Well done

 

[lightning sword]

Great looking update Eduardo!

 

[104thboy]

What an excellent group of figures.

 

[Germanbilly1]

Eduardo. that is a Great Group you have have there. I really like when someone shows there work, and I really mean work and researce on this one. Talk is cheap! Great group.
GB

 

[pzrwest]

His website is excellent as well with all the figures and dio's well done! another master of his craft!

 

[egonzinc]

Thanks guys!
The website is all but abandoned and the links no longer work, must do something about that.
If anyone is interested in seeing old images the old Clubphoto images showed up here:

http://egonzinc.winkflash.com


And more recent projects are in:

www.picturetrail.com

Here direct link to albums "egonzinc"

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=egonzinc&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=7

Here direct link to "egonzinc2"

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=egonzinc2&Submit.x=14&Submit.y=10


If above links don't work go to egonzinc and use both names in member field.

 

[Brave Rifles]

Dang, very nice Zug!!!

It is obvious you put some labor of loe into these, as you always do. They look dusty, just like they would have during the drive across France

 

[ActionMan]

Eduardo. that is a Great Group you have have there. I really like when someone shows there work, and I really mean work and research on this one. Talk is cheap! Great group.
GB

Billy said it! What a fantstic group.

Is the ammo carrying belt on Schutze A scratch-built?

 

[Gallomilanista66]

Great group ! You show that one can achieve a great deal of variety even while using the same basic combination of uniforms and gear I am a fan of Feldgrau compared to all the late war camo extravaganza and therefore love what you've done here !!

Nice early war series you've got going on here (I'm refering to the panzer guys and the Blitzkrieg figure on your website)


Which headsculpt did you use on the officer figure ? He looks like a DML, but I can't identify him (partly due to your great wash/repaint)

 

[Dougmo]

Really nice group, Eduardo....lots of thought went into getting a variety of personalities, but still keeping them equipped from the same quartermaster.

 

[johnro6659]

Great looking troops. I love the head sculpts and the detail they all look like battle worn soldiers not like they just got out of the salon after a facial! LOL Everything looks weathered just right really good job.Big improvement over the original troops glad you decided to go the way you did.

It makes me realize I really need to get on the ball and make my figures look more realistic.

 

[pzrwest]

I envy these masters how they weather and re-paint their sculps. I have thought many times I should try and do the same but fear of screwing up a sculp or uniform and gear has held me back

 

[blitzkrieg]

Fantastic group!

 

[Sheppard1972]

I am blown away. Thanks for the pics and sharing your knowledge on this. I will be looking at this over and over again as I love the work that you have put in here. You are a true master. I am interested in early war germans for a project that I have been slowly (Very slowly) working on and this is great to reference. Man, wish I'd hit the lotto so I could send you a plane ticket (as well as others on here) to come with those figures for some great dio time. Thanks again. SHEP

 

[egonzinc]

Thanks guys!
As I was putting together this group I took many WIP images, something I seldom do. I will post them here over the long weekend.

The HS are all from DML. As I mentioned in the thread I divide them in various categories and do not mix and match in a group or crew.
For this group I went with the early, more orange HS, but not the prehistoric pieces that had little detail. Still some of the HS are very old, for example the Schutze with the grenade case is Hartmann I believe.

The officer is from an US medic that came out a long time ago, one of my favorites.

The strap with an ammo box on each end is a stock DMl piece, maybe from the prehistoric MG team or some other set. It was in one of the original group from mayne 6-7 years ago so it is a very old piece.

The officer's boots are from DID, I guess the rear strap is something that is not accurate, but he is an officer and he wears whatever he wants!

The WIP images will be with flash photography that makes them look overexposed, but it will give you an idea of how I go about attacking a large group or crew.

 

[jfunk]

Great looking group of figures, Eduardo! I always enjoy looking at your posts because I know I will not only see great figures and vehicles but I will also learn interesting history as well as receive great how-to tips. You really have a knack for bringing your subjects to life.

 

[kowalski]

is a perfectly executed ¡¡¡

 

[egonzinc]

Schutzen WIP Images


Here are some work in progress images of the 10 schutzen figures. These are quick images taken with the camera’s flash, not the best light conditions.

Getting started, selecting the HS for the group. I always stay within the same type of HS for the whole group. In this case I used what I call Type 1b, the earlier HS with a more orange skin tome, but within the group the later HS produced, before Type 2 which have a much whiter skin tone. I also start getting the uniforms and equipment pieces ready. I remove all snaps from tunics and trousers as these only get in the way at the time of weathering.

Contimue getting pieces together. Also reduce all the torsos of the figures and slope the edge of the shoulders.
Also I cut out a small secion of the thighs to make the figures of various heights.

Here getting more equipment ready, I eventually decided against using the mess kits. The newer type of shoulder boards I set up on a piece of tape and painted the piping grass green. You can also see the CVI litzen and breast eagles ready and also a few medals.
The CVI insignia are cut and then the sides are painted with matching paint to avoid the white edge of the insignias material.

More equipment and washes applied to the HS, boots weathered.

Getting shirts ready, only weather the collars and cuffs as everything else will not be visible. As with the tunics I remove the snaps of the shirts.

More and more equipment piles up

Figures are ready to be dressed. They have been all reduced and in some cases the height shortened. Most of the individual pieces are weathered, and later I will dry brushe and add additional wash if necessary. Getting the gas cape attached to the gas mask cans.

Basic dress and footwear on, and helmet liners, when needed were enlarged to avoid the HS finish getting marred. Each figure has its specific liner. It is the first time I used the newer DML helmets with separate liners. The helmets can go on any of the figures.

Litzen and breast eagles glued in place with CA. I’m used to CA for this, but I would not recommend it as there is o room for mistakes.

Time to get the field equipment on the figures. Some variations on placement and of the field equipment, depending on the type of particular soldier.

Some more dry-brush, also over the insignia to blend them in.

Helmets weathered, all of the equipment on the figures. More blanding dry-brush and the collars are sharpened up. Many of the tunics have the top button, un-buttoned, in those I change the button to the opposite side and make an eyelet with X-Acto knife. I place and old blade in the cut and add CA from the inside to give the eyelet shape.
Hands are also weatheres with washes, similar to the HS.
Weapons ready.

Helemets, hands and weapons go on the figures. I vary the poses at this point.

Add a couple of medals, this is 1940 so only some will have medals at all.

 

[HDHSVI]

Egon,

I hope our contemporaires can appriciate just how much work a project like this is. Top notch work as usual from you.

One quick question how much time are we seeing encumpassed in the photos?

Cya,
Hankster