Small Scale Military Headquarters

I have one of the Ardennes tankers, but even with tan paint he's not very believable sitting in my desert scheme Panzer IV. The mittens give it away more than anything else. Is there an Afrika Corps tanker, or some other such figure that would make a good substitute? Thanks..

If you can get one of the older 21st Germans with the soft caps, they would be the closest thing. One of the non-winter Panzer officers with the uniform hat would work too. The AK was fairly liberal with uniforms and variations so you have a bit of latitude to work with. The winter cloths wont work though.

TJ

Outstanding. Thanks for the info.

I had mittens on a US BOB Tanker that I changed the head on and used as a Jeep driver. Obviously the mittens had to go. I found that the hands do come off if you are careful. You should be able to pull the mitten hands off and replace with flesh hands. That might help. Also, Afrika tankers sometimes also wore their black leather tank commander jackets. You might try a tanker that has one of those. the Tiger Tanker was wearing his black coat.

Most Xd hands are easily removable using hot water and I've done it before with the new XD German figures

I've actually become surprisingly adept at swapping hands in the short time I've been fooling around with XD(along with all the other parts. gotta love trail and error ) The problem I have so far is that the arm holes for the tanker are bigger than the hand posts for any of the available transplant figures.

I've got a bid in on a set of S1 Germans that will hopefully become my Afrika Corps tank crew/support infantry. Thanks again.

Ive swapped one head and found the head is very loose on the new body. Plus you must keep your eye out for scale as some head are matched for certain shoulder and body sizes - eg. corsair pilot's head does not match a tanker.

Also - with the New OMG figures - save one guy - I'm having the toughest time keeping weapons in thir hands. Also finding many of the accessories don't fit the holes this is a big problem with some of the S3 Japanese marines.

Do you know if the tanker head fits a S1 German body? That would make it a lot better looking being able to retain the headset.

Edit: It just occurred to me that the figures I'm bidding on may not fit in the Panzer IV hatch. Anyone know if the S1 Germans fit?

Yes, the BoB tanker head does fit the German body - though you may potentially have to do a little sanding of the "bulb" on the base of the peg on the tanker's head - or use hot water - to make it fit. You can see one of mine in the photo below:



This photo is a close-up from a larger diorama photo on my website, hence the B/W. A moustache was added on this tanker to add some variety to the crew since they all had the same head. I once made several of these tankers from the S1 body so I could have a crew for my Tiger tank. They were rendered largely obslete, however, once 21c released the spotted and green cammo tankers with their BoB troop assortment.

Fantastic stuff tman! Thanks a lot. If I'm not careful, I'll be thoroughly hooked on 1/18.

flpickupman wrote:Fantastic stuff tman! Thanks a lot. If I'm not careful, I'll be thoroughly hooked on 1/18.

oh - you already are hooked my friend -

bwa ha ha.
cough sorry.

Okay, I'll admit it. I am hooked. But it's a barb-less hook.

Mostly it's due to the RC Panzer. Lord help me if 21st comes out with another 1/18 WWII RC vehicle though.