Reading the various replies to Jeff’s latest release, ‘Fallschirmjaeger with FG42’, there was a comment to the effect that there are loads of releases, but few - if any, finished... well, I intend to address here. I’m between figures right now as I wait for one in the post, and thought I’d take the opportunity to move some figures out of the stash. Enter three of Jeff’s Normandy Tank Hunters, based off of the Dragon 1/35 set featuring four Fallschirmjaeger, two armed with either a panzerschreck or Panzerfaust, and two in support. I’m using the panzerschreck guy, an ammo bearer, and the guy with the FG42 (not the new one), to do a small scene.

The first image is to show those figures after some clean up, and a bit of glue. Now, let’s get this out of the way early... these figures require a lot of work: Clean up and filling. The resin is hard and brittle, and these three guys each had a chip here or there. It would appear that after sculpturing the figures, a multitude of holes are drilled at the joints of the legs, and the leg snapped off. The leg and torso are then cast with those drill holes in place, refer images. There is a small hole either side of the join, I’m assuming to line up with, but the holes are a right inconvenience to fill.

There are a couple of methods to address this, I went with some milliput and a bit of super glue. I’m not here to trash Jeff’s work, this is info I’d want to know before buying any figure I wasn’t familiar with.

Ok, back to the work bench.

And the panzerschreck, done. Without the face shield, and some added detail, like the shoulder brace and the wiring from the back of the trigger group. The shoulder brace will not be visible once complete, and I will form it to shape better before then.

The sling will be added once fitted to the figure...

Arming the triplets (the faces are all very similar)...first is the ammo bearer for the panzerschreck, armed with a spare MP 40 courteous of Tamiya. second is the FG42 gunner, left arm fitted. Thirdly, the panzerschreck man, both arms fitted, but the right is held in place with putty, pending fitting of the panzerschreck itself...

A minor problem identified... the FG42 guy has no spare mags, uh-oh. I’ll scratch one that looks like this:

And,

Ok, I am sure there is an international conspiracy to prevent me getting any benchtime... every time I sit down at the bench, something comes up... I did manage to progress these three a little this weekend... I needed a couple of helmets, there were chips in these, and Jeff is sending them out now (I did buy his latest figure, too).


The boxes represent Normandy buildings

Great work, loving the pose of the FG42 gunner - looks like he’s cocking his weapon or about to change mags.

Looking good so far. Do you pin the joints first or do you just line then up, glue and fill?

Hi Scott,

I line them up, glue, and then fill. If it’s a small gap, I use superglue; for the larger ones, Milliput. And I’ve used a bit on these three stooges. Progress has been slow as a result, but moving forwards.



I need to add a sling to the Fg 42 and panzerschreck, made from foil. This will make painting awkward later, and I want to do the splinter pattern on the FG42 42 guy! Note to self, add a magazine bandolier

After a busy week, I’m happy to post some progress: strapping. No, not tennis elbow, either.



And, while I’m at it, I decided to go with a Dragon Mauser leftover from their 1/16 Fallschirmjager which I think one of my sons may have re-purposed...



More tomorrow. I need to add the strap to the Mauser and the FG42, then prime everything before the weekend.

Looking good, Jeff does great poses/sculpts but I would love him to move away from the breaking parks/joining method. S&T, Warriors, PMC and Alpine make building the figure kit a five minute job. The peg and hole method, the joining of parts where a seam line of where boots meet the trousers is such a better option. Other kit makers would recess the upper inner thigh on the torso part, what a peg hole in there and then on the leg itself put a peg on it and make in slide into the torso thigh part. That way you don't even see a join line and no putty work at all. The breaking a part in the middle of leg or arm I don't understand it just makes for unneeded putty work to be done by the customer. I love the kit sculpts but parts breakdown feels about ten to twenty years behind the times. Some kits in the range are better than others for part breakdown
Looking forward to more of your build

Hi MrBMB, yes, these figures are a lot of work... buyer beware and all that.. moving on.



I needed to shave off a bit from this guy’s back to fit the Dragon Masuer. I didn’t mind so much as I find some of the creases and fold to be a bit cavernous, if you know what I mean. Here’s a shot of the rifle fitted.

And the sling in place as best I can


I also finished the FG42 gunner, so will prime all three, with a view to slapping some paint on this weekend.

I’m tending towards a couple in splinter, one in mono-green.

Made it, after another too busy weekend, I did manage to prime the Three Amigos thus:

I added an MP38 from Tamiya. This guy isn’t going to stand by himself.


Added a pistol, also from Tamiya.
And,

I added a bread bag. From. Tamiya.

The layout, Panzerschreck man is about ready to light up a tank, FG42 guy is yelling back to Ammo Bearer, who is struggling forward with two large boxes of rockets...


I’m contemplating an Alpine Fallschirmjager sniper to round it out; he’d be at the front, looking pass a shop corner, or similar.

Incredible the difference in light colour between the three pairs of images, all taken at the same time, same place... anyways, I went and started on the camo, but cannot settle on the base colour of the splinter pattern. Does anyone have a high resolution scan of the painting guide from the back of a box of Dragon Fallschirmjager 1944 they can post, please?

Great preparation. Although this is not my period, the figures are great, I am curious about the next continuation ...

Cheers Borek

These three amigos are coming along nicely and some nice additions to make them your own, looking forward to seeing the paint going on and what you have in mind for the groundwork/setting.
TERRY

And I said, ‘no, SPLINTERmuster”, but she didn’t get it.



First off, the base colour is Tamiya XF 55 deck tan. It took several minutes, and numerous checks, to make sure every nook and cranny was covered. Second step, and image, the first camo colour, XF 65 field grey. And that’s as far as I got before I was served a noise abatement notice, who knew it was 2100! That’s early in some cultures. So I moved onto the third step, masking. Once that is done, I’ll lay down a coat of deck tan, brown, mask, deck tan.

I had hoped to get more done tonight as tomorrow it’s squash with my eldest son. No news until Friday. But most likely Saturday. Thanks fellas.

Turns out Saturday was wildly optimistic; Sunday too. Monday, Benchtime!



And, a minor setback... rocketman dropped his rockets. He over balanced somehow leaning against the boxes, toppled over and lost a box of rockets.



I will be spending tomorrow night masking off the splinter camo pattern, as I managed to base coat the trousers tonight, and add some green spots, too.