Completed 1/35 Dragon Conversion- Artillery Forward Observer

(Completed) 1/35 Dragon Conversion- Artillery Forward Observer

This Artillery Forward Observer started out life as an OOB Dragon figure, came from the Arnhem 1944 kit.
I wanted to create a some what obscure looking figure with odd throw uniform combo, and actually carrying field telephone and rangefinder. All that you eventually see on this figure could have possibly been worn/carried, given the position the Germans were in at the time, 1944.

The first set of pic's show what the figure looked like OOB, and then the next set shows the initial phase of the conversion, after market Warriors head, lead foil straps for the shoulder boards, bread bag, canteen, water bottle, shovel and fitting ammo pouches in front under left arm, sanding them down nearly paper thin. The neck was also sculpted as part of the conversion, as was part of the shoulders, and hands. More pics tomorrow. Thanks!

Jim

Nice start Jim,
It's good to see some plastic injection figures gracing the forum as they can be made into some great display pieces. looking forward to your work on this.
Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the feed back!

It's nice to add some variety to figure modeling. With all the plastic kits on the market now a days, and so many modelers in the hobby at various levels, whether it be basic construction OOB, to minor conversions, major conversions, to sculpting. It's all a progressive movement to achieving your highest possible goal. Eventually we'll all get to where we want to be! I'm just glad I have the opportunity to share what I have learned.

Jim

I really like this figure and his pose. Looks much more "realistic" than the OOB version for sure! Good work Jim.
Scott

Thanks Scott for the feedback, much appreciated!

The next set of pictures will start with placement of phone and strapping of the field telephone, and placement/strapping of rangefinder. With the use of actual photos of the strapped phones on soldiers, this gave me a pretty good idea where to place the phone on the figure.
The strap for the field telephone was used from the Dragon Gen2 kit Luftwaffe Feld. Div. Charkassy, photoetched waist belts. The shoulder strap for the field phone is the same size as a waist belt, slightly thicker. I found some actual photo's of shoulder strap. You'll see that the shoulder strap comes in two pieces, and buckles in the middle. So, when bringing the strap around front of figure, I had to visualize where to create the buckle with wire. The photo's of soldiers with the field phones strapped around them once again gave me a good indication where placement of buckle should be placed and how far the phone should hang down. After the shoulder strap was placed, the rangefinder was placed across his back overlapping the phone strap, it would make sense if you visualized it. Of course I had to prep the area to fit these parts so they don't appearing floating on the figure. Once rangefinder was placed the strap was placed area opposire direction of the phone strap. The rangefinder strap turned into double strap at the buckle in back of mess tin.
That's it for now, primer and painting next time.

Thanks for looking!

Front buckle of shoulder strap, Rangefinder and strap.

Coming along nicely.
Carl.

Jim, great explanation of detailed work and I look forward to following.

Cheers Ken

Thanks Carl and Ken for your compliments!

The next step is applying some primer to the figure. Before I started base coating, I obviously had an idea what the uniform would consist of. I wanted create this figure from the Herman Goring Fallsch. Pz. Dv. at Anzio, say April/May 1944. For the uniform I wanted the helmet in Italian camo, SS cut cover, Tropical tunic retained from Sicily, applied newer fieldblue shoulder boards with red waffen farbe (Artillery), Fieldblue trousers which were worn on a lot of HG soldiers in Italy. The following pic's show the sketch of the Italian camo on the three parts of the cover. Next is the start of the under coating. Once I primed this figure I took one look at it asked myself "how in the world am I going to paint this"?! Well, The answer was very carefully! Using that inside to outside technique, painting all the inner most parts of the figure first to the outermost parts of the figure. It was a bit intimidating at first. So, on go the Acrylics and I totally forgot to photograph my oil painting sessions, but did photograph ground work. I added tall grass and a Ranger helmet using painters tape to mask off the orange diamond for the 1st Battalion. Ground work was airbrushed Tamiya acrylics.
Finished photo's tomorrow night!

Jim
Thanks

Next pic's.

Very nice and the groundwork is gonna be very cool !!

cheers

stefano

It's looking good already, love the ground work.
Carl.

Really nice work with the figure Jim and your equipment additions have really made this figure stand out, loking forward to seeing him complete and based up.


Steve

Here are the last set of pictures, with the figure finished, painted in oils, and placed on finished groundwork and title plate.
The actual battle was in a town called Cisterna outside Anzio, a major blunder for the allies on misjudgement of the Germans strength, it cost them two Batalllions of Rangers, the 1st and 3rd Battalions, almost 1/2 of the US Ranger force at the time.

Thanks for looking!

Jim

Detail Pic's.

I found some gallery pic's to add.

Stefano, Carl and Steve. Thanks guys very much for your kind words. Steve, I love to load down soldiers with gear, they were loaded down all the time. Thanks again!

Jim

Just got back to this one, Jim,
great piece of work, You would never think of it's humble beginings!
What's next then Jim?
Mark

very beautiful rendition Jim, like a lot, compliments !!

cheers

stefano

just goes to show what potential stock plastic figures have when in the right hands, great job Jim on both figure construction and the oil painting, i like this one a lot.


Steve