Bergheil und drei mal Horrido! Great looking Gebirgsjäger WIP.
Hello " Heeresbergführer",
I read - in 2018 - your comments at the 2012 forum on the bust made by "Fex" from "Papa" Ringel the General of the Gebirgsjägers.
At that time I had just missed the sale on eBay of a Ringel bust that was offered in Italy.
I contacted Mitches Military who had taken the bust into production, but it was no longer being produced.
At that time I was busy making a bust of Eduard Dietl on scale 1/10.
I had made the bust from leftovers of other busts that I still had, the head was a bit harder, I had this done by Scale75. (See attached pictures).
I have been modeling since 1974, then mainly at scale 1/35 and with Tamiya soldier etc. , I think that was almost the only manufacturer that produced WWII soldiers.
I myself am from Belgium and have always lived in Lier, where Francois Verlinden also had his toy store. I usually bought the soldiers there.
Francois then taught me a lot about painting techniques and weathering. In those days I went to the art academy, but I didn't like sculpting figures.
A good friend - in the early 80s - took over the shop from Francois Verlinden, Francois then had his factory in Lier op de Plaslaar. Later he moved to the USA to start Verlinden Productions.
Recently I received a lot of figures on 120mm and 1/35 from Verlinden as a gift from my good friend, including the 1/35 and 120 mm figure of Eduard Dietl but also the 120 mm 'Go Para go'.
In 1980 I did my compulsory military service in Belgium with the Paracommando regiment, where we also received training in mountaineering.
I also received my diploma in History with my thesis on WWII and specifically in connection with special forces such as the Gebrirgsjägers.
So I got interested in making figures of these Gebirgsjägers. Now I am working on a 120mm scale diorama of 'Operation Mercury' (the battle of Crete) with Fallschirmjägers figures made by Jeff Shiu.
I still have some heads in scale 1/10 of Eduard Dietl, so should you be interested I can send you a head, possibly I can also make the body or bust with the Heeresbergfurher badge etc.
At this moment I have an idea to make a complete figure of Eduard Dietl on a 120mm or 1/16 scale. I asked Scale75 if one can make Dietl's heads on this scale since they have the program of the head at 1/10 on their computers. I asked Jeff Shiu if he could make it physical? I was still waiting for the wet word from both Scale75 and Jeff Shiu.
Corse, my email address is
[email protected]