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is a model builder as well as a Civil War living
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Adding a crew to a finished model add character. Commercially available characters of every scale and period are not readably available, so below is some information on how to adapt figures from other periods for a specific model.
American Civil War Sailors
The source of the figures for Civil War sailors and officers are the Italeria no. 306 (left) and the DML 3005 (photo 'C' below).
(A five-foot-eight person at 1/35 scale equals 1.94 inch, and at 1/32 scale, 2.13 inch tall. This means the 1/35 scale figure would be a scale five-foot-two in 1/32 scale.)
1960's - 70's German
Sailors (for Schnellboot)
When I
purchased the Wiesel I had no intention of adding a crew.
Later, I decided to add a crew but found nothing that would
replicate a 1/40 scale West German naval crew of the 1970's. So
I looked to the variety of 1/35 scale figures, most being from
the WW-II period.
(A five-foot-eight person at 1/40 scale equals 1.7 inch, and at 1/35 scale, 1.94 inch tall. This means the 1/35 scale figure would be a scale six-foot-six in 1/40 scale - a bit tall, but not that noticeable on a ship.)
All of the figures shown cam from the two kits below ("A"
left and "B" center).
Extensive cutting and filling, along with removing and adding parts, plus movements of arms and legs were made to achieve the above. In some places limbs and torsos were cut and re-cemented in different orientations. The figures in the photo above are not in their actual places on the ship (placed here for this article only).
The
Wiesel has a crew of 44. To make up the deck crew, I chose
DML'sTM
figure kits 6028 left, above, 6029 center, and 3005
kits right. This gives me 13 men to position on the
ship. The result of carving away many details and building up a
few other areas, and using a different paint scheme can be seen
in the top photo of the Wiesel's aft deck.
Civil War U.S. Marines landing ashore (diorama)
The diorama to
the left has figures that were part of
a bag of about 20 Civil War soldiers, costing about $3.00.I picked the best six and painted them as Marines. Careful trimming and painting of these less than 2-inch figures came out rather good. The biggest problem was the type of plastic (probably polyethylene), of which nothing would adhere to - super glue, epoxy, plastic cement, and anything else did not work. To preserve the enamel paint, a final matte clear coat was applied.