Hi all!

I have started this rather interesting Model I won recently here on HF.

I will let the pictures do the talking mostly but I used my AB to lay down the basic skin colours then used traditional brushes to add some character.

I have tried to portray a very young man, maybe 18 or 19 ?

Anyway picture

Most Likely a conscript - an unwilling conscript at that...he's wearing a Soviet helmet and carrying what appears to be carrying a PPSh 41 a Soviet weapon - he has a "What am I doin' here??" look on his face...The Soviets also invaded Poland (from the east) on the same day that Hitler invadeed from the West - Stalin's crimes against the Polish people were as bad as, or worse than, those of Tio Adolf...you might want to keep this in mind as you paint the face - My First Sgt in the Army was a Polish lad who was first conscripted by the Soviets, defected to the Germans, then to the Americans at the first opportunity - when I met him in 1971, he'd been in one military service or the other since early September 1939.

CB in FL

Mark, very good work so far.
Am I right seeing PPSh barrel is warpped a bit?

Christopther, Soviet did invade Poland, but not on Sept 1 (as Nazi did) but on Sept. 17 1939 and you're right about Stalin's crimes on Polish soldiers, officers and citizens.
During WW II nobody was saying loud about Soviets crimes (most didn't even know about them) and all Poles wanted to defeat German Army and gain freedom at all cost. Unfortunately Stalin had other plans.

Very interesting figure. Quite a lot of character in this young man. Excellent work so far.

Nice start so far , I've on of these on order. As Soviet army pushed west , many very young poles jumped at the chance to join the polish units that were part of the russian front . My great uncle was one of them , and as a 20 year old he fought and lost his life in april 1945 in the Battle for Brelin. Your build will be followed with great interest.

Thanks for all the replies

The PPSh barrel is the worst part of the kit to be honest deformed and badly cast, I'm sure it will straighten with a little heat ....

An omission from the kit is a chin strap for the helmet ... to keep with the young look I made one to hang loosely round his face, still some work to do on the helmet and the chin strap needs painting

:)

Thank you for building our production figure. Sorry for warped PPSh. It is a most difficult part to cast in kit. Fortunately I have a lot extra copies. Send me your post address please. I would send you replacement with no problem.

Here are some links to reenactment groups:
http://www.tgrh.org/index1.php?akcja=zdjecia
http://www.tryglaw.org/wojsko_polskie_rekonstrukcja
http://lwp.armiam.com/

and there is website about Berlin and Polish Army:
http://www.berlin-1945.com/

Wojtek many thanks for the offer of a replacement but to be honest the kit part is fine, it was the worst cast part of the kit but as you said a PPSh is a difficult thing to make in resin

The hand holding it is superb and a little heat will straighten out the barrel

Lovely kit ....

some more progress

Nice job Mark

Cheers Andy

The gun straightened beautifully with a little heat from a hair dryer... sling from paper and masking tape....

Also picked the uniform highlights out with a lighter shade, much happier with it now

Good job with the sling! I like how the belt looks like too.

Thanks Marcin

Final tidy up and matting down of the uniform to do, also a little filling around the arms but it will be tiny amounts.....

Base is now being veneered and some basic urban gound work will be added.

Picture

Finished!

:)

Excellent Mark. One of your best faces so far. The eyes are magnificent. They have so much sadness in them.
Have you purposly reduced the amount of highlighting/shadowing around details? It appears quite restrained in the photos, IMO.

great great work Mark

Another amazing piece of work Mark.

I can almost see tears in his eyes! Superb!

Nice finish Mark, single colour uniform is hard to pull off and still keep it interesting, you've done a cracking job.

Andy

Frank ... Many thanks! Yes I have been trying to hold back a little on the detail shading except where there is a transition area. Does that make sense? There is less shading on the top and undersides and more inbetween... sort of

Simon ... Cheers

Jesper ... Thank you

Marcin ... Thanks again

Andy ... Again thanks

amazing Mark, really amazing work!

Koen! Many thanks And long time mate! How is the Wespe project going?

:)