In need of a Gun crew

At Crisis 2017, I received an excellent model of a Pak 43 on a cruciform mount from Heer 46. The gun didn't come with any crew - I'm sure Heer 46 will do some at some point, but in the meantime, I need a gun crew!

The pretty PaK 43 off the Heer 46 website.

Inspired by John Bond's article in WS&S 96, I decided to convert some Warlord plastic grenadiers into gun crew. I had spare models, now came the tricky bit, thinking up some good poses with the spare parts I had.

The gun requires five crew, so having a commander with binoculars and an NCO ordering the crew into action seemed appropriate (although now I look at the photo, that one arm does seem a little long...). Arms and parts from the Grenadier, SS and Blitzkrieg set were used with the shell a spare from a Rubicon kit.

More crew were fashioned with more spare Rubicon shells and parts. I used Blutack to test each of the poses before I glued them into place. I also decided to use parts from the Blitzkrieg kit to make up some different grenadiers.

I also fancied making up some NKVD security troops sculpts from the Warlord plastics. I used the two Russian peaked caps from the two sets plus a few heads for the German sets with Russian peaked caps added, for variety.

Yes, you can have a lot of fun converting plastics. Thanks for the inspiration, John!