German Infantry - Part I

One downside of trying to assemble larger units is that most of the time you end up having to deploy multiple guys with the same pose in order to make your numbers. That is still the case for most countries/branches of the service that participated in WWII. In recent years, a series of new sets have improved the situation for American GIs and for Soviet Infantry. However the ones that have really made it possible for me to get to my magic number have been the German Infantry. A company -100 strong- of unique poses. All painted in the same style to blend them into a single unit. Note that I avoided pre-painted figures and figures that had winter uniforms or cammo smocks. I also tried to stick to 'action/battle' poses, therefore you won't see any marching guys or dead guys. Lastly, I did not want to have more tha 10 prone figures. The chosen ones are featured below, grouped by manufacturer.

Conte Collectibles German Infantry Set 1 

Click here to see one more pose that I did not paint

Conte Collectibles German Infantry Set 2 - First Half

Note that Conte introduced plug-in arms which allows the creation of new poses by just exchanging the weapon/accessory. In the case above, the guy with the MG-42 is the same figure as the guy with the phone.

Conte Collectibles German Infantry Set 2 - Second Half

Again, by using pluggable arms, I was able to create four figures out of two base running guys.

Conte Collectibles German Infantry Set 3

Airfix German Infantry

Airfix Afrika Korps

Here I borrowed figures from a different 'branch of service', but once they are painted they look like German Infantry, which I guess is what they actually were. 

BMC German Infantry

Click here to see 3 other poses that did not make the 'paint cut'

Classic Toy Soldiers German Infantry - First Half

Classic Toy Soldiers German Infantry - Second Half

ESCI German Infantry

Marx German Infantry - First Half

Marx German Infantry - Second Half

Click here to see a couple other poses that I did not paint.

Matchbox German Infantry

Note that to the right there is a bazooka/panzerschreck guy which to my knowledge is not part of the original set. It came in a bucket of clones, but it must be based on Matchbox figures as the sculpting and all his equipment is just like the other guys'.

Matchbox Afrika Korps

Again, here I borrowed from another 'service branch', but they look like normal infantry...

MPC German Infantry

These guys are not my favorite. A bit too stiff for my taste, but I included some of their poses so that they would be represented. There were three other poses that I did not paint.

Revell Afrika Korps (left) & Reproductions of Marx 6" figures (middle, right)

Same branch story with the Revell guy. The manufacturer of the 54mm versions of the 6" Marx guys is unclear to me. I bought them advertised as SWTS figures (Steve Weston Toy Soldiers), but I have not been able to comfirm that claim. He does not mention them on his web site.

The whole unit.

Click here to see a post of the German company in action.

Here you can see pictures of additional German Infantry figures.

Click here to see German Paratroops in action.

Click here to see German Waffen SS in action.