Uniform Upgrade Mod

As I zero in on collections that work for me, I have been reviewing and thinning the herd quite a bit. While doing so, I realized that the plastic WWII figures I am keeping really needed a sprucing up. 

Many of them had never been sealed and dozens of games over the last decade had taken their toll. Plus there was some noticeably sloppy paint work. 

Finally, since some of the colors have ceased to work for me aesthetically, I decided to give them an update, too.

To see what they looked like before, here's an example.

Up first, the Germans:

If you've followed me for any length of time, or looked at the link above, you may recall that they previously had light grey trousers. I decided to go full on feld grau to better match my Britains and 21str Century pre-paints. 

It feels like I got a whole new army!

You may also notice that these are primarily Matchbox, supplemented with a few Classic Toy Soldiers figures. As much as I love the Airfix poses, I am reducing all of my forces for 1/32 WWII to 20 figures or less - the Germans have two Britains and four 21st centruy in addition to what is here. 

The Matchbox Germans were the first set of 1/32 WWII figures I got when I started wargaming.

The Americans never had as many plastic troops, as I have quite a few Britains "Big Red One" figures. 

Originally, I had tried to match the Britains color - which is close to Vallejo Middlestone - for the webbing but it was never satisfactory. I did some digging around online, and went with Vallejo Grey Green (it's the same color as my WWI Italians) and I much prefer it.

If I keep my Britain's weapon teams, they'll look noticeably different -I guess I could paint them to match the plastic figs? Or I can sell them and use the TSSD crew figures supplemented with some Classic Toy Solider crew figures.

I also painted the helmets with Vallejo Brown Violet rather than Olive Drab (I believe I had previously used Jo-Anns Olive Drab. It took like a dozen coats to become opaque) and the khaki jackets with Vallejo German Camo Beige (ironically). 

These are subtle changes but do make them more "correct" to my eyes.

A few of the Americans were given later war US Green jackets or trousers to reflect that newer troops often had the green while veteran troops had a ramshackle combination.

You may also have noticed the Americans don't have bases while the Germans do. The TSSD figures have tall integral bases and this way the Matchbox figures are much closer in height.

Hopefully, now that they are all sealed (with Mod Podge), they'll hold up for at least another decade.

The Weston Brits will be on their way into the queue, once I find the right colors - I have three Britains British WWII infantry figures (my first metal 1/32 figures) to at least try to match with them.

In the meantime, I've got 1/72 rebasing, tanks to paint, 1/35 French WWI to finish, some fantasy figures, and who knows what else.