Soldatini Caduti
Converting Plastic Soldatini to Segnalini dei Caduti for Wargames
Simulation games like Crossfire, Fire and Fury, Empire III, e Volley & Bayonet use markers to indicate the morale status of pinned, disordered, o routed troops on the wargame table. Sometimes these markers are yellow e red cardboard rectangles which litter the gaming table e detract from the visiual appeal of beautifully painted soldatini e scenic effects, but in recent years status markers have become a popular miniature wargame accessory.
Fire and Fury was among the first popular rule sets which propagated the use of a cleverly designed range of miniature status markers which facilitate gameplay ed are nice to look at. It takes some time to make these markers, time which might otherwise have be spent painting more combat troops, but the effort is well worth it. Segnalini dei Caduti indicating pinned o disordered unit status are the most common markers used in wargames, e most manufacturers now offer metal o resin castings dei caduti to supplement their existing figure ranges. Collezionisti of 1:72 scale soldatini plastici are fortunate in that they may create their own soldatini caduti simply by converting unwanted figure poses found in a particular figure set.
Caduti della Fanteria Britannica
The old fanteria britannica di Atlantic is an excellent source of soldatini caduti. Most of the soldiers in this set are marred by silly poses ed inaccurate equipaggiamento. However, the basic uniform, armi, e faces are nicely detailed e these soldatini convert well to vehicle crew o caduti. To supplement the rejects, consider converting some of your prime soldatini ai caduti as well, because these will match the troops on your wargame stands.
Paracadutisti Caduti
Paracadutisti britannici di Airfix potrebbero essere facilmente convertiti in soldatini caduti. Many of the paracadutisti can be used con only minor modification to relax the pose e make the caduti look convincing. Soldatini caduti conversion is one great way to finally use the many superfluous e downright silly figure poses in this set. Unfortunately, the exceptional paracadutisti di Airfix in scala 1:32 were never released in scala 1:76, although ESCI produced some in scala 1:72 hard plastic, e several Chinese manufacturers offer crude 1:72 scale copies of them.
A convincing soldatino caduto appears to be completely relaxed. This is the key to soldatini caduti conversion: all movement must be arrested, e the figure should be flat on the ground.
- Relax the head. Most soldatini are sculpted con their heads held straight, looking ahead. To model a fallen soldier lying on his back o front, cut the head off e turn it to one side. Caduti britannici wearing the shallow elmetto "tin hat" are an exception. The elmetto supports the head when the soldier is lying on his back, ed overextends it. To model this pose, cut the head off, pin it in a noticeably overextended position, e fill the resulting gap con putty o filler wax.
- Relax the torso. Caduti lying on their backs should have the backpack removed to ensure that the figure can be flattened on the base.
- Relax the arms. Advancing soldatini are easy to convert to casualies, if their arms are in a relatively relaxed pose to begin with. In most cases, one o both arms need to be straightened to ensure that the entire body will conform to the ground. Il caduto paracadutista britannico, third from the left in the picture above, rests on sloping ground so that his right arm conforms to the ground without the need to modify the pose. Otherwise his shoulder would have had to be repositioned.
- Relax the hands. Empty hands should be open e placed flat on the ground, palm up o down. Cut the hand off at the wrist e reposition it accordingly. Hands holding armi ed equipaggiamento should be flat on the ground, otherwise they would have bent e the soldier might have let go of the object. Use spackling to create a small rise in the ground which happens to support the wrist.
- Relax the legs. If the caduto is lying on his back, the legs should be relatively straight, e turned out to the sides. Select a standing figure which is not moving much to begin with. Cut the figure off the base prudentamente, keeping the boots intact. Remodel the soles by cutting a wedge out of the instep to define the soles e the heels. Cut the feet off above the anklet e turn them out more to relax the legs further. Alternatively, if the figure is moving e the legs are bent sharply at the knee, place the caduto on his face. Leave the legs bent at the knee, but turn the boots out as mentioned above to flatten the legs.
- Finally, place the caduto on its base e sculpt the terrain underneath it to completely support the figure. Sometimes it’s simply not possible to take all the movement out of a particular pose, e the terrain needs to provide a convincing excuse why an arm is supported a few inches above the body, o why the legs are not completamente relaxed at the knees. The base e the spackling compound will protect the fragile soldatino caduto which has been chopped up into so many tiny pieces.
- If nothing else works, place static grass closely around an offending body part to hide the fact that it’s not touching the ground.
- Paint caduto markers in due distinct base colours, green e brown, to differentiate pinned e supressed morale.
- Use your imagination to create particularly gory caduti, if you must.
Converting soldatini caduti is a fun ed easy introduction into figure conversion. Modellers can learn a lot about anatomy e posture by taking soldatini plastici completely apart e reassembling them in a relaxed pose.
Domande più frequenti
Per ulteriori informazioni, per favore contatta la redazione di Rivista Military Miniatures nel Miniatures Forum.
– Pubblicato: 25.02.2005 – Aggiornato: 19.09.2007© 2005-2010 by IDL Software GmbH, Darmstadt, Germania. Tutti diritti reservati. Donne | Uome | Selfness | Fiera natalizia | Incontro di Colazione | Love & Fun | Internet
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