Hungarian panzer crew

Used kit:

Manufacturer: The Bodi (H)

Scale: 1:35

Catalogue number: 35039

Material: resin

Number of parts: 4

Decals:-

Internet: www.thebodi.eu

Author: Kovács Olivér

Photos by: Bódi Krisztián

In my opinion, WWII Hungarian uniforms are very interesting and unusual, thanks to the experiments and developments of different arms of the Hungarian Armed Forces, but also to necessary field modifications applied.

The subject figure of this article is a real rarity, as so far no Hungarian panzer crew was released which was wearing German type uniform, this gap was filled by Black Army Modells’ a The Body’s kits, I’m presenting the figure of the latter.

Upon setting up pazner units, a need emerged for special utility uniforms. These first units received officially issued garments which become known as  1936M leather uniform, consisting of ¾ length leather jacket and the belonging leather pants. The crews wore the jackets tucked in, making the uniform very uncomfortible, also difficult to move on and around the vehicles and made it nearly impossible to get through the small access hatches. In 1942, during the establishment of a new panzer division of the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Páncélos Lőiskola (Hungarian Royal Panzer School?) with german aid, issuance of new garment was considered, aiming to provide more confortible, more suitable uniform for front conditions and mass produceable from available materials. The leadership of the school suggested to use the German pattern with minor changes, such as changing the black colour to grey or dark khaki, finding black too visible in terrain. In accordance with readily available materials, for the first production poppy-seed grey material was used, designated to repair crews originally, which worked very well, however a winter variant was also needed, the grey material was suitable only for warm conditions. The solution was a widely available material in so called police-grey colour, the cut of the uniform almost exclusively copied the german cut, with differently shaped and coloured collar-insignia according to the Army standards.

However, copying the uniforms also had it’s drawbacks, during the fightings in Hungary, Soviet soldiers often mistook Hungarian crews with Germans... Unfortunately there are no surviving examples of this uniform, in all ascpects we can only use survived documentation, drawings and descriptions.

The figure is the usual top quality of  The Body, with minimal flash. It is cast with torso, head and hands separated, the pose is very simple, yet attractive and very suitable for dioramas.

After the grey basecoat, first up were the eyes and the face painted, I used the same colours as on my previous figures, Vallejo Brown sand 876, Basic Skintone 815, Burnt Cadmium Red 814.

The soldier wears ’ushanka’ type, sheep fur ear-hat, which also determines the era where we can place him. Besides trying to represent the texture of the material, I paid attention to paint the stamp of the Központi Ruhatár (kind of Quartermaster Corps for clothing) to one of the flaps of the hat. These stamps were of black or purplish colour, marking officially issued garment. The ear-hat got Khaki 70.988, mixed with a small amount of brown 70.941 and yellow 70.882, as base colour, highlighted with white.

A real challange was mixing the ’police-grey’ colour of the uniform, for which I needed and appropriate blue, respectively blue-grey and a dark grey. Fortunately I found the right colours in the Panzer Aces series of Vallejo, getting the basecolour by mixing German Tankcrew 70.333 and Russian Tankcrew 70.325, resulting in a realatively dark, blue-greyish colour. This was highlighted in a number of layers with Russian Tankcrew colour, paying attention to get the lower parts generally darker and the upper ones, around the shoulders to a lighter shade. Boots were painted dark brown, highlighted by orange, also serving to represent some were on them.

Once the figure was ready, I moved on to create the base. Starting-up from the figure’s pose, I went for an idea to depict the preparations for fording a river with, let’s say by a Turán or a Pz III, our man checking the current or looking for a bridge nearby to ease the crossing. For this I tried to form the groundwork from putty to look like a stream bank, painted various browns and yellows. The water is by Vallejo, with some plants added into it.

As a final step, the pinned figure was glued to the base.

References:

dr. László Tóth - A Magyar Királyi Honvédség Egyenruhái (Uniforms of the Royal Hungarian Armed Forces) 1926-1945 - ISBN: 978 963 06 3136 5 – www.huniform.com

British Officer, 1943 Tunisia

„When sculpting a figure I work from childhood memories of great war movies. The Battle of Bulge, Kelly's Heroes or The Bridge on the River Kwai are all such films...

Thoughts of the sculptor”

Manufacturer: The Body

Scale: 1:35

Catalogue number: 35009

Material: resin

Parts: 9

Decals: -

Manufacturer's website: www.thebodi.eu 




For some time manufacturers and sculptors are producing mainly static poses. The reason is, that these poses are usually neat, heroic, full with strenght and self-confidence. In the past couple of years become noticeable, that – presumably due to thorough utilization of poses looking right or left, with hands on the hip, etc – sculptors tend to move towards a more expressive direction of showing action, making their figures more interesting and marketable. So far there are only a small number of such figures on market, wich are seated, one of the reasons is that they are not looking so attractive as a standing pose, with less detail of the uniform and equipment, especially in smaller scales (1:35, 54 mm) our soldier shrinks to 30-40 mm. Despite the above mentioned, I have to say, that the subject of this kit was an excellent choice of the manufacturer.  

The kit contains two heads, and umbrella and a walking stick, providing variability for the construction. The pose of the figure is very lifelike and natural, the movement, the attitude is very aristocratic. The kit is of best quality, no casting issues, only a little clean-up required.  

When I had the opportunity to see the master, I've already liked the inattentive elegancy of the figure. In my opinion, the idea of the sculptor of the 'typical English' feeling is spot on, what we get is a real English gentleman, who is, by the way fighting in war. When I started the work, I faced the problem of what kind of setting to create for this figure, as placing the Officer into a suitable environment is not so easy... I wanted to find a solution, so the figure keeps the attitude of Englishness, but also to express, that he's an active, fighting soldier, who is having 5 o'clock tea in the middle of a desert operation (in the end the tea was abandoned...). After I had the idea of the setting, prepared the figure for basecoating.

Recently I paint black basecoat on my figures, which has it's advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are, that the dark basecolour darkens the end result of painting, the overall effect, as the basecoat infulences the colours, the intensity and depth of further layers to a certain degree. Disadvantages are caused by the properties of black, making it difficult to spot any (casting) flaws, or to see fine details of the figure. Honestly it become very popular recently and wanted to try it.... 

After basecoating I painted the eyes, then the fleshtones. For the skin I use the following Vallejo colours: 

Brown sand 876

Basic skintone 815

Burnt Cadmium Red 814  

With these 3 colours it's much easier to work, than with the previous colour combination I used, as it's not necessary to mix the basecolour of the skin and the combination of these 3 colours is enough to achieve realistic results. With the previous colour scheme I mixed the base for skin from 4 colours, to keep the proper ratio was essential, with this combination it's not necessary anymore. 

As soon as the basecoat was properly dry, applied the base skin colour Brown sand 876 to the face. For good coverage – keep in mind, that we paint on black! - apply 3-4 thin layers to flesh areas. Next step is to add some Basic skintone 815 to it, this is the first highlight. Simply, with the mix of these two colours I go on with 3-4 gradually lighter layers, the top highlight is painted with pure Basic Skintone. For shading I use the basecolour Brown sand, with a small amount of Burnt Cadmium Red 814, adding a red tone to it. The shading is done similarly in 3-4 layers. Regarding to the subject of the kit - a soldier fighting in the desert, the skin was painted darker, supporting the atmosphere and the climate. 

The officer's cap was painted greenish brown, with brown leather strap and brass buttons. According to reference literature there is a choice between light khaki or yellow brown colours for the shirt and the tropical shorts, I've choosen the latter. The basecolour for the uniform was US filed drab 873, which was highlighted with German camouflage beige 821, the top highlight was mixed with a bit of white. The vest was mixed from brown and green, the socks are painted khaki with white stripes. The laced shoes got black colour, highlighted with brown and yellow. To the most exposed parts of the shoes I mixed only yellow to the black for wear and fading of the leather. The Officer then got an umbrella of similar colour to the uniform's and wooden handle.  

The place is the North African theather, therefore I decided to seat the figure on a German fuel drum. The drum was basecoated black as well, and painted with desert yellow and brown. Then oil leaks and rust washes were applied to make it look used and worn. The „wasser ausgabe” sign comes from Verlinden's cardboard 'Desert Signs' set, and glued it to a suitably sized wooden stick. I over painted the whole sign, the printing quality wasn't realistic enough, it required some extra work to make it look right. After this done, a placed the figure reinforced with a pin to the base and glued it.
 

Summary: 

This kit is highly recommended not only to armor fans, but also to figure painters, who appreciate interesting WWII subjects. 

Olivér Kovács
koliver@citromail.hu