After the separation of Italy from the Axis by uttering an armistice on 8th of September 1943, the German Army command immediately deployed the 2nd Paratrooper Division, as well as the 3rd Mechanised Division to Rome, which was occupied after short engagement within the outskirts.
My figure shows a member of 2nd Paratrooper Rgt in Rome, who is in charge of securing a public square somewhere in the town.
The model
The figure is Dragon´s "Otto Skorzeny", who was altered a little bit. The kit itself is of no good quality.
The wrinkles are lousy and the pose is too stiff. There is no similitudy to the real Skorzeny. This was the impulse to change the figure to a normal paratrooper. As Skorzeny was very tall the figure as well is too big for my purpose. So I shortened the legs by 5mm.
Despite this work the soldier is still rather tall. The head was changed and I took one from Verlinden. The steel helmet derived from Tamiya. Then the amunition boxes for the MP 40 were sanded to get a good fit to the uniform.
Painting was done with acrylics and oil colours. A sleeve ribbon, an Iron Cross Medal and the paratrooper badge was added. The figure base is selfmade from gypsum where i scratched the irregular pattern of an italian
pavement.
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German paratrooper
