I have always liked the look of Germans in greatcoats, but there are only a handful of figures on the market. They range in quality from poor to great, come in a limited number of poses, and usually cost more than your average figure. I've seen several people mix the plastic Winter Soviets and various plastic German kits from Warlord Games to make their own greatcoat Germans, so I thought I would give it a try.
For my greatcoat Germans I used the plastic grenadier box. I wanted to have German helmets with covers, field caps, and assault rifles. I also like the thicker rifles and weapons found in this kit.
From the Russian kit I used some of the gloved arms, and the heads with garrison caps. I thought about using the fur winter hats, but didn't like how they looked, plus I was going for a late fall, early spring look instead of the dead of winter.
I bought the Russian sprues during a Warlord sprue sale and had enough figures to make two squad. If you buy the acutal box set, only 25 of the 40 figures have great coats.
You will also need to use the German field kits from the grenadier box to make them look more like Germans. The straps on the Russian bodies are wrong so I just went in and black lined the straps myself. Its not perfect but passes the three foot test.
I used the prone Russians to make LMG teams using the MG-42s from the grenadier box.
I made a total of three SMGs, five rifles, six assault rifles and two LMG teams. I wanted these squads to have an Eastern front feel to them, so mixed a few Soviet PPSh SMGs into the squads. My plan is to run these as Volksgrenadiers, but the truth is I will likely buy more plastics to make a platoon worth of Germans in greatcoats. I'll add more squads, panzerfausts, a spotter, and probably an officer. A lot of late war photos I've seen show a mix of troops in greatcoats and camouflage jackets so I might mix the guys from the grenadier box into this army for variety.
Whats great about this project is that you could mix boxes and bits to make troops in greatcoats from other nations as well. You could easily mix them with the metal Italian heads to make Eastern front Italians or with the early war Germans to make Hungarians.
