Airfix 20mm Japanese to Italian Infantry Conversions

Repeating here some photos from an old post that was wiped out when the site was hacked a few years ago.

The Airfix 20mm WW2 Italian Infantry set was first released by Airfix in the 1980s and there are some beautifully sculpted figures in the set, but with a limited number of poses.



These figures are on the small side and if you mix them in the same unit with other sets of Italian 1:72 scale figures from Esci or Waterloo 1815 they look too small.

You can add more poses to their ranks by using 1:76 scale figures from the Airfix WW2 Japanese Infantry set.

The idea of using Airfix Japanese figures as Italians is an old one. The very first time I read about using them as stand-in Italians was in an old article by Gerald Scarborough when as a kid, long before there were any other 20mm scale Italian Infantry figures available in plastic.



Spare Airfix Italian Infantry figures were used to donate some heads, and some others were given field-caps / bustinas made from epoxy.



The rifles on the Airfix Japanese figures are too thin and are not very well sculpted so they need replacing with weapons taken from other figures.

In the picture above the converted figures were getting a dry-run test using some blu-tac (actually yellow in this case).

Finally after finishing the conversions the figures were all painted and based.

The group also needed some heavy weapon support, so a crude and oversized “representation” of a Breda M37 was made using a Waterloo 1815 Japanese figure with an HMG.

At this point I had no more helmeted Italian heads left, so this Italian sports a head off an old Airfix Russian. I’m pretty sure that veteran plastic enthusiasts will all recognize which set the loader came from too….

The whole new family.

Youtube

Recently added two short videos on the youtube channel of some vintage plastic 20mm figures.

If you click on the images below they will take you to the videos and open up in a new tab. Hope they bring back a few happy memories.

Airfix US Paratroops - Some Conversions

When these figures first came out in the mid-seventies I was very disappointed when I eagerly opened the box, only to discover that they were moulded in grey plastic !!  In my mind, they should have been made in the usual Airfix olive green plastic that all my other allied figures came in, I mean grey plastic was reserved for the Germans ....

(one of those original mid 1970s grey impostors in the foreground, and a more recent olive green offering from Heller)

Anyway, my childhood traumas aside, the set really does have some very well sculpted figures, albeit a little on the small side.

I had some pictures of these Airfix figures on the old and now defunct MiniatureZone website but until now I hadn't remembered to upload them here.

So here they are - these figures as you can see were moulded in good old olive green from a more recent offering by Heller - when I say recent, it's relative...... these were probably made about 10 - 12 years ago

The Airfix US paras lack a bit of heavier firepower so these little fellas got a few support weapons added.

Below, the standing figure on the left has had his Thompson replaced with a Bar taken from an old Esci US Para figure, while the MG team has been given a 0.30 cal Browning taken from the Revell US Paras set.

The mortar is from the Pegasus German set

Finally this one below was a complete bodge, it's supposed to be a hand-cart. Not very convincing, but I gave it a try at least.

And the figures once painted.

There are no parachutes in the Airfix set so we got a parachute taken from the Revell German Fallschirmjäger set, and the dropbag came from the Revell US Paras.

No bazookas for the Airfix guys either, the figure on the right had his carbine replaced with something a little more substantial.

And the rest of the gang, just vanilla Airfix US Paras

The figures are a joy to paint and they're well detailed and have stood the test of time, they still look good compared with more modern figures.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and feel free to comment. Will try to get another update soon, so keep safe and check back in a little while.

1/72 Scale German Panzer Crews – Airfix Figure Conversions

Some photos below of an attempt made a few years back at to get a set of “fighting” bailed-out Panzer Crewmen.



Figures are a mixture of Airfix Luftwaffe Ground Crew, USAAF Personnel and Afrika Korps with new arms sliced off figures from other German 20mm sets.

The uniforms don’t stand up to close inspection, but on the table they look the part and hopefully make them identifiable as Panzer Crewmen.

Mr. Churchill in 1-72 Scale

This photo of "Mr. Churchill" was originally posted on the Miniaturezone blog before it was unfortunately hacked and the whole website was wiped clean last year.

The figure is original vintage from the 1960s, from the old Airfix Civilians set first issued in 1961 and I think he bears more than a passing resemblance to Churchill.

There was a fair bit of flash that needed cleaning off before painting him, but I could have left it I suppose, painted it as a glow of some kind and claimed it was Mr. Churchill's "aura of self-confidence" :-)

Airfix WW1 French Infantry In Khaki

Airfix / HaT Industrie WW1 French Infantry painted in khaki to represent WW2 troops.

The set itself (not these actual figures though) was one of the first sets of 20mm figures I had as a kid at primary school - and that was a long time ago now.

I always thought that the guy with the carrier pigeon looked like he was holding a half-eaten sandwich that he'd just taken out of his hamper.

The figures have a lot of useful poses, it's a pity about the rifles as they are very flimsy and thin without any real detail, but they still have a place for me on the wargame table.

Airfix British Commandos

Those over a certain age will recognise these figures – they’re from the Airfix 1st version 1-76 scale British Commandos set. In the picture above the two guys below have been given new heads with helmets. The radio operator has been given a beret made from epoxy.





Beautifully sculpted 2nd version 1:76 scale Airix British Commandos. The sculptor, Ron Cameron, was an artist who was able to capture the human form perfectly, decades before before computer assisted design ever existed.



The Bren gunner on the far right wearing a helmet is from the Airfix 2nd version 1:76 scale British infantry set.



I replaced the flimsy and bendy Bren that the figure was carrying for more sturdy one in a harder plastic taken from the Imex Korean War US Army set (yes, the set really does have Brens)



Below, from left to right, an Airfix 2nd version British infantry stretcher-bearer, 2nd from the left one of the new Airfix British infantry figures with a commando head, and the two figures in berets are old smallscale Hong Kong copies (quite bad copies I should add) of the Airfix 1/32 scale British paras, with their smocks painted to try and represent leather jerkins.

German officer with greatcoat and scissor binoculars

German officer with greatcoat and scissor binoculars mounted on a tripod. An iconic figure from the Revel Panzergrenadier set.

 He’s accompanied here by a Zvezda infantryman and Imex radiomain with a portable backpack mounted radio.




Vehicles are 1/72 MAC Distribution Opel Blitz 3t Radio Car Kfz. 305, Airfix / Heller 1/76 scale Opel Blitz & and old Academy 1/72 Kubelwagen.

Elevator shoes

I'm finishing off a bunch of HaT / Waterloo 1815 Italian Infantry at
El Alamein but I'm not too keen on the officer figure that comes in
the set so I've decided to replace him with the stylish officer figure
from the Airfix WW2 Italian Infantry set.

One problem though, at 1/76 scale he's too small and his 1/72 scale
subordinates tower over him so he's been made to look taller by
sticking some padding under his feet.

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Sent from my mobile

USAAF Figure Conversion

I finished these three figures off last night. Veteran plastic fans will recognize the body from the old Airfix USAAF set. The heads are from Esci figures.

One's for North Africa, and the other two for Europe

I did the head swaps about a year ago and they had been lying half-forgotten until I came across them yesterday and spent an evening painting and basing them.

WW2 British / Commonwealth Infantry Conversions

The old Matchbox British Infantry and 8th Army sets have a good all-round mix of figures, and greatly inspired by the pictures of converted Matchbox figures posted by Paul on his 20th Century Wargames Blog, and Al on the Plastic Warriors Blog, I decided to try my hand at adding more variety to the poses offered in these sets.

So, armed with a scalpel and geared up into a Dr. Frankenstein mode, I chopped and swapped various plastic body parts and came up with the following results.





These are really bad pictures by the way. I took these snaps in the evening with my mobile, and the yellow light from an "energy efficient" fluorescent bulb is nowhere near as bright or defining as a good old 100W tungsten filament bulb.



The different coloured figures come from sets spanning around 35 years.

The radio operator with the beret conversion above is the oldest and was very brittle - his original head didn't even need slicing off, it just snapped off.

The dark green officer figure in the middle above and the olive-green figure below are about 20-25 years old but no brittleness to be found, and the beige figures are new Airfix/Hornby re-releases.



The head on Jack the Knife on the right there is a copy I made from a 2nd version Airfix commando. The arms are off a Matchbox crawling British Commando.



Quite pleased with the way this one turned out. The hand-gun that the original figure was holding looked more like a water-pistol, so I replaced it with a revolver from a pistol brandishing Esci British Infantry officer.

The final batch of WWII British / Commonwealth figures, a mixture of Airfix, Caesar, Matchbox and a couple of old Hong-Kong rip-offs (in dark green).









And what a difference a nice bit of sunshine can make- it makes the first lot of photos look abysmal.