ADD day again. No Marines; got bored with my Aufklarungs (too much dunkelgelb) so switched to my US Para's. Actually I should say my other US Para's. I have a company of US Para's (D/2/506th PIR) modeled after the Bastonge siege. I have to add some stands of figures to bring it up to late war organization. These are all Battlefront figures and have supporting M-10 TDs and a battery of colored artillery as support. I like these guys and how they turned out...snow and all.
I also have a company of US Para's that is 75% painted. I keep changing my mind on what unit they will be (509th PIB North Africa/504th PIR [82nd AB] Waal River/506th PIR [101st AB] Normandy) so it is hard to finish them. I decided to line them up and add a Para Engineer Platoon to them. This involved some head swaps (which were a problem) and sculpting some first-aid pouches on some of the helmets.
Why add first-aid pouches to the helmets when you can just do some more head swaps? A couple of reasons. This second unit is all made from Peter Pig figures. They don't make para engineers. So I used some army engineer figures and either had to swap the heads or add pouches to make them look more like paratroopers and less like army engineers.
The head swap is the easiest:
- Clip off the army head.
- Clip off a para head.
- Use a pin drill to drill out the army body and the para head.
- Glue a thin brass or steel wire in the body
- Mount the head and adjust it's angle to look right.
I have to laugh...a smart person would use a plastic hemostat or similar soft, locking grabbing tool to hold the head and then drill into it. That's what smart person would do. If you don't do that or use something like...your thumb and fore finger to hold the head; you run the risk of applying too much pressure and driving the needle-sharp drill into your thumb so deep you hear and feel it grind against the bone.
"Once bitten, twice shy", right?
"xafs;ne;o;syf!! that hurt. I will have be more careful next time."
Oops...ADD time
"Curious...my thumb hurts when I hold this para head between my thumb and fore finger and use the other to try to drill it out. I wonder why that is?
Well at least the second time it was a shallow poke...I could see the bit just under the skin and have a 1/2" line on my thumb where the drill went in. I should get the British Empire award for my detached "Oh damn..." while Larry struggled to keep his seat despite his laughter. He violated protocol and began laughing immediately without asking if it was OK.
I did what any gamer would do in that situation...tried it a third time.
This time I had success...when the drill slipped it missed me completely!
I learned my lesson. The problem was obviously the head I was working on...so I pounded it flat with a hammer and felt better.
It was after this that I decided it was easier to sculpt the first-aid pouches on the army helmets...it was an easy choice...no needle sharp tools were involved.
Tim, them call him...
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