I am planning a Battle of the Bulge dio next and have a few things started…In this dio I will get to use a Yank’s figgie I have had for some time that depicts a US casualty…Due to popular demand from my last dio, “Backhand Blow” for a corpse to be included in the scene, I plan on having one in this dio for all of you bloodthirsty war-mongers (just kidding)…Actually, the figgie is one of the most convincing “dead guys” I have ever seen produced, as most of them look like that have just fallen over or something…It will be interesting to figure out (pun intended) how I will tastefully fit him into the scene (if that’s even possible) without leaving too much dead-space (another intentional pun)…I plan on also having a late Panther G and an M-20 in the scene with plenty 'o figgies…here’s the first taste:
Reminds me of how the Omaha Beach pictures were sensored and classified for a good while because of the American casualties shown. Should be an excellent scene reminding us all of the price paid for freedom.
All the elements fit together… Dead GIs, overrun knocked out/abandoned US AFV, Panther G… Lots of stories to be told and all fairly well documented. I’m looking forward to seeing this one.
Not a bad figure, but the “chicken wing” of the left arm looks kinda goofy… Guess it depends on what the GI was doing when he was hit, first impression is that he was hit in the back. Modeling casualties is an art, for sure. Soldiers don’t fling their arms out and spin around like in Hollywood, they just crumple where they’re standing, or if running, inertia carries them forward a bit, provided they were killed instantly by the shot, whereas they will fight going down if the wound is serious and they are still conscious… This guy looks like he was dead before he hit the ground, either a heart or head shot took him out.
I still prefer making my own casualties from stock figures, though… I’m too cheap to buy those kinda guys… Outstanding work on figure-painting, by the way. Wish my eyes were that good. My guys have a tendency to look like Willie and Joe in about every dio I’ve ever built…
Manny really looking foward to your progress on this one.Just one thing that I noticed the fig’s helmet has the strap molded on going around the back of it. If this guy had hit the ground were he stood after being KIA I think that helmet would have come off.Maybe you could make it look like he tried crawling a little ways before he passed on.
Actually, it wasn’t just at Omaha or the ETO for that matter. The U.S. Office of Censorship, establshed by Executive Order on 19 DEC 41, didn’t allow the publishing of any photos of U.S. servicemembers KIA by U.S. publications until 1944, and then only allowed photos that didn’t show the casualty’s face or any type of major trauma… There were some that slipped by the censors though, since many war correspondents sent some of their film back through other than official channels, as well as Canadian papers and magazines that were subscribed to by U.S. citizens. The policy did not, however, apply to Allied or enemy troops KIA.
