"WW2 Canadians" Topic

I need to get some late 28mm WW2 Canadians (a platoon and a pair of MMGs or thereabouts)for my wife's Christmas (no, she never reads TMP, but since she has asked for them it's hardly going to be a surprise anyway)…any advice about figures etc. would be greatly appreciated!

any late British would do.
I use Artizan and Black Tree but Victory make a very nice line of 32mmish WW 2 figures that work with 1/48 scale vehicles.

Try to find ones with No4s for sure.
I like 1st Corps myself.

I'm working on a bunch of Canadians right now using a mix of Westwind Swappable Head System, Artizan & Warlord. For regular infantry, yup late war British are the figs, work fine right out of the package. Just paint in Canadian greens rather than Brit browns.

I'm modelling the support troop of an Armoured Car Regiment, and enjoying the modelling to make those. Armoured Corps troops, so everyone gets head swaps using Westwind's head packs. A mix of paratrooper heads — paratrooper helmets with the back head strap and big chin cups removed to make RAC pattern helmets, and berets with the paratrooper badge removed to make black RAC berets. They ride in White Scout cars, so also converting US .50 and .30 cal MG crew to Canadians for the dismounted MGs with a bit of carving and head swaps. No one makes Commonwealth troops firing Brownings! Canadians what don't ride in Whites would have the usual Vickers, not Brownings.

Just started painting the troops today with a priming coat of Model Master's SAC Bomber Green, seems like a good match for the base Canadian uniform.

If you ever want to add some vehicles, I've been buying 1/56 ones from JTFM, a Canadian company. Love the White Scout Cars (requested Commonwealth Crew, they were 8th Army Brits, but a quick putty conversion and head-swaps fixed that) and the Staghounds (Jeff sells extra turrets on request, so I got multiple turret options to swap in). I just ordered a troop of M4A4 Mk.V Shermans and extra Mk.Vc Firefly turrets to use for the 1st Canadian Hussars, they drove Mk.V's from D-Day til the end.

The M3 GMC halftrack should be out next month — and the Royal Canadian Dragoons will be happy, they drove those from Italy all the way til across the Rhine. He reports working on more Canadian vehicles, but hasn't specified which. I'm hoping for the Ford Lynx and Chevy 15CWTA!

If you can still get the old "Bolt Action" metal figs from Warlord ("Special Order" probably), they are very nice.

Some of mine, painted:
link

Uglyfatbloke:
You will also need to order a pair of PIAT teams and a 2-inch mortar team. One PIAT for the infantry platoon and one for the MMG section (2 X MMG's) which travels in Universal Carriers. You might want to order two to three carriers for that.
The Canadian uniform was a greenish-khaki which was a little lighter and greener that British uniforms. It was often referred to as sandy-green.
Are you ordering this for your wife because she wants it or because you want to giver her a "football" with which you can play too. If the answer is the former, hang on to that girl – she's a keeper!
Cheers and an early Merry Christmas and a happy Hogmanay 2015!
Rod Robertson

Not sure about the "lighter" part, RIR. But certainly greener.

huevans011:
Yes, it is difficult to gauge the lightness but perhaps the Canadian Uniforms were a little lighter.
Canadian:

or:

British:

or:

The clearest picture I could find was of British re-enactors so it may not be a fair comparison, but it's the best I could come up with in limited time.
Cheers.
Rod Robertson

To be honest, and maybe this was just because of the passage of time, but the uniforms in museums never seemed any greener than the British standard. And certainly not the kinds of greens used in Cold War uniforms (with the diagonal pockets).

Many thanks for all the help folks – just ordered a big bunch of ready-painted Brits from ebay which should do the trick – perhaps with the addition of 'Canada' shoulder-flashes. Just as well, since I'm crap at painting and hate doing it
Rod…it's what she asked for, but that's not unusual. She's the only individual I know personally who has more toy soldiers than me – and after 20-odd years of marriage she is most definitely a 'keeper'.

The problem with looking at re-enactors is that modern repro khaki uniforms also vary hugely in colour depending how their Indian/Pakistani/Chinese/Czech manufacturers interpret 'khaki'.

The Indian manufactures of repro 37 pattern webbing still use original Mills equipment though.

It is 'commonly believed' that Canadian uniforms had a more of a green tint to them, so their is no harm in adding a dollop of green to Vallejo khaki.

Denim uniforms were very green indeed though, and khaki itself changes colour depending on the external light. Even modern repro khaki goes quite green in woodland.

mpmuseum.org/provostbd.html

the above link gives photos, subject to colour imperfections, lighting, etc.

The subject is quite complicated. IIRC, the colour of standard Canadian bd changed partway through the war. The late war issue was khaki-green – say, Humbrol 155. I would use Humbrol 26 for standard British Khaki. So Canadians wore a distinctly different colour of clothing.

I have seen originals at the 48th H'landers museum and the colour is NOT British brown.

There is a histoire and Collections book which makes the colour pea green and this is bizarrely, totally wrong.

If you want to make Canadian uniforms "look right", their shoulder flashes were distinctively different from the usual red British crescent. Each Canuck unit had its own design of regt'l shoulder flash with different shapes and colour schemes.

Although a complicated subject, the main things which occur to me in distinguishing Canadians from British would be (1) the rectangular divisional shoulder patch, and perhaps (2) the *slightly* different tint of the most commonly used Battle Dress material. See the following website for some info; an Internet search will find other material. At the risk of stating the obvious, you can't rely on colors you see on your monitor for the slight differences between the different types of BD.

link

Mark H.

Shoulder flashes…does anybody make them as decals for 28mm? I'd been assuming a red crescent flash with 'Canada' woven into it -- I must have seen such a thing at some time.

Warlord Games has a sheet of Canadian patches.

Also, if you're up to a bit of dry-brushing, just giving the brits some quick green highlights will give them that Canadian sparkle ^,^

Shoulder flashes…does anybody make them as decals for 28mm? I'd been assuming a red crescent flash with 'Canada' woven into it -- I must have seen such a thing at some time.

Only worn if the Reg'l title did not include the word "Canada" in it. If the nationality of the unit was evident from the regt'l name, the regimental shoulder title was worn without the Canada strip. Hinds gives a link with a couple of examples of Canuck regimental shoulder flashes. The British equivalent would be the thin arching strip in scarlet for most inf and dark blue for arty, etc. The Canadian titles are very different.

link

Another example – regt flash of La Regt de la Chaudiere. Note that it is as big as the divisional square patch.

Minimo – a touch of dry-brushing is (just) within my range…but I stress the 'just'!
I'm obliged to you all for being so very helpful. I'll check out Warlord games – hopefully they do decals for Princess Pat's and my life will be that much simpler.

UFB, I checked Warlord's cat, but just saw some British sets.

3rd Canadian Division sheet: link

3rd Canadian Division sheet:

Well, so much for my search function skills….

I did however Google Canadian shoulder titles and find the following examples:

link

link

link

This is another pic of Canuck BD.

I just realized that Humbrol 155 is no longer the colour I remember from a few years ago. It is now sort of a dull brown. To be used for Canadian BD, it would need some Humbrol 159 mixed in w it to get the green tint.

I have pieces of BD from both Canadian and British manufacturers. Not a great deal of colour difference. The Canadian cloth is a finer weave. One piece is a 1950's era manufacture and it IS greener.

With the cross-sourcing of clothing and equipment that went on during WWII I am sure there were British troops in Canadian Battle Dress and Canadians in British. I'm sure there were instances of troops wearing both simultaneously! BD seldom got matched by dye lots or manufacturer! So, I just use " Bambi Brown" from Decorart, and use the figs as generic Commonwealth troops.

@Martin Rapier;
Pre-war denims were red/brown and I'm sure they were issued well into WWII!

uglyfatbloke,

Remember that the divisional "rectangle" is *additional* to the regimental shoulder patch (with or without a separate "Canada" patch). A good example is the first image shown by Rod Robertson above; note the red rectangle, which was used by the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. IMHO that rectangle (colored appropriately for whatever division you are modeling) is the most noticeable element.

Mark Hinds

Can't thank you all enough for all your advice and suggestions…cheers one and all.