"Looking for 15mm WW2 German "Ost-truppen" or "HiWis"" Topic

Gentlemen,

I am looking for 15mm miniatures of "Ost-Truppen" or "HiWis" for my WW2 German Infantry Platoon.

Has anyone tried to build such a force before? If so, which miniatures were used? Or just differently painted uniforms?

Background for those who wonder what HiWis means:
From 1942, the German Army decided to make use of Sovjet volunteers to fill the depleted ranks of the units. These volunteers were called HiWis (Hilfsfreiwillige / supporting volunteers) which had distinctly different uniforms, ie a mix of old German and Russian left-over uniforms, I believe. Initially, HiWis were not allowed to carry weapons, but that changed as well when every body with a weapon started to count for the Germans.

Cheers and thanks for your help!

In Russian films they often show them in Russian uniforms with an armband. Maybe chose fore and aft caps painted the German way, or swap some heads with German steel pots on Russians. Possibly the best simplest way if you only need a few.

In 15mm, Osttruppen would look very much the same as other German troops. Kind of like foreign troops such as Croats. A shield insignia on a sleeve just becomes invisible in such a small scale. You might decide to try piping on shoulder straps, if you really want to.
HiWis are a different matter. Jcfrog has a good idea. If you want Russian troops in German helmets, Peter Pig do some in their WW1/RCW range.

The Rcw ww1 helmets should be different from Ww2 and it should show. They would look like those 1940-42 allied films with Germans with the old wrong helmets…from ww1.
Not a chance, here.
Unless it does not show so much…

PPig has a whole range of heads for helmets/ early/late etc

This might be useful?

martin

In the past few days I was researching various Pionier formations in the German army. What I was looking at was mid/late war so the info you seek may be different.

While reading, I came across a reference that stated that many standard army units used Ost-Truppen in position such as cook, cobbler, etc. These were above and beyond the specific Ost-Truppen formations.

Late war Ost-Truppen were uniformed the same as standard army units except for the collar, shoulder, etc. branch and unit markings. Although dressed the same the equipment available to them was often different and fewer in quantities. Not too unlike many of the static units with little/no organic transport. They also suffered from little to no medium to heavy support weapons and often were short on LMGs as well.

I know that many of these units were grouped together by common ethnicity and/or language so they may have had similar base uniform pieces to start off with. With the deprivations of the eastern front they may have been given some German army kit to unify them and identify them as a particular formation. I believe it may have been around 1943 when the uniform was standardized along with its special markings.

Hiwis in German combat units ar e not " Osttruppen" per se. p Pig with head swaps yes.

Thanks for your help, highly appreciated.