"AFV crew - British and German?" Topic

Looking for some crew to man open top Marders, Halftracks, etc. Rubicon's are not out yet. I see some with JTFM.

Other options? All my vehicles are 1/56

Looking for Normandy and later

19th Century/Battle Honors makes 25mm Brit and German tank crews. They don't show pics, so you would have to contact them to see if they have what you want.

19th Century/Battle Honors makes 25mm Brit and German tank crews

These are 1/2 figures for placing in open hatches. Company B does some good crews, but not German.

The JTFM 'track figures are really good, I have 2 sets. I guess I might wait for the PAK 40 crews -- they're resin and easily cut down to fit in an Marder. You could use any manufacturer's gun crew, I guess.

Edit: Old Glory makes some 'track crew: link and PAK 40 crew: link

Warlord sells seated crew: link and gunner: link

I have also found Warlord games to be very cool about selling you the various crew figures they offer separate from the gun/vehicle.

I am not really sure what German or British SPG crews wore, in terms of combat clothing. Would it be the same as a tanker, or as a gun crew?

I'm fairly confident on the question when it is U.S. crews. U.S. tank destroyer crews were issued the same kit as tankers. Overalls, jackets, holsters, crash helmets. But in combat areas crews frequently obtained and wore infantry helmets, as they considered shell fragments to be a greater threat than bumping heads.

So the best solution might be a "tankers jacket" and brain bucket. These figures might be available as the command figures in infantry sets (the "tankers jacket" was quite popular with the infantry, and often worn by junior officers and NCOs). But drivers and co-drivers, those not in the open-topped turret or gun platform, still frequently wore the crash helmet.

The question is, what was the typical German or British practice?

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Perry:
link

Doing a bit of research into German SPG crews … I'm still not sure, but it appears that they were more typically clad as the Panzer crewmen were, than as the Landsers were.

This pic, purportedly taken in the summer of 1942, shows a Marder III crew in action. As it is black-and-white, the color of the crew clothes are not clear. But it appears to me that what they wear is some form of baggy featureless work clothes, not the smart well fitted uniforms of the Wehrmacht soldier.

This particular picture seems to have been implemented by a modeller:

But if the modeller was in fact trying to reproduce what is seen in the archive pic, or was just taking some inspiration from the poses is not certain. In any case I would suggest the modeller has taken his own approach to the details of the coloring, as the vehicle itself is not in a 1942 paint scheme. So I draw no conclusion from the uniforms of the crew beyond that it is what the modeller wanted.

As with US TD crewmen, it seems that German SPG crewmen were inclined to obtain and wear the infantry's helmets. Not hard to understand why …

While it is often hard to draw too much out of a black-and-white image, I do get a strong impression that the SPG crews were issued with, and often wore, the black workclothes of the Panzertruppen.

But the evidence is mixed:

I'm wondering if it may have depended on the unit in question. Some of the Panzerjaeger formations were in Panzer divisions, and some were in infantry formations.

Anyway, I claim no particular expertise on the subject. Just an interesting topic for investigation.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

As for Commonwealth crews, this page has a number of M7 crews, who seem to wear infantry helmets for the most part, but also berets:

link

German SPG crews typically wore the grey version of the the standard Tank crew uniform. It was grey to stand out less than the black version. Some wore the camo versions ( particularly in Waffen SS units), unit tailors made up versions in 'spare' italian camo cloth or Zeltbahn material as well. Headgear followed same pattern as Panzer crews, 'side caps', feldmutze and standard issue helmets.
Pity your not doing 20mm scale youd have better choice and better quality to choose from.
L