One of th these years I want to get around to some WWII civilians.
You should!
They can add a lot of "flavor" to a game. They make interesting distractions, objectives, obstacles, etc.
Depending on your scale, they aren't that hard to do, and can often be done a bit at a time as you work on your main forces. Many military trucks, for example, also served civilian markets prior to the war -- notably including Ford Model AA trucks (license-built in several countries, including in Russia as the GAZ-AA series), Renault, Steyr and Fiat trucks, to name but a few. And if you don't go for civilian figures, you can still re-purpose many empty-handed military figures with just a bit of work.
Of course it's a bit easier to do at smaller scales, where the pieces may not be quite so closely seen.
To wit:
Some of the 6mm military trucks I have re-purposed to serve as civilian vehicles.
6mm figures I have re-purposed to serve as civilians.
Not as elegant as the 20mm figures Morand has shown above (and at his blog -- bien fait! -- VERY INSPIRATIONAL!), but workable and quickly implemented.
-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)
shows us that you don't need money to have great bases.
