Abyssinia Crisis: Mehal Sefari, 1st Half-Platoon

Done!

The first of the two half-platoons for my Mehal Safari is finally finished, the 2nd half-platoon is ready for the brush and is already scratching impatiently with the hooves.

Here is the first section of the 1st Half-Platoon, all infantry with rifles:

And the 2nd section, 6 infantrymen with rifles plus an LMG section:

A few pictures of converted figures

With these figures, the conversion is limited purely to a head swap, which is sometimes easier and sometimes more difficult.

For the figures with wrapped rolled-up cover, the figures with rifle at the ready and especially the combination of both, the sawing off of the old heads is sometimes quite tricky, if the newly placed head should not look unnatural and details should not be damaged - but ultimately more a question of time and the right tools (cue watchmaker saw bow and saw blades), than pure skill.

The heads used are either from Woodbine, or from the Perrys' Sudan box, the figures from Copplestone, or Empress Miniatures.

Here said figures in detail, where you just have to take your time to adjust the heads:

The biggest conversion effort was for the LMG section, for which I used figures from Brigade Models WW1 series with Lewis MMG (which was still used by the LRDG in WW2 because it was so reliable).

The main problem here is that the Abyssinians were not allowed to wear shoes, so here was the biggest conversion effort, heads only because of the greater variety.

Again, said Perry box came just in time.

The left magazine carrier lost his feet below the gaiters and got new ones fitted, which I then glued individually to the legs and base in a pinned manner to ensure the appropriate stability (all heads are also pinned accordingly, of course).

The gunner with the Lewis-LMG got completely new legs including base. I was able to find a figure in the box with almost perfectly fitting legs, the wide pants of the gunner were milled out until just a narrow edge was left and the new legs (both pinned of course) were fitted afterwards with some Greenstuff.

The 2nd wearer then got a different head in addition to fitted legs.