I'm pretty unpracticed when it comes to scale models (used to do them all the time as a kid, not so much since), so please bear with me - I need some advice.

I'm working on a humorous gift for a friend of mine in the French army - a 1:35-scale diorama of him in his Leclerc tank, brandishing a sword like so: click

I'm working from the Tamiya Leclerc kit, and the crewman in it is ALMOST appropriate for this task, but not quite (the arm position is the opposite of what I need and there is, of course, no sword!)

How would you solve this problem?

Thanks in advance to anyone brave enough to assist me with this silly question.

Re do the arms and scratch build the sword. All you will need is a little putty and some plastic to make the sword blade.

Take a look at the Zvezda Cossacks on horseback and as you only need the arms and a sword I am sure one of these will be ideal for the task. It will require some work around the lower arm, but you get the swords as a bonus in the set. the other option is to shape a complete arm around a wire armiture using milliput or similar and add a hand.

Cossacks