Would it be so unlikely that I shouldn’t do it in a dio, that a U.S. .30 cal gunner would be carrying BAR ammunition pouch webbing? I ask as I have a Tamiya figure I am converting with some verlinden bits and I want to be running with a .30 cal ammo box and the gun itself, yet I don’t have a suitable replacement body to fit.
I’m thinking that a BAR gunner after the death of a comrade could quickly have switched roles to keep the heavier fire power in action?

Any views as always appreciated.

James

If it falls to the BAR man to replace the machine gunner, the squad is really in a tough spot. I think that it would be unlikely, but not impossible for the BAR man to take up this role in a combat situation. However, one thing that you could do, is add the BAR into the dio, and modify the ammo pouches on the gunner himself so that they look empty, or have the pouch flaps open. Then you could add the BAR nearby him, only sans magazine, and put some other mags on the ground near it. Some brass and a wounded gunner would really complete this-but this may not be the look you are going for in your dio.

hmmm thats kinda what I was thinking as a rifleman would sooner take over the position than the BAR gunner.
Thanks for your opinion Steve, the dio is way to small to accomodate a wounded gunner, and as he's going to be running, I feel he would have left the scene of 'weapon changeover' behind. I may have to intensify my conversion or give it up altogether! Think |I need to break out the blue tac and have a good torso/arm swap session and see how I get on.

Thanks again for your help, someone else's opinion with difficult situations like this is always a great help and I really apreciate it!
I may get some options together and photo them and see what people think.

Cheers,

James

The problem is how do you convey to the viewer what has happened and why the guy carrying the .30 cal is wearing BAR pouches. Because if you don't convey that in some way experts will queue around the block to tell you something is wrong

Maybe you could strap the BAR round his back, have him carrying a 30. cal box in one hand and the gun in the other, running with his head down. This to me, would make it clear that he was doing a weapons run?

I think A-Train's suggestion is best. He could be carrying ammunition for the .30 MGer while on his way to set up his own fire position.

Thats exactly why I was running it by you guys Pat!
Scott and David, you could be onto something, i'm going to have a play around with the figures and see what I come up with. I'm not going to force a conversion on a figure if it's not going to be a good final peice.
hmmmm......... lots of thinking to be done now!

Thanks for the suggestions guys,

James

Gday James
Another way could be to post a pic of the torso you want to use with the BAR pouches. I'm sure me or someone closer would have a spare torso that would be more a more than suitable match and get it sent to you!
I have a couple packs of Gen2 figures that may be of help as I'm sure I won't use all these as I'm doing some conversion with them...

Thanks Brad thats really good of you!
He's the guy on the right in this pic:


and the guy on the left in this pic:


I'm sure you may have dealt with the same figure while building one of the Tamiya Shermans in the pictures.
The problem in replacing the torso is getting it to match up with the bottom part of his jacket (I think its a M1943 jacket but could be wrong) though a bit of work with a file and some putty could easily rectify this.

What webbing should a .30 cal gunner have? Would he just carry a colt M1911 with some spare mags? (My lack of allied knowledge is again apparent!)

Cheers,

James

Yep, you are pretty right here. Generally the colt sidearm was all they had due to the weight already on their shoulders!
Maybe even a bandolier of spare ammo as an extra...
So what campaign are you looking at a dio for? Will he have the gloves for winter and how necessary is it to have this man as your converted .30cal gunner?

Cheers Brad,
I'm hoping to set the scene in early '45 pushing through to the seigfried line. As the other figures are all wrapped up for warmth i'd like to keep the theme going. Converting this guy to a .30cal gunner isn't essential at all, just me on another mission to convert everything slightly from it's standard form!
Therefore i'm liking the idea less and less the more I think about it and so I'll probably leave him how he is unless anyone has any other suggestions? I'm just at that stage when i'm just playing around with what I can do with the scene, i'll see what I come up with tonight!

James

Maybe you could just leave him unmodded, I mean, if you really want him to be a 30. cal gunner, give him the 30. cal and have the BAR somewhere on him, then when the experts come along, you can say he was "acting gunner"?

It would be a relatively easy mod though. All you would have to do in the way of webbing is modify his BAR belt into an M-1936 pistol belt, give him a magazine pouch and an M-1916 holster for his .45 sidearm. On top of this make sure he has his canteen and carlilse badage pouch. Generally, an MGer would not carry a long arm such as a rifle as a secondary weapon, it being cumbersome when also carrying an MG or tripod.

It's definately do-able David, Tamiya just make it as awkward as possible by having the BAR pouches moulded to the figure who is hunched over and so removing them to leave a convincing looking belt would be a real pain.
This one's definately a head scratcher! I avoided the issue last night working on the dio base but i'll see if I can come up with anything tonight.

Cheers gents,

James

If you can find a picture of the kind of torso you want, i'll have a hunt through my bits box and see if there's anything that would be easier to modify?

Thanks Scott thats a great offer but I should be ok.
Got a fair few spares lying around myself!

The post was simply about an idea I had and to see how possible/unlikely it would be, now that I know it was unlikely i'm going to have a re-think about the figures. I often like to modify guys so that they're not OOB, but I want to keep an eye on historical accuracy. The .30 cal guy isn't neccesary for the scene but i'll see how I get on. I'm currently distracted with the tank and dio base, allowing me to come back to the figs with a fresh perspective.
Will let you know what I come up with and will be sure to post the finished dio so you can check it out.
Thanks for your help,

James