DID - German LAH Division / Heer Flammenwerfer Gefreiter - Joerg

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D80177 1/6 WWII German LAH Division Heer Flammenwerfer Gefreiter - Joerg will be available in Asia soon.

(DID are still confused as to whether he's Waffen-SS or Heer!)

 

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Part 2:

 

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Posted these in the Ujindou Wiking thread earlier by mistake because I was using spare parts from this set to complete the second Wiking figure:

The backdrop is fierce.

It makes me think of the Battle of Endor:

The sculpt is too good to hide under a gas mask, though as usual it photographs horribly with the flash:

The main event:

I'm sure DID is in decline.

It's only recently that I've started experiencing issues with their quality.

When I took Joerg out of the box he felt loose, which is really strange for a DID body. It's the torso joint that's the problem, and the weight of the flamethrower on his back compounds the situation. You can get him to pose okay, but any slight adjustment such as pulling the jacket down pulls his upper body over.

It's really weird to have this with one of their figures. The impression on taking him out of the box was that of older Sideshow figure.

Anyway, at least he holds a pose unlike certain Sideshow figures.

Second problem was the pin on the wound badge which snapped off the moment I put my fingernail under it to attach it to the pocket. I used double sided tape instead.


To comfortably fit the helmet over the mask it needed to be another smaller sculpt, so I used one of the spare DID Gallands because they're not easy to find alternative uses for.

 

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Used the spare parts to complete the second Ujindou UD9028 Wiking figure:

 

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Now with a Hot Toys Star Wars flamethrower effect.

The full 32 metre range is over five metres at 1/6, which would be slightly impractical.

So this is the start of a ten second burst...

At the 19 second point in this video you can see the operator pulling the trigger back and pushing it forwards to start the burst. At 21 seconds there's another example shown much closer:




I have to work on his left hand position. I think it should be closer to his right, as in the video, because at some point that pipe must start getting hot, and there's going to be a lot of heated air between his hand and the nozzle.

I was thinking of using the bendy left hand with the glove on.

 

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The gloves felt different to usual. The fingers are stiff as though they're wired, but it's just the stitching.

Once on the hand there's no improvement - they still look like oven mitts. I compressed the fingers together as much possible, and curled them over the pipe as far as they would stay bent, but they're far inferior to the moulded glove hands Facepool made for Buck Compton.

 

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A lot of the contemporary photos show flammenwerfer operators with bare hands...

...while others are wearing full protective gear and heavy gloves...

I couldn't decide what I preferred, because when you have one bare hand the gloved one looks even more out of scale because DID's knitted oven mitts aren't meant to be the kind depicted above.

I reworked the gloved grip...

...but it always ended up looking like sausage fingers.

Hence I've gone back to the bare hand:

The Hot Toys flame brought him to life, and it was lucky it fit so well and securely.

 

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While looking for wartime photos of flammenwerfer operators since Joerg was announced, I don't remember seeing any wearing gas masks.

I've read that those that did wear them for protection from the heat didn't have the filter attached. Besides making it easier to breathe, the removal of the filter has also been explained because the heat creates a vacuum effect inside the mask.

This is the second time recently that DID have included a mask - the other one was Axel - but there's so little opportunity to have a figure wearing it. Some soldiers even discarded their masks so they could use the cannister for storing other things instead.

I decided to compromise: leave the mask on but pull the filter out (which DID designed it to do).

The effect is pretty interesting. He looks more menacing, and insectoid.

The Fire ant:

 

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Added a fall/winter smock and gave him the gasmask canister also.

His MP40 and all the other gear has gone to my Normandy and Hungary '45 guys!

 

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I've found Joerg to be a bit bland on display. The only thing he had going for him was the flame thrower since his sculpt, which was the other highlight, was used on another figure.

I gave him a spare Facepool USMC Sledge Hammer head which has a very pale complexion, so it seemed fitting when dividing up the parts from Alert Line's Nachtjager to give him the Leibermuster parka to wear white side out. If I futz the hood it shouldn't be noticeable that the reverse side is Leibermuster.