BBC War Correspondent

Here's something completely pointless.. A BBC War Correspondent. Why? You ask. Why not!? The idea came to me from watching a film called Theirs is the Glory. It's a film set at Arnhem during Operation. Market Garden. It was filmed almost immediately after the war using the men that actually took part in the battle to portray themselves.. You can see in the film the effects the war had on them with Shell Shock and the likes, but what I am here to post about is a chap named Stanley Maxted. He, too, was there, in the thick of it, reporting back to London what the men were suffering through in their fight.

Seeing him and his equipment gave me a few ideas to kitbash something for fun. This was done sometime late last year, when I was in a spot where I had no drive to do any modelling or hobby related stuff. So I figured at least kitbashing one simple guy up might reinvigorate my drive. It sort of did..

To start, I will share one or two pictures that caught my eye. Firstly the equipment. The old recording device and microphone was something he always had with him. So how do I do this?

Relying once more on my spares box, I basically used a Cupola of a Turret that was cut down. A spare wheel and a piece of sprue cut down to size as well. Finally, a thread from a brush for the cable from the mic to the recorder. These were all glued together then painted.

The model is a merger of two separate Infantry types. The head and arms are from a Tank Commander on his radio - this solves the first part. But as you can see, he's with the Airborne, he's wearing their clothing. So I had to very carefully cut up a Para's body so that they aligned perfectly, then glue them. I think it turned out quite well really. He's on the left with the Khaki Beret.

As for the Beret, War Correspondents wore Khaki Berets, apparently. Here he is below, reporting from a foxhole near the Hartenstein Hotel.

As it was just one single model I wanted to work on, it actually all went together pretty well and spurred me on to continue painting. I ended up painting up about six bases worth of Para HQ units, both for the Company and Platoons. They were already waiting to be done, so I figured I should do them all.

He was added to a Platoon Leader's base, as he seemed to be out in the field with the men, rather than with the HQ itself. He doesn't do anything or changes anything about the unit itself. It's just a bit of flavour for the Army, and something that I actually really enjoyed working on and am really happy with how it all turned out.