1:32 German artillery crew (winter uniform) with 10.5cm LG 42/43 gun

A light gun with no recoil

The designation LG stands for Leichtgeschütz, that is a light gun working on the recoilless principle: part of the propellant gas escapes to the rear through a nozzle and balances out the recoil. The weapon could therefore be far lighter than a conventional howitzer of the same caliber and could be dropped by parachute or hauled into the mountains. It served with airborne and mountain units and was used from the fighting for Crete to the close of the war.

A winter scene around the position

The winter clothing moves the subject into the years 1942 to 1945 and opens up a range of possibilities: reversible jackets turned white side out, blankets thrown over the shoulders, straw wound around the boots. Around the weapon, cleared snow, a trodden path to the ammunition crates, a log shelter or just two tree stumps suggest themselves. The snow is made from baking soda or from modeling grit; what matters is that both the weapon and the figures have marks on their lower surfaces that really belong in snow.

How to put the figures and the weapon together

The crew around the gun has to look as if it is doing work: passing a round, aiming, following the target through binoculars. Place the figures so that there are angles between them, not a row. The metal barrel will stand a darker shade than the carriage, and the nozzle at the end tends to be scorched. White paint is never painted pure white at a small scale, otherwise it swallows all the shadows; a grayish or bluish tinge suits it.

Ammunition crates, a transport cart and snowshoes are not enclosed and have to be obtained separately. The marks of the mold tend to show most on the underside of the carriage, where nobody will see them once it is mounted.