West German Police & Border Guards

Yes - it's been a long time and it looks like I've been doing nothing - quite the opposite in fact - just nothing that I can post here - until the weekend, when I dragged myself out of my sick bed to take these photos.

First of all - I must say all the figures come from Elhiem - possibly the best source of 1980s Cold War era figures - I heartily recommend them.

Next - these I the photos I used as a guide to try and paint the figures - bear in mind I know next to nothing about the West German Police and Border Guards in the 1980s (or any other time) so all I was trying to do was match the figures to the uniforms in the photos.  I beleive that these first two are of Police - quite possible I'm totally wrong...

While this one, may or may not be Border Guard

Considering the chap on the left has the word "Police" on his pocket doesn't help...

So I can't give any painting tips, or I used this here and that there, as I struggled to find a paint that matched (I expanded my Vallejo green slection considerable trying to get a match!) - so I mixed and mixed until I got what I thought looked OK.  Sadly this means that my remaining unpainted Police and Border Guard figures may never get painted as they will never look like these ones!

So onto the painted figures - not I painted them to be a single unit - the equivalent of an irregular "squad" plus a small command element.  The photos are by "look" rather than how the units would go together:

I'd split them into a GPMG Team of 3 (with the MG3), a light Anti-Tank/Rifle Team of 5 (with the Pzf 44) and a Command Team of 4 (with the girl with the radio).

Here's the obligatory group shot:

Hope you like 'em.

Richard