Partisans and civilians

I have added a cadre to my partisan forces. I was hoping to make them generic enough to be used in various theatres, but I feel they ended up a bit b'twixt and b'tween - a little bland, and not evocative of any classic partisan force.

Maybe its the result of the figures coming from such diverse sources - there are Westwind Volksturm, Artizan Maquis, and even Empress SCW republicans represented in the handful of figures. If anything the figures with Beretta's place them in Northern Italy, but the urban fighters suggest Krakow or Warsaw.

Saboteur squad.

Some of these figures underwent simple conversion - the prone figure originally features a DP machinegun, and a swapped that out with a plastic Bolt Action MG34, the Westwind Volksturm weapons were replaced with Bolt Action equivalents (to help conformity of scale) and one of the Beretta-equipped Empress figures got a headswap.

The civilians - these figures are from Westwind – were an absolute pleasure to paint. Each sculpt is characterful, and I found myself inventing a backstory for each one as I painted them: "rumour around the town has it that brave little Primo, son of the fascist mayor, has been defying his father and running errands for the local partisans..."

How can you tell who is a collaborator and who is a patriot? Who is a fascist and who is a communist? Who can you trust?

Valentino, who worked for the local butcher, was often seen on his bike making deliveries around the village. Strange, since the Tedesci had helped themselves to all the livestock in the village, and the butcher seldom had stock...

I am not sure if the civilian figures will ever make it on to a table - but I really wanted to paint them anyway. Maybe they could be objective markers for a game featuring a partisan force...