February 24, 2018 – Man of Tin blog

Peter Laing 15mm WW1 Late War German infantry, converted to WW2 Desert DAK Deutsche Afrika Korps. Almost finished except for faces, fine details and gloss varnish.

You won’t find a Peter Laing 15mm WW2 Western Desert range as his WW2 range was a limited WW2 range of Americans, British and Germans.

Now that the Peter Laing figures are sadly no longer available and the original moulds probably lost, there will be no specific WW2 Western Desert range. However the slight detail of Peter Laing’s 15mm figures, which were painstakingly carved from laminated plasticard, here proves to our benefit:

“Detail is kept muted so there is no overscale effect, the detail in the figure depends on the amount that is put in the painting.” (Peter Laing Catalogue intro)

“It is naturally difficult to cover every Army type, but I have tried to give a good representative range to enable satisfactory games to be played. In 15mm scale it is possible, by judicious use of paint, to vary one figure to represent various army types, and of course the use of a file and knife can extend the utility of a figure even further.” (Peter Laing Catalogue Ancients section)

Conversion was something Peter encouraged through his suggestion of Dual Use Items / Suitable Items from other ranges.

As Peter produced an unusually comprehensive WW1 range at a time when few makers (except Airfix) had any WW1 gaming figures, there are perfectly good WW1 Late German infantry and artillery that can be used for WW2 troops.

F743 German Infantry Advancing, Steel Helmet

F745 German Infantry grenade thrower, Steel Helmet

Simple paint detailing of straps on the rear side.

This set of unpainted WW1 German figures came with a few Feldgrau painted figures, some with red insignia and piping etc of a WW1 German soldier or a colourful early pattern camouflage of a Stalheim or Steel helmet.

Peter Laing 15mm field grey WW1 Late War German Infantry F743, also suitable for WW2.

Some of these already painted but second-hand WW1 Peter Laing figures needed a little repaint but arrived with some useful conversion details such as the Plasticard square / rectangle knapsacks. The centre figure has the colourful WW1 stalheim camouflage.

At some point when I have acquired enough Peter Laing British steel helmet figures, picked up online in ones and twos, I shall paint these spare British infantry in desert colours for a small WW2 desert skirmish force. Some of the khaki Indian infantry with Turbans would complement these well.

I have also experimented with filing down the pointed dome of the pith helmet on some spare WW1 British Infantry Tropical Helmet F748, working on spare figures who have broken bayonets etc, in order to make more of a steel helmet WW2 “desert rat”. They already have the desert shorts. I should be able to make a scratch rifles Platoon / section for small skirmish games in this way.