Las divisiones de las SS se labraron durante la segunda guerra mundial, una gran reputación de sacrificio, resistencia implacable y capacidad de combate, pero también escribieron infames páginas de atrocidades hacia civiles y prisioneros. Esto siempre me ha creado cierta reticencia hacia esta formación y aún siendo para mi, a nivel modelístico, lo más interesantes y atractivo de pintar, nunca antes había pintado un miembro de las SS. El tiempo pasa y de ser coherente, no podría pintar ninguna figura militar, pues de atrocidades sin nombre, ningún ejercito se libra. Así que sensaciones aparte, me puse con este figurote de Mantis, que me enamoró por el boxart y tenía hace mucho tiempo ganas de pintar.
SS divisions won itself, during the Second World War, a great reputation for sacrifice, relentless resistance and fighting ability, but they also wrote infamous pages of atrocities against civilians and prisoners. This has always created in me a small reluctance towards this formation and even being for me, at the modelling level, the most interesting and attractive subjects, I had never painted a member of the SS before. Time goes by. If I were coherent it could not paint any military figure, because no army has a clean hystory without big atrocities. So sensations aside, I falling in love with the boxart of this figure, and I began to paint a figure I had wanted to paint for a long time.
With this grenadier I wanted to represent an element of the 2nd panzer division of the SS "Das Reich". During the Invasion of the Soviet Union, this division, after the capture of Kiev came to the periphery of Moscow with a great sacrifice at the cost of losing almost half of his soldiers, but like Napoleon, they reached the Winter, and it was relentless.
He querido representar a mi granadero durante ese duro Invierno, en Enero de 1942, bajo la contraofensiva soviética. A modo de alegoría, las cadenas de un blindado alemán yacen semi enterradas en la nieve, recordando al soldado el destino de "la grande Armée" un siglo atrás.
I have wanted to represent my grenadier during that hard winter, in January 1942, under the Soviet counter-offensive. As an allegory, the chains of a German tank buried in the snow, remembering to the soldier the fate of "the great Armée" a century ago.
El casco lleva una funda camuflada tipo Oak leaf de invierno y la chaqueta es gris/blanca. Aunque habían muchos tipos de reverso camuflado, en 1942 las unidades SS solo habian recibido este tipo de chaquetón.
The helmet has a camouflage type Oak leaf-winter and the jacket is gray / white. Although there were many types of camouflaged jackets, in 1942 the SS units had only received this type of coat.
Aunque lo más normal fuese llevar el pantalón con el camuflaje invernal, quise darle más variedad a la figura pintandolo en gris.
Although the most normal thing was to wear the pants with the white camouflage, I wanted to give more variety by painting it in a grey tone.
Salut!
Bibliografía:
Divisiones Panzer de las SS, Gordon Williamson
