Tank Riders

I've struggled in the past to find a visually attractive but practical way of indicating that a 1/300th scale armour unit is carrying tank riders.

Yesterday I had an idea and today I completed a couple of test pieces.

As my tanks are all on 20mm wide (and generally 30mm deep) bases, I decided to create a 30mm square base out of thinner-than-usual card. It's actually the type you get on the back of a note-pad. To this I added two strips of 5mm x 30mm artist's mounting board to create a "gutter" into which a standard tank base would fit.

I then glued on some SMG-armed Soviet infantry to the rear end of each strip and textured the strips with Tetrion, being careful to leave the gutter clear.

The result is a base that makes it clear that infantry are being carried without having to balance units on top of tank models. When the riders dismount I'll remove these and replace them with normal units.

I'm pleased with these as prototypes. Now I'll have to make some more and some British and German versions too!