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Cold War NVA, part 1

I know I just started the Sherman tank build, but sometimes you want to think about tiny insignificant differences between tank variants and sometimes you just want to plonk some paint on a mini.

This year Germany is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the German reunification in 1990. The Berlin wall, cutting off West Berlin from the DDR, had fallen the previous year. I therefore thought it would be fun to build a little Berlin wall diorama with some East German Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) soldiers. At the start of the Corona lockdown I bought a pack of four superb 28 mm scale NVA minis from Under Fire Miniatures, but only now got round to painting them.

Berlin wall diorama

I liked the sculpts and the painting process so much that I have since ordered another set, as well as two packs of West German Bundeswehr figures. I intend to paint these up as Dutch soldiers, as both armies were using NATO equipment and the differences between their uniforms at this scale are pretty minor. Those are for a later post, however. For now it’s just the original four NVA miniatures and the diorama. If you’re also thinking of picking up some of these figures, keep in mind that they don’t come with bases. You can pick up 25 mm laser cut MDF bases for next to nothing on Ebay, though.

Rather than the all-grey dress uniform you see on most pictures of soldiers in East Berlin, the minis wear the field uniform which was a more beige-grey colour covered in tiny brown lines (so-called Strichtarn). The lines are so small that you can barely see them when standing a few metres away.

East German soldiers

It would probably be more realistic at this scale to just paint the uniform a solid grey, but where’s the fun in that? Instead I chose a more stylised, slightly cartoony paint scheme with fewer but much larger (although still tiny at this scale) lines. The bases are covered in used coffee grounds painted brown followed by a quick drybrush and black wash. I really like how these turned out.

East German soldiers
Group shot.

East German soldier

East German soldier
Two soldiers with the NVA equivalent of the AK-47, the MPi-K.

East German soldier
Soldier with SVD (Dragunov) sniper rifle.

East German soldier
Soldier with RPG-7.

The diorama was a very straightforward build. It’s made of two bits of MDF glued together. I filed two lines into the back wall to simulate individual panels. A bit of polystyrene was used for the pavement. My wife suggested how to make the characteristic rounded top of the wall. It is a drinking straw that I carefully sliced open with a hobby blade, making sure not to cut through both sides. This was then simply slid over the MDF and glued in place. The sides were then filled in with a bit of plaster wall filler. For that real East German flavour I also bought a cheap toy Trabant car. It’s made by Welly and cost me about €2,-

Berlin wall diorama

Berlin wall diorama

Berlin wall diorama
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