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WW1 stormtrooper display ideas

Warrior1354

ax - hole
Well I have been trying to gather items for a display like this for years still have many left to locate. Just looking for opinions and ideas on the best options for displaying it when it is complete. Have to say it has been a fun project.

What I have so far:

1915 Erfurt carbine
M.17 helmet
German WW1 gas mask
German 1915 belt with buckle
Dated 1918 ammo pouch

Still need to find:

WW1 entrenching tool
Wire cutters
Original stick grenade
A nice canteen

Hardest items to find:

Tunic
Original boots
Original ammo bandolier

The grenade pouches made of canvas I will have to make myself.
 
I'd add a flare gun, not typically seen in pictures but easy to find and they would have carried one. The boots with leggings are going to be tough, though I guess you could improvise. Boots and footwear is always tough, especially for Germans, - who brings crappy German boots home as trophies and when you lose a war, like Germany had a tendency to do in the 20th Century, commodities like footwear and other leather products can be hard to find. You can bet those men used up their boots and footwear. Also many of these men, being the type of men they were, would have been very likely to have joined the various Freikorps type organizations formed after the war.

But the footwear (leggings) and grenade sacks are so central to a display you will have to work up something. The kneepadded trousers are pretty common among the "real deal" stormtroopers, the more formal ones; bandoleers are rarely seen in pictures (of stormtroopers), but they are neat and very common in period pictures (regular troops) so they would be good to add if you can find one. I have seen some real nice ones, owned a couple, they can be pricey.

Grenades are the thing though, that is what they used, but might get a trench club if you can find one that isn't ridiculous. They show up in period pictures enough. Trench knife too.. really you can never get too much stuff for such a display and best of all it is one with near universal appeal for a gun show. Just goes to show the best soldiers in the world won't win wars alone, economics, logistics and sound political calculation are at least as important.
 
Thank you for all the advise Paul, and I think it will take some time to gather everything but will be well worth it in the end. Who knows might come across a bunch of this stuff at a garage sale somewhere! :rofl:
 

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