FAA British, France 1944.
It was quite common for all Brens out a platoon to be organised into a separate "heavy weapons" support group rather than within the sections.
The platoon's 50mm mortars might well be left in the lorry, or could be included in support groups. Why leave a mortar? They're heavy and might only have smoke or few HE rounds issued. Smoke was not as widely used as many computer games might lead one to believe.
FAA, 12 man French squad 1940
Although a number of uniform guides claim that the helmets should be khaki by 1940, colour film clearly show horizon blue.
Almost all clear black and white pictures I've seen seem to also have darker helmets....
FAA, early Germans
Pictures of troops in 1940 show a number already have all field grey jackets and no decals. As you can see, I went for the Full Monty.
Mostly SHQ, late war Germans
Two of these figures are FAA.
It would be quite common for a late war German squad to be under-strength. Only when a squad was particularly low quality would there be no lmg - it was usually the last weapon to be abandoned as every squad member would be trained in it's handling and squad tactics revolved around the lmg. In maneuver all squad members would be lugging ammo belts for the mg34/42 (supplies allowing) up to the point of deployment for contact.
SHQ Soviet rifle squad, 42 on.
Rifle squads varied from 9 to 13 men. In theory every other squad had two lmg from mid war onwards. Due to the attritional approach of the Soviet commanders and poor to non-existent replacement squads were often under strength. It was rare for more than the gunner to be trained in the lmg.
The soviet approach to rquipment was also somewhat minimalist - if you had a bayonet you kept it on your rifle since no scabbard was issued.
FAA Soviet smg and Scouts/Assault Engineers.
Soviet smg squads varied in size similarly. SMG squads would frequently be used as tank riders. Due to the nature of assault troops and practicalities of hanging off a speeding tank casualty rates were horrific.
Assault engineers were frequently attached to other units to strengthen them for CQB.
FAA US rifle squad
A full squad would be 12 men. Very late squads might have walky talkies and be split into firegroups with two or even three BARs.
FAA Early war SS squad
Due to friction between SS and Wehrmacht at a political level, the SS had difficulty in obtaining supplies of automatic weapons. The czech zb26 which the Bren was based on was widely used as a squad lmg, and the mp38 smg was also widely used.
SHQ late war SS squad.
These are painted to represent various camouflage schemes, it would be more usual for a real squad to all wear the same style camouflage. Combat losses could also mean a squad had mixed uniforms as they're the survivors from several different squads. Later war uniforms were often of poor quality and so an individual would often want to hold on to his uniform if possible.
FAA 1945 Pz Grenadiers
These have more secret weapons than would be entirely reasonable...
Luftfaust ( 9 barrelled 20mm weapon ), one shot asault flame thrower, Stg44 with Vampir night-sights. For some reason the pzFaust 150 are sculpted without the fluting on the warhead. FAA also do a rather nice rottkapchen, 2,000 of which were made and sent off to the Eastern front.
1/160 (N Gauge) figures, I'm afraid I find these extremely difficult to do justice to with my limited photographic skills. Hopefully these pictures give you some impression of the relative qualities.
Pendraken British infantry
Minifigs German infantry
Pendraken German paras, part painted. They're glued to a corrugated card strip. Note how that MG42 is cast all in one piece. The Minifigs one is a teeny kit which I found very difficult to glue to itself, easy to glue to my fingers.
