"Surprise Attack" the figures

 As promised, I'm posting in progress pics of the "Surprise Attack" 1/72 WW1 trench diorama. This post deals with the work done on the figures. Most of the figures started off as Preiser WW2 German soldiers. I was afraid I would run out as these were hard to come by, so I made resin copies of one of the sets. They appear as brown color in the photos. The grey ones are the actual Preiser figures in plastic.
A couple of the first figures I made got scrapped as the poses didn't work.

 The figures were constantly checked against the base as I progressed along the build.

 I wanted some interaction between the figures and the tank, so it was vital to include the tank while working on the pose and positioning of the figures.

 I also made sure the figures in place while I built up the ground work.

Below is the full mock up of the figures on the base before final detailing and painting.

 The figure throwing the grenade cluster is a Caesar Miniatures WW1 figure in soft plastic. I cut off and re-positioned the head. I also added bits of plastic rod to represent the cluster grenade. At the close range, I'm sure the explosion would kill the German soldier as well.

 Holes were drilled at strategic places so that I can insert wires which were wrapped around toothpicks. These made it easier to handle the figures while painting.

 Tamiya surface primer was used.

 All painting was done with acrylics. Vallejo was used for the uniforms and LifeColor was used for the skin tones.

 A last minute addition was the dog. I took it from an HO scale figure set. I had to cut one of the front leg and head to change the pose of the dog. It's really hard when they are this small!