Last Consultation
1:35 kit No.35018
Review by Terry Ashley
The set has one Corporal, an NCO and two Officers’ in early war uniforms with the five buttons down the front of the tunic. Two are wearing forage caps and the other two Officer’s caps with the set containing 38 parts in light beige plastic and three colour maps printed on the box.
Details on the figures is excellent with the uniform details such as fabric folds, fabric seams, pockets, lapels, belts, hob nails on the boots and especially the facial features very well done and almost as good as seen on some resin figures.
The fabric seams in particular are quite notable on the Officer figures were there are two fine seams on the arms, legs and tunic backs instead of the usual one seen in many figure sets with the only issue being the size of the forage caps which are oversized and tend not to sit convincingly on the heads. The Officer caps on the other hand are superbly done with the contours captured very well.
The only weapons included are the three Walther P38 holsters with the NCO/Officer figures while the Corporal has the standard infantry equipment of bread basket, meal tin, canteen and entrenching tool with the others also having separate binoculars.
Each figure is broken down with both legs including the boots as one part that you glue together first with a separate one piece upper torso and separate one piece arms plus separate heads and headgear. This approach allows the excellent details to be included with just small moulding seams to be removed but care will be needed removing these from areas where there are a lot of fabric folds and creases to maintain the detail.
Assembly is very quick and easy with very good fit of the parts requiring no filler or trimming with the arms nicely placed for a natural look. The left arm of the Officer figure ‘A’ I assembled has his hand posed slightly above the leg to leave room for the map to fit between so don’t be tempted to alter the fit to rest the hand on his leg.
The hands on the kneeling Corporal figure sit very naturally on his knees and add to the natural look of the figures.
Printed on the box are three colour maps to use as required and it would be best to soak these in water and remove the top printed layer from the box cardboard for a more realistic thickness to the maps.
A nice feature of the maps is the inclusion of the front and back book covers, this is due to the maps being issued in book form that fold out for use but fold up again to form a map book to easily fit into pockets and satchels and it very good to see this feature included for more authenticity.
Also included on the back of the box are colour front and back illustrations of each figure showing the parts location and giving a painting guide with Tamiya, Mr.Color and Humbrol paint numbers shown.
Conclusion:
This is an imaginative set of figures with excellent uniform and facial features
that will offer many diorama possibilities if used together or separately
with other more “conventionally” posed figures.
Highly recommended
Thanks to C.K.Pat from Tristar Model (International) Ltd for the review kit.
Page created May 8, 2006