There have been a lot of new kits released in the past year and many of them are crying out for suitable crews to go with them. A number of those kits have been German artillery pieces but we haven’t had the same level of artillery crews released to keep up with them. This set from Trumpeter is an older set made to go with their 1/35 Morser Karl kit but is adaptable to most other large artillery pieces as well.
The set comes in a small tray and lid box on three light grey sprues ( oddly the box cover claims six ) holding eight figures and an assortment of weapons and personal gear. Trumpeter have never had a reputation for high quality figures and unfortunately this one does nothing to destroy that reputaion.
The overall moulding is clean and doesn’t require much clean-up but much of the detail is very soft and in some cases very poor. Several of the figures have moulded on pockets that are undersized, in the wrong position and just look stuck on. The footwear is also overly heavy, lacking any real shape and definition as well as having overly thick moulded slab soles with no destinction between the heel and sole. Ironically some of the faces are actually pretty good having good detail and decent expressions. But the hands then counter that having a mix of large sausage fingers and stumpy fingers.
Two of the figures are moulded in greatcoats with the whole body moulded as one piece so there is no undercut to the lower parts. They also, for some wierd reason, are moulded with gas mask container straps which seems rather odd on figures of officers in greatcoats.
This kit also includes a generic weapons and equipment sprue which is one of its saving graces as they are actually quite good. You get an MG42 with the option of an open or closed bipod, two MG42 ammo belts, two ammo tins which have full detail on both ends as well as the lid, two MG42 spare barrel cases, an MG42 maintenance kit pouch, two MP 40 SMGs with separate wire stocks, four MP40 mag pouches ( two with the small cleaning kit pouch ), two Kar 98K rifles, four rifle ammo pouches, two pistol holsters, two unholstered P38 pistols, a map case, two pairs of binoculars, four canteens, four bayonettes, four gas mask containers, four bread bags, four entrenching tools, and four stick grenades.
The instructions come as a large, glossy, colour sheet with front and back views of each figure showing what goes where as well as offering a painting guide for Humbrol paints.
Overall there isn’t a lot to redeem this kit which isn’t a cheap one ( it isn’t expensive either but at $20+ NZD it doesn’t offer true value for money ). The weapons and equipment sprue is handy and if you need figures dressed casually in shirts and caps then it does fill that role. But to truely turn it into a good set of figures will require some skill with resculpting the feet, the pockets, and in sharpening up the detail.
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