The war in the desert has always held a special place of interest with Kiwi modellers, and that would surely be doubly so for the Battles of El Alamein, so anyone looking to depict that point in time in a diorama will be needing to take a look at kits like this one.
This comes in the usual flap ended box on one large and two small light grey sprues, the big one for the four figures, the two small ones for the weapons. The quality of the mouldings and details is very good with just the usual minor mould seams to remove, something which is inevitable in injection moulded plastic kits.
The faces are well done as are things like the folds and creases, the hands and the small details like the scarf on the MG34 loader. All four wear stadard DAK uniforms with the long trousers and ankle boots with two of them also wearing the gaiters that were prefered by DAK troops.
Two of the helmets have moulded on cloth covers while the other two are uncovered. All four get a canteen, a gas mask container, a breadbag and a mess tin. The MG loader also gets a spare barrel container but no designated weapon.
The NCO also gets a pair of binoculars, a map case, a pair of goggles, and a Luger holster, which looks a little odd as he holds the luger in his hand. So you might want to redo the holster to look like the flap is open and the holster empty. In a rather nice little detail he also get a handgrenade tucked into his belt which comes with a section of belt moulded to it to give the right undercut detail. There is a second one of these grenades with a length of belt also but it appears to be spare.
The kneeling figure also gets ammo pouches for his Kar 98K which he is shown reaching into. A Gen 2 Kar 98K wwith the separate bolt would be handy here as he looks as if he is about to reload but has the bolt in the closed position.
The MG34 is shown on the rear images as having a hollow muzzle but it doesn’t, so you’ll need to do this yourself. It comes with an ammo box made up from four parts, to give full handle and hinge detail, a length of ammo belt, the choice of an open or folded bipod, and an MG34 maintenance kit pouch which goes on the gunner’s belt.
As well as the above you get a few left over weapons as the weapon sprues are generic ones. You get an MG42, also with the two bipod options, another length of ammo belt, three drum mags, a spare barrel container, an MP44 rifle, a G43 rifle, an MP40 SMG, a Panzerfaust 30 and a Panzerfaust 60.
My only real nitpicks with this kit are the lack of a weapon for the loader ( you could use the MP40 but would need to find mag pouches ) and a sidearm for the gunner as was normal. Other than that it’s just little things like the lack of hobnails on the boot soles and the closed bolt on the Kar 98k. But these are minor things which can easily be remedied and putting those aside overall this is a very nice kit, update it with Gen 2 weapons and equipment and it would be a real winner.
Click thumnails to enlarge images.
