One of the advantages of building model tanks is that if you don’t like doing figures you can always model it buttoned up and avoid them. That isn’t a luxury you get with Self-Propelled Guns where if you want to place it on a diorama you either need to add a crew or come up with a very good reason for why they aren’t with their vehicle. Unfortunately however there seems to be a serious lack of inspiration for what these crews should be doing.
This kit contains four figures on a single dark yellow sprue, all posed casually with two loading ammo into their vehicle while one appears to be taking a radio call and the fourth one supervises. There is also a small photo-etch fret included for headphone straps. The quality of the moulding is very good other than needing small amounts of flash and mould seams removed. The detail is sharp and the faces and hands are very well done, and the officer is moulded holding a cigarette.
Two of the figures are depicted wearing shirts with the sleeves rolled up, the other two are wearing the SPG crew panzer wrap which is in the SS cut denoting these figures as SS ( this could simply be an oversight by Tristar as many manufacturers seem unaware of the difference between the Heer and SS wrap ). As such these figures can be used equally well as a tank crew rather than an SPG crew as the only difference between the uniforms was the colour.
No weapons are included other than four holstered sidearms. Nor is any form of ammo included though this is most likely as you would need to tailor the ammo to the particular vehicle they were used with.
The ability to use these figures for either a tank crew or an SPG crew is a bonus, as is the inclusion of the four PE headset straps as only one is used, leaving three for the spares bin. I do think Tristar missed an opportunity to make something a little different as by just giving the two figures standing outside the vehicle a slightly more urgent look would have resulted in a crew that looked as if they were in action ( though you would then have still needed a gunner ). But that aside they make up into a very nice looking set.
Click thumbnails to enlarge images.
