Anyone who knows me will know that I always look for a way to include an animal in every diorama. I don’t know why, I just think that animals add a little something extra. This set from Dragon provides two Fallschirmjager figures togther with two donkeys which immediately invokes scenes of the mountains around Crete.
This comes on three medium sized light grey sprues that hold the two figures, the two donkeys and some radio equipment respectively. It is an older set so the mouldings are a little thick in some areas, in particular the creases and folds in the clothing are a little understated and the finer details in areas like the buckles and collars. The faces are also a little bit of a muchness and could use a bit of sharpening up.
The two figures wear the overseas cap and are posed walking. They come with the usual equipment, namely a fallschirmjager helmet, a breadbag, a canteen, and an M38 gasmask bag each. One also gets two Kar 98K rifle ammo pouches and a mess tin, the other gets the Fallschirmjager ammo bandolier and has his belt moulded so that you can position two Type 24 grenades into his pants by cutting off the handles and attaching the heads. For this three full type 24 “stick” grenades are provided. The only other weapons are two Kar 98K rifles.
The two donkeys are very simple, being moulded in two halves with separate tails and ears. One has heavy hair moulded all over the upper two thirds of his body while the second has just the mane with a moulded on saddle blanket, harness and bridle. These are quite well done with the detail even being sufficient to clearly identify the larger donkey as a male.
Also included is a section of the radio equipment sprue from the Field Command Centre Set which provides you with a Torn Fu. D2 field radio and Torn. Fu. d2 Zubehör Kasten power pack. The Torn Fu. D2 is intended to be modelled with the cover closed so that it can be mounted on the donkey but the dial face is also provided if you wanted to model it in use. You also get a couple of spare parts such as a telegraph keypad, and a field telephone and its case.
Assembly instructions and a painting guide are included on the rear of the box and are very simple and easy to use, although you need to pay attention to the radio assembly due to the unused parts adding a little confusion as to what goes where.
Despite the need for a little sharpening up of the detail I still find this to be a nice set, mainly because the donkeys are so nice to have. The figures can be tidied up easily enough if you require the sharper detail so they’re still worth the effort.
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