Recently we’ve seen a resurgence in Afrika Korp themed vehicles, primarily with Tamiya giving a lot of their older kits such as the 8.8cm FlaK 36/37, Sd, Kfz. 222, Steyr 1500A/01, Kubelwagen and Sd.Kfz 232 a make over with DAK themes. As such there has arisen a renewed need for DAK themed figure kits, and especially DAK themed Panzer crews which makes this a very timely kit.
This kit is one of Masterbox’s newest kits and comes in the usual open ended box on a single dark yellow sprue. The quality of the mouldings and the finess of the detail has improved noticeably over earlier Masterbox kits which weren’t themselves that bad but often need a little cleanup. The moulding on this set however is excellent with very nice facial detail and crisp moulding around areas like the uniform pockets and boot laces.
There isn’t a huge ammount of parts to this set but what you get is very well done, with separate parts for the tunic skirts and very nice, sharp detail including the little things like an Iron Cross moulded onto the breast pocket of one figure. The cap that is being held by one figure in his hand is also very nicely done, being hollowed out inside, though it could always be thinned right down a bit more.
The donkey comes with separate ears, mane and tail and the arab rider comes with two optional right arms, both holding sticks. One arm is moulded to be pointing across his body to his left, the other is moulded to be hanging down at his side. His face is very well done and includes a nice looking beard. He includes two large saddle bags with fringed edges for mounting on the rear of his donkey.
No personal equipment or weapons is included with any of these so if I had to pick one area to improve it would be the inclusion of a headset and maybe a couple of holstered pistols.
Assembly and painting instructions are provided on the reverse of the box giving the paint numbers for Vallejo, Tamiya, Lifecolour, Humbrol and Agama paints.
This is a terrific little set that fulfills a much needed niche providing a crew for any DAK vehicle you care to name, plus having the added bonus of the arab figure on the donkey which will give any diorama an immediate focal point of something a little different from the usual.
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