Dragon made a lot of figure sets, though few actually really stood out as being anything outside the norm, mainly just being generic groupings of four figures, and while that may seem a little uninspired it does mean that their figure sets can usually be used in a wide variety of settings.
This set from Dragon comes on one large, light grey sprue that holds the four figures, together with a small light grey sprue that holds the weapons. 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, but that’s probably more of a personal preference and those who read thse reviews have probably picked up on the fact that I like figures to capture the smaller folds and falls of clothing. The only other area of the figures which could use a little attention is the tunic skirts which lack any undercut detail, being solid instead, so a scalple, drill, or dremel will be needed there if you like to have that sort of detail. On the positives side the faces look very good with nicely defined features and individual expressions and the detail is sharp and clear.
The four figures depict a group of battle weary soldiers on the move though the poses don’t convey the sense of weariness as well as the artwork does, with the shoulders not being low enough or the backs stooped enough, but they do make a good set of walking figures. They’re wearing an odd mix of uniforms which I assume is meant to convey a sense of mixed stragglers as one wears the reversible winter smock with low boots and gaiters, a second wears a late war field uniform with low boots and gaiters, the officer wears an early war uniform complete with breeches and high boots, while the fourth a panzer wrap ( or SPG crew uniform depending on what colour you paint it ).
The two infantrymen are bareheaded and carry their helmets, one with a cover, one without, and each gets a gas mask container, canteen, mess tin, folding shovel in its carrier and two Kar 98K rifle ammo pouches. The officer gets just a single MP40 triple mag pouch with the smaller cleaning kit pouch, a holstered P08 Luger and a binoculars case, while the panzer/spg crewman gets even less with just a holstered P08 Luger.
The weapons sprue provides you with two MP40 sub-machine guns for use with the officer and panzer/spg crewman, a Kar 98K rifle for use with one of the infantrymen, and a G41(W) semi-automatic rifle and a Panzerfaust 60 for use with the other. There is also a Type 24 “stick” grenade and a Type 39 “egg” grenade included. What might be seen as oversight here is that while one infantryman gets a G41 he has Kar 98K ammo pouches. This is correct because, unlike the later G43 that evolved from the G41(W) which used detachable box mags, the G41(W) used a fixed mag into which the rounds were loaded through the open bolt similar to reloading a SMLE without removing the mag.
I’ve never been a huge fan of generic figure sets, usually just seeing them as an assortment of parts for my parts box, but there are a couple of figures in this set which do take my fancy as straight OOB built figures. The moulding on these is good with just some small detailing needed to get the most out of them so they are actually quite a good little set to have around.
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