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Forum > The Second World War
Captain Blood's Western Desert: P.125 - SdKfz10 half-track with 2cm Flak 30
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Captain Blood:
Okay, so, here goes with another start-to-finish project thread.
Can't promise it will be as long-running and fulsome as my Wars of The Roses Mounted Men-At-Arms thread started a year ago, but we shall see... :)
Michael Perry kindly gave me a box of his new 8th Army plastic figures, launched yesterday at Salute (point to note, that's precisely one year after the first 3-Ups were first shown, so that bodes well for improved production timelines in the Perry pipeline).
I obviously couldn't wait to get cracking, so have just made a few up. I'm going to say as a find, and point things out along the way.
My mission is to use these fabulous plastic figures to create poses that are realistic yet not always predictable. I hope it provides some interesting ideas and tips for others modelling these figures.
First things first - the figures are very sharply moulded in a pleasing sandy coloured plastic. (I trust the Afrika Korps, when they arrive, will be moulded in a slightly yellower tone, as tradition demands :))
Mould lines are present but slight. Pretty easy to clean up.
Second thing to note - the figures are small. Almost a good head shorter than the equivalent poses in the Perry plastic Wars of the Roses sets.
They are also slighter and finer. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. They are, effectively, more finely detailed scale models. But they will be fractionally harder to paint for those of us with ageing eyeballs ::)
First impressions of the main sprue (I haven't really considered the command sprue yet) is that it is jam-packed with components.
Second impression is that because the heads are joined to the bodies, not separate, and because quite a few of the arms are already attached in pairs to the weapons, there is a degree of limitation in how much genuine 'multi-poseability' can be achieved.
Still a fabulous range of permutations of course - but not completely unrestricted. Unless you want to get busy with a scalpel - which of course, I do! :D
First figure out of the box. Infantryman thrusting with fixed bayonet.
I wanted to capture what to me, is the iconic image of the Desert Rat, advancing, bayonet fixed through the desert haze, ready to engage the enemy at the point of steel. I used the body which I think is intended to be throwing a grenade. The dynamic posture seemed to me to suit someone who has just lunged. I used the helmet with the chinstrap hooked up over the rim - again, very characteristic, even though I'm sure most men would have put their chinstraps on if they were going into action...
Things to note.
Some of the helmets with the chinstrap up are fixed to the frame / sprue by the back helmet rim (like this one). They are easy to clean up and very usable.
Unfortunately, some are fixed to the sprue by the front rim. I tried twice and it's very very difficult to detach these helmets from the sprue without obliterating the front rim of the helmet. Hmmm. Tricky. Will have to take supreme care in future, or these helmets are effectively wasted components.
Ditto with the separate unsheathed bayonets (all the rifles come with bayonets unfixed). They're joined to the sprue halfway along the top edge of the bayonet. It's very difficult, even with an uber-sharp scalpel, to get the bayonet - such a tiny component - off the frame and cleaned up, without getting a slightly uneven top edge to the blade. I wish they'd been attached in the other orientation at the tip of the hilt... :(
Note, of course, that if you use a fixed bayonet, you need to shave off the bayonet hilt from the sheathed bayonet moulded onto the figure...
Second figure - NCO with Thompson SMG.
I couldn't resist a bit of a conversion straight away, so I sliced the head off the body and turned it through a few degrees, so he's looking sideways and shouting, rather than looking forwards, as if urging his men on.
Another point to note. The helmets can appear to sit slightly high on the head - this is not altogether unrealistic because of the helmet liner, but if you want it to sit lower, or at a characteristically jaunty angle, you simply need to slice a sliver of the top of the skull. That's what I've done with this chap - I think the helmet sits a bit better that way.
Third figure. Thought I'd try a more casual pose, walking at trail.
Now this is interesting. It's interesting because there are 'at trail' rifle arms for both left and right. I decided to use the left arm carrying the rifle - only because it's slight counter-intuitive! But the interesting thing is there are no free / open handed right arms to pair it with. Well, there is one, but that's plainly intended to be used by the lying prone Bren gunner. So you have to slice the rifle off the right 'at trail' arm, to provide a swinging right arm. Is this a design flaw, or is this what's intended? Am I missing something? Thoughts, answers on a postcard please.
More to come. Painting in due course... :)
gamer Mac:
WOW you have been busy.
I thought about getting these but I have no need to add to my pile and no game to play with them.
When are the Africa corps out, do you know?
Captain Blood:
June, I believe, for the Afrika Korps.
Hope you had a good trip back to Scotland :)
former user:
THX for the out-of-the-box report and the nice builds
did the fabulous brothers possibly mention anything about miniatures of the french participants?
italians will be in metal if I understand correctly
carlos marighela:
Handy report. Will look forward to future installments.
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