Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 scale =9139-=9145 Series Kit No.
6574; German Warriors 1940-41; 115 parts in grey styrene; retail price US$11.95
Advantages: five disparate figures in one box provide five figures for vehicle display bases; nicely done =93Gen 1 =BD=94 style
Disadvantages: Same as =93Advantages=94 (see text)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for all German armored vehicle modelers needing =93a figure=94
Sometimes figure sets do not seem to gel; the figures are in odd poses, do not fit together in time or locale, or just look, well, goofy. This set is seemingly one of those at first glance, but with a bit of further examination should be quite popular with modelers.
Many modelers now like the style of master modelers like Steve Zaloga, who prefer to add a figure to a model on a scenic base to show a sense of scale or proportion to the finished work. This often necessitates buying a set of four figures to use one, or even just parts of one, and the rest wind up either in the parts box or the =93stash=94.
This new set from DML consists of five standing figures, but not what one could consider a thematic grouping. There is one SS infantryman with an MP40 (tastefully missing the SS runes, of course!), an armored vehicle crewman buckling his belt, an SS armored vehicle crewman fastening his helmet chin strap, a soldier putting on his overblouse and kit, and another infantryman holding his kit. It seems unlikely that these five figures would be grouped together early in the war, and thus the disfunctional group.
However, if you like to model early war German vehicles and want a scaling figure for each one, this is a really good idea. Each figure is in a casual standing pose and could be used to neatly set off a vehicle. The SS men actually do have their SS runes and rank molded onto their collars (surprise, CE!) but can easily be painted up as Wehrmacht after a couple of scraping passes with a hobby knife.
All five figures were painted individually for the box art by Zgonnik (rather than as a group, which deepens my suspicion they may have been for 1/6 scale figures and not 1/35 scale ones). Painting directions are of the =93stick here=94 and =93paint like the box front=94 type, which = are not my favorite choice.
Overall this looks made to order for the modeler who only wants to use one figure at a time =96 now we need sets of US, Russian and Commonwealth ones like this!
Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.
Cookie Sewell