Alpine
Miniatures
35009
This
is the first of what can be hoped will be a long series of GI figures
from sculptor Taesung Harmms and Alpine Miniatures. Standing with
his Colt automatic in one hand and his left fist clenched, he appears
to be barking orders to some German prisoners - or cussing out the
Quartermaster Corps.
This
poor guy looks like he was last in line when uniforms were issued.
His winter combat jacket looks a few sizes too small. The M7 shoulder
holster for his M-1911A1 is fitted snuggly around his chest. His
wool field trousers with the flap on the left hip pocket, which
appears to hold a pack of smokes trousers, appear a little too large
and baggy. Perhaps he's wearing an extra pair underneath for warmth.
However, there are large raised seams running up the outer legs
and through the seat. These actually may be the missing weld seams
from Tamiya's M4A3 - they certainly are not appropriate for these
trousers, where the edges of the seams would be on the inside of
the trousers. So your dilemma is clear: scrape off the seams and
have no seams or try to carve your own, or keep the seams and have
wrong seams. I'd also suggest painting the woolen trousers more
of a brownish drab than the tan shown in the box art.
But
this is really the only quibble with nicely detailed figure that
has a very realistic look about him. The body is impeccably cast
in one piece; the arms fit close to his sides, and you may want
to paint them separately in order to get the undersides of the hands
cleanly and without getting flesh or gunmetal paint on the uniform.
The detail is crisp and more subtle than found on Warriors or Verlinden
figures. Things like the ribbed cuff on his jacket seem more in
scale, but may require a little more skillful painting to bring
to life.
On
the jacket over the figure's heart, is the armored division triangle,
as George Patton directed his soldiers to wear the patch. Rank insignia
is also molded onto the arms of the soldier. These items can be
painted, or gently scrapped off and replaced with insignia from
Archer Fine Transfers or Verlinden decals.
Alpine
offers the growling head clad in either the M-1941 wool knit cap,
or with the M1 steel pot helmet pulled over the cap. The heads are
conveniently cast so the casting plug is on the bottom of the neck,
not on top of the helmet or cap - a practice that all resin manufacturers
should follow. And he's definitely a cold winter hero, as the combat
shoes with leather gaiters were not widely issued until the fall
of 1944. The figure scales to right around 6' tall.
This
figure can also be found paired with his WWII US Tank Crew #2 companion
in the Alpine offering WWII US Tank Crew Set (35011).
Perhaps
as a signal that Alpine promises to be different than its competitors,
their figures come small boxes of partially clear plastic that seems
to hold up as well as cardboard boxes. The "box art" is
a small piece of folded card stock visible inside the front panel,
and four products are cleverly shown on each of the "pages"
of the card.
Product
sample provided by Alpine Miniatures.
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