Alpine Miniatures
35033

Taesung Harmms offers U.S. fans the first of a pair of G.I. tankers dressed for cold weather. This full standing figure, measuring up to about 5'10 with his helmet on, wears the winter trousers under the ubiquitous winter combat jacket. He also wears laced up shoepacks on his feet. So he is definitely a figure for the harsh winter of 1944-45. Leaning on his left arm, he would look sharp in the hatch of a tank or in an open top tank destroyer. A nice touch is provided by the binoculars slung around his neck.

The helmeted head is just one option. The more interesting look is the folded up winter combat "helmet" on the alternate head.

Harmms' sculpting is sublime, from the laces on the shoepacks to the ribs on the collar of the jacket. The proportions are just a bit off, though, between the jacket (too short over the chest and back compared to the sleeves) and the trousers (making the lower half of the body seem even larger than the chest) and the smallish heads (especially the helmeted one). I think allowances can be made given the bulkiness of the winter clothing and the fact that what the soldier's wore did not always fit them properly. The discrepancy is less with the soft helmeted head, but the smaller M1 steel pot seems to accentuate the problem with the other head. I tested a few spares from Warriors, Royal, YANKS, and Corpus, and found most of them too large for the body size. (The helmeted head looks all right on a Tamiya body.) So this might be more a matter of individual taste and perception-and that perception might be further altered with the figure situated in a tank or TD and less of his lower body exposed.

The four parts (separate left arm; right arm molded to the torso) are crisply cast and there are absolutely no seams anywhere. There are modest plugs to remove from the left arm and heads and a bit of residue on the bottoms of the boots. Insignia patches are molded onto the jacket; you can either paint them freehand or trim them off and use transfers from Archer.

Even with the possibly negligible issues of proportion, this is a well executed piece deserves attention from U.S. AFV fans.

Product sample kindly provided by Alpine Models.

-tss-