Jaguar
63139

This little vignette was likely replayed hundreds of times across the snowy fields around Bastogne as the 101st Airborne was reinforced after a ten-day siege. The defender, perhaps just having emerged from a frozen foxhole or windswept barn, has a bandaged drawn over one eye. His melton overcoat has holes in it. Other than his Garand and canteen, he has no other gear. There is a little separate piece of scarf to attach over his left shoulder, a nice touch.

The other GI, perhaps from the 4th Armored Division , is similarly clothed and equipped, only he's a BAR gunner. Some nice additions from the scrap box would be an M1928 haversack, entrenching tool, and grenades, which he'd likely be carrying on his march. That would further help differentiate the two figures.

Sculpting by Seo Jeong Ho is crisp and precise, with excellent undercuts around the collars and where the legs emerge from the coats. Heads are molded to the body; arms, feet, and the hands grasping the weapons are separate. There's only a faint trace of mold seam. The faces have good expressions. The rim of one helmet was cast too thin, however, and was broken in the bag; however, it will be easy to replace with a Tamiya part if I cannot fix it the original. The BAR is particularly delicate. The figures scale under 6'.

The set comes with a resin base 4" in diameter and 1 ¼" tall and weighing nearly three pounds. Well, maybe not quite three pounds, but it's a heavy hunk of resin. You could probably pour 15 or 20 figures with what they dumped into this mold. While figure aficionados may have a use for it, it's just an expensive paperweight for me.

Nonetheless, this is an imaginative pair of figures, and versatile enough to adapt to other poses as well.

-tss-