Some will say the best set (in either scale) ever made. Well...some of the sets by
Revell,
Zvezda or even now (late 2015) some of the recent stuff by
Orion give these a run for their money, but I'm still one for thinking this was the best set ever made...by
Airfix.
Several of the poses had already been issued in 1:32 scale when this set appeared to replace the older set which we
looked at here. There is a rule here; the HO-OO only poses have shorts and helmets, while the 'both-scale' poses have caps and bloused, baggy trousers, the 'exception that proves the rule' being a crossover figure - prone firing, with shorts and a cap!
Reversed artwork on the 1980 catalogue image, I guess things were a bit hectic in the office what with bankruptcies and takeovers and the like going-on in the background!
Corrected image in the 1985 catalogue, this is one of the 'thumbnails' from the long-boxes, and is generally taken to be Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox).
Indeed; he's simply described as a 'senior staff officer' in the catalogue blurb from the 1975 catalogue (image courtesy of Blog visitor Kostas), which seems to be a carry-over from the earlier sets with its mention of anti-tank guns!
Box art from the
Atlantic effort, as I have no intention of starting an
Atlantic Blog (there are two very good ones out there and PSR), it might as well go here, the figures are compared in the next image...
...along with the jingoistic blurb on the back of the box! The ratio was not 10:1 as stated (poor little Fascists bullied by the nasty Allies!) but closer to 2:1 (3:1 is preferred for an offensive against a prepared enemy); from Wikipedia: "
195,000 men and 1,029 tanks under Montgomery made their move against the 116,000 men and 547 tanks of Panzer Army Africa."
The figures were rather fine* in a cartoon'ish sort of way, like the British Infantry by the same manufacturer there were a number of dancing loons, but there were also some useful poses*, although the plethora of knives, grenades and such-like in other hands was a bit OTT, and the separate head gear was hilarious, rather than practical, but they looked better if firmly attached with a bit of glue or a blob of filler.
* I'm kidding myself aren't I? The last four are 'OK' the rest are bloody silly! As always with
Atlantic the line-drawings on the box seemed to refer to a better set than the contents!
OBE's with this set are minimal, they have had several cleaning sessions over the years and this is all that's come in painted since the last clean. The chaps from the 54mm set can all be painted-up for any other theatre, and both the officer and the grenade thrower (with the grenade removed) make excellent AFV or SPG crew.
Not much of a colour variation until the Heller muck-up (with an F) when they appeared in a dirty-snow grey for some reason!
Ah, yes! Not only did the horrible Allies outnumber poor old Rommel by 10:1 (according to an Italian blurb writer), but a Spanish artist shows us how the Allies devastated the Axis from the air, with squadrons of tank-busting Messerhurriefires in European theatre markings...it's just not cricket...from
Montaplex...the copying pirate types!
Although - if they had numbers of 75mm armed AMX13's at their disposal, the DAK should have performed better than they did!
The figures: Quite close copies, and among the better of
Montaplex's piracies, the colour isn't bad either compared to some of the stuff you get when you finally open the little envelope...they could have been bright pink or a washy apple-green!
Several of the figures make for easy single-cut conversions, I did some a few years ago, but they must be in storage as they're not in with the main lot, so I quickly cut these up to show a few of the combinations. The OBE on the end is a heat-conversion to save the surrendering man's honour by putting him to directing traffic or an aircraft?
Comparison with the
Matchbox set, there's not a lot in it, the matchbox figures are very good, but I think the
Airfix figures just take the trophy? The
Matchbox MG42-gunner is poor and the 'Rommel' figure is a dwarf! AND...it's those silly bases again!
The 'Kit' set of figures from
Esci seems to reference some of the
Airfix 1:32nd scale set and some figure poses from - I think -
Tamiya (I will look at all this on the main blog one day, as it explains one of the anomalies in Garratt's encyclopedia), anyway there were some nice poses and some straight lifts, however the
Esci addition of ammo for the MG was a nice touch, as the
Airfix set didn't get the sprulette of four ammunition-boxes scaled down from the 54mm ancestors. The
Esci set also had a useful and quite accurate mortar, with ammo-boxes and mortar bombs (not illustrated here)
2018 catalogue
1974 Battle Picture Weekly!
Comparison with the much elder Lone Star 'Germans, who are really more 'alpine' that Alamein! But the caps will allow for painting into an Afrika Korps army. Scale wise they are a tad smaller as a group, but after paint (and basing?) they would blend in OK, just that flame-thrower to explain!
I seem to have two versions of this image, one cleaner, the other better-coloured, I obviously intended to use one not the other but now can't decide which is the better, so the other is on the Type 1 post and this version can go here! Direct comparison between the two issues.
Links
Airfix Tribute Forum
Another Slippery Slope (navigate for the other DAK posts)
Paul's Bods (I think he's only done the one?)
Plastic Soldier Review
