There’s a saying – ‘The army sleeps under the stars, the navy navigates by the stars, and the navy chooses its hotels by the number of stars!” This newest 1/35 scale figure set well and truly represents the former. The box contains three German Wehrmacht anti-tank crewmen along with a temporary bivouac they’ve set up in the field. This is such a typical scene on any battlefield, but no kit manufacturer has bothered to represent it thus far. Such a shelter could be swiftly created by erecting a triangular M1931 pattern Zeltbahn (‘shelter quarter’). The Zeltbahn was a very handy and crucial item of kit, as it could also be used as a rain cape, emergency stretcher, flotation device, or combined together to form a complete tent. The kit includes such a beautifully detailed Zeltbahn in which a soldier can rest.
The three soldiers are sharply sculpted in casual poses as they await the war to reach them. Appropriately, they’re in various states of casual dress. One is wearing a woolen pullover while the other two are in shirts and braces. Various accessories such as a haversack and a range of personal gear are valuable for a diorama scene, though the 7.5cm leIG18 light infantry gun shown on the box-top isn’t included in the set. This domestic scene, especially with the erected M1931 Zeltbahn shelter, fills a gap in the range of plastic figures currently available on the market. While it would best suit an early-war scene, the figures are versatile enough to be mixed and matched to fit multiple scenarios planned by the modeler.
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