While others constantly regurgitate and re-vamp the modeling 'standards' (sorry, re-release) there are (fortunately) a series of companies at the vanguard with new ideas and an ability to take new directions. Amongst this elite group are the Ukrainian manufacturer, Masterbox who are working on one of the most innovative releases in recent years. Advance images of this new set, can be seen by following the link below Oh, and there's also an interesting reason why your comments can be more useful than you could possibly imagine...


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Thanks!

Hello my friend Jim !

Héhé, after years passed preaching in the desert , seems that my voice has been heard !!
That's a really nice idea from Masterbox (they are the only one who could have done it, because they are far advanced compared to the others manufacturers !)
It would be incorrect to say that this set is a free french set only. One of them is a legionnaire, no doubt, and the other one seems to be a goumier. The clue that lead me to this conclusion is the very specific wool hat Goumiers, or even tirallieurs marocains, worn during war. But I'm not sure about the rest of the uniform, as in 1942, many men still worn French uniform, british one were reserved to white soldiers mainly. I'm not sure also of the legionnaire leegins. There were no leggins in the desert, but british wool socks. But in this set we have also an american tanker, an aussie and a Rosbeef . Pauses looks really good anyway, and with some creative skills you can even make indochina war french soldiers !
Thanks Masterbox for this release ! And I renew my invitation : I have loads of documents on French uniforms I would be delighted to share if Masterbox wish so, maybe to correct some aspect of the set abovementioned.
Lastly, I would add that I bought the commonwhealth AFV crew from Masterbox, and the details are simply stunning !!!! It largely worth their resin counterpart. Monthy looks like the real one, the camel has a nasty look, everything is really well rendered with no flash. Go and get them, you will see that Masterbox really rules.

Ok now I'm forced to by this set and to sent the finish product to Masterbox to thanks them.

Best
(a happy free french man)

The figures are meant to loosely represent the characters in the classic Humphrey Bogart film Sahara from 1943 about an isolated US M3 and crew along with a Brit, Sudanese, and Free French fighter who are stranded and surounded. Its a pretty good flick and the figures look very close to the characters.

Masterbox, again have brought out a winner. It's nice to see. MB has shown us that Eastern Europe manufacturers can mould just as well as anyone else. They also bring out dynamic and original sets, whereas others are content to either re-release previous kits with slight tweaks, or worse, old 1970's toolings with no improvements at all. I just wish they would make some vehicles! As for the figure sets I have several because they have appeal no other company offers. Now, Master Box, if you are listening, an LRDG or SAS patrol would be cool! (you know, baggy French style pants, overcoats, captured Luftwaffe jackets, etc.)! And if you want to be really cool, modern Canadian snipers? Congrats to MB, I'll definitely be picking this one up.

And if I'm not mistaken the figure representing the 'Sahara Joe' looks quite a bit like James Belushi from the remake...

Thanks Gino! There was something niggling at me about these figures. I thought i'd seen something familiar before!

I loved the film Sahara, a real old-school classic and I love this figure set.

I don't think I would ever build all the figures on one diorama, but as individual figures there are some very nice poses.

Hope this set is released!