Darren Baker provides a Built-review of "Operation Milk Man" from Master Box, a four figure set which also includes a couple of bovines and a goat.

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Thanks!

Thanks for the review Darren. I agree with you about the cows and I'm trying to figure out if it's something anatomical or something else entirely. Regardless, both the figures and animals look like great candidates for alterations to suit various needs.

I believe the Cows are coming out as a separate item too.

Al

That is correct Alan MasterBox have released the two cows and the goat as a separate item, and while they do have their issues I am sure MasterBox will only get better at rendering animals.

Another great release with loads of diorama potential.
The problem with the cows IMO is that they have no texture to the hides . The cows I've seen ( outside of a BBQ ) have whorls and ridges of hair , giving them a rough textured look. These maybe a smooth haired Europeon breed ?

I did consider that Jim but I believe it is something else. I will be giving the cows a cote of Mr Surfacer which I hope will hide some of the joints and give the cows texture.

Nice review, Darren. I agree with the comment on the cows as well. They look round and clean, almost plump, very plastic. Dairy cows in general are very bony as the food they eat goes into the milk they produce. They should be more angular, with the hips in particular being more prominent. An image search on Google should yield some good results. For specifics on the goats, look up Toggenburg, Alpine or Saanen, which are the most common European dairy goat breeds. The type would determine where the soldiers were. This is an interesting set, with lots of potential.

That could be it Russ but as I said I just cant put my finger on what is bothering me about them.

Ah, armoured cows don't forget the weld seems

Al

Very different subject, once again! MB-staff: Thanks! keep on going this track.
Though the heads do not look bad at all, we always might have some Hornet heads as a replacement, don't we!?
I found an old Historex model catalogue, (in which horses do have a big part) that clearly tells you how to get a ' hairy' skin structure by using oil paints. At least that's the way I am going to paint them. It worked out very well on the MB wagon horses, as well as on the Cossack horses from Dragon. The ' only' thing you have to watch is the direction of the hair since there are quite some twists and turns. Just have a look at " cattle varieties eastern europe" pictures!!!

Great Review Darren!

About the cows (Switzerland being the cow country and all... ): You also have to consider that today's cows look fairly different than those of 70 years ago, they are "overengineered" so to say... Breeding has put the focus on milk and today's cows deliver a lot more milk than those of the time so they also look different. I would whink today's cows look more fragile/bony and have bigger udders.
It would also depend on the breed. When traveling I always find cows in other countries look different than ours here in Switzerland.

Maybe a dairy farmer can chime in here?

Cheers!
Stefan

Paul my pictures may not be doing them justice as the faces in the latest releases from MasterBox are very good when it comes to expression, I accept they are not as good as resin heads but the differance between them is shrinking. You make a very important point about the animals in this set as regards direction of brush stroke.

Stefan one thing that surprised me is how few people mentioned that the cows have horns as the normal practice today is for only bulls to have horns due to them being removed on calves to prevent injuries to the rest of the herd.

Since a few days I am working on a small farm house diorama in a western Ukranian setting at the beginning of the Axis campaign into Russia. In those days Russian people expected the German troops to liberate them from the Stalin regime, therefore being quite friendly to German landsers. I want to use the new MB sets, operation milk man and the (not yet received) eastern European civilians, since they would fit very well together.
Living between Dutch dairy farmers, as well as having a great interest in cattle, I collected quite some books about these animals. In the middle of the 20th century the Frisain / American / Holstein black and white's had not conquered the world yet, though there were already quite some Dutch influences. In those days cattle was far more region related. This implicates that also the skin color is not always black/with, but brown was more common. Even cows with a sort of dark brown on light brown tiger striped skin were not rare. ( I saw many of them during my IFOR period in Bosnia ). So, take a trip at Google and you are served very well. The horns nowadays are removed since most of the cattle stays indoors all their live, so the density of cattle in a stable is quite high. Without their horns there is less struggle between each other for ranking order, but also it is safer to work with. Also, thre is less harm in the feeding racks and milking station. In Holland both bulls and cows loose their horns at a very young age, done by veterianarians or farmers by burning the small horn pit with a special tool.
About MB's cattle: I filled the openings between the various parts with putty, put some liquid glue on it and smoothend it with an old brush. I used skull white from Games Workshop, (61.54) as a basic. Now they are waiting for their first oil paint cover!
(What a discussion about 'soft skins'on an armor hobby site!!! )

Thank you for the information paul, very informative.

I've spent far too much time looking at cow photos online because I really like this set. I think it really comes down to the cows being naked and smooth, when they are really quite hairy. If you figure out how to duplicate the texture of the coat and the whirl patterns that are present, particularly on the head, post photos so we can see how it's done. With all the animals coming out, painting and texturing them could become a major topic in the "techniques" forum. Will people fight over the proper body color and udder size of a cow like they do over red primer and exhausts?