Introduction

Hunor produce a variety of 1/72 resin vehicle kits, including over a dozen armoured fighting vehicles. To accompany them there is quite a sizeable range of figures, now numbering some thirty sets, covering tank crew, combat infantry, Gendarmerie, and both peasant and urban civilians, and all of them addressing Hunor’s specialist subject, Hungary in WW2.
Here we take a quick look at another of the figure sets, this time “Hungarian Tank Crew IV”.

Contents

Packed in a polythene bag stapled to a simple card, the five figures are cast in grey resin, mostly attached to smallish blocks.

Taking the figures in the order shown in the photos (a pair of views of each):

• Figure 1: All the figures in this set wear the M1939 Italian style helmet, this figure combines it with a pair of goggles. The uniform appears to be made up of 1942 leather tankers trousers combined with what appears to be a single breasted leather jerkin with cloth sleeves, the cuffs of which, like the trousers at the ankles, are strapped. He has a 9mm pistol holster and binoculars. This is probably my favourite of this set, having an interesting and natural pose, with a decently sculpted face, good definition and a nice wrinkly look to the leather; his only real shortcoming is slightly stubby hands.
  
• Figure 2: The M1939 helmet, this time fitted with headphones, looks a little small. He wears a double breasted leather tank crew suit, carries a map case in his right hand, with the left hand in the jacket pocket. I guess he’s my least favourite as the helmet and boots somehow don’t look quite right.
  
• Figure 3: Again the helmet is coupled with goggles, but this time the fit on the head looks better. His double breasted jacket has officer shoulder boards and is worn with breeches and leather riding boots. Like figure 1, he has good, if very wrinkly definition, and also has some nice character to both his face and his pose, as he appears to be walking away, while looking back at someone or something.
  
• Figure 4: Uniform details same as figure 1, with the sleeveless leather jerkin and strapped cuffs and ankles, but this time no goggles or binoculars, instead he carries a shoulder strap bag which adds some variety. Pose is a little more pedestrian, and the face a bit more bland this time.
  
• Figure 5: M1939 helmet, pistol holster, double breasted tanker suit with strapped cuffs, but this time, loose bottomed trousers. Once again the leather is well textured and the face has some character, though the pose is a little wooden. A problem with this figure is the thick blocks of resin between both the legs and the crooked left arm, which will be hard to remove.

Review

The later group photos show the figures as they came out of the bag, with all the mould block and flash intact, while the individual photos were taken following a fairly basic clean up: removing the mould blocks, flash and most of the mould seams, and then given a few coats of white primer. I think it’s fair to say that before getting down to some proper painting, a more detailed cleaning would be wise, as the photos show a few fairly rough but delicate areas needing quite careful attention, particularly around the hands. In terms of size they seem just a touch taller than the tank riders set that I reviewed previously, coming out at about 25 to 26mm, 26mm being a scale 1872mm, just over 6’, but they do all wear the leather helmets which may account for some of that. In fact they do look as though they have been sculpted by a different artist from the tank rider figures, and generally have a slightly chunkier and bigger appearance than that set.

As with the tank riders, the detail is good enough to give a decent representation of the uniform and equipment details, and the tankers’ uniform is very different from that of their German allies so that they have a quite a unique look. Figures 1 and 3 look like they are actually doing something; the chap with his hand in his pocket looks at least like he is listening, but the other two are a bit wooden, and considering the tank rider set came with a half figure to fit in a hatch, it’s perhaps a surprise that there isn’t a half figure here in this tank crew set. Rather than figures that seem to be standing and looking, it would be preferable to see one or two climbing up or down from vehicles or some other more dynamic pose.

According to my references, the uniforms seem accurate enough, and it is good to see some variety in terms of the jackets and the equipment they are carrying, providing more interest than would be the case if they were all dressed and equipped in an identical manner.

Conclusion

So, a fair set of figures in terms of sculpt and detail, though perhaps there could have been an in-hatch figure. With careful clean up and painting, they would definitely add interest to a Hungarian armoured vehicle scene, and of course could easily be used with something German as well, such as a STuG III.

While in Europe much of Hunor’s range is readily available via Tracks-n-Troops, at the time of writing, this particular set doesn’t seem to be in the catalogue.

References

Nigel Thomas and Laszlo Pal Szabo The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II (Osprey 2008)