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, Hungarians in WW2.

Here we take a quick look at, and do a little painting with, the figure set WWII Hungarian Gendarmerie Set II.

Contents

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

The set consists of six pieces in total, five Gendarmes and their dog. Although there are various poses, the uniforms are all more or less identical, with the exception that one Gendarme is not wearing a great coat over his tunic.

Each is wearing a brimmed, square top black leather hat, something like a short top hat, with a green cockerel feather plume, chinstrap and badge. The uniforms are all khaki, with black riding boots. Those wearing the great coats are all armed with pistols in leather holsters, an ammunition pouch, wear what appear to be empty bayonet sheaths at their belts and carry patrol bags on shoulder straps. A most noticeable characteristic is that all the officers sport large moustaches and look pretty stern (think Bill The Butcher in Gangs of New York…).

I have no idea what breed of dog this is meant to be, but she / he has quite decently textured fur, a prominent tongue lolling out of the mouth, and is, again, well posed, looking attentive.

Review

The first three photos show the figures as they came out of the bag, some with the mould blocks attached and all still with flash intact. The figures measure about 25mm, working out to 1800mm or a little under 6’ tall. The photos show a few fairly rough but delicate areas needing quite careful attention, particularly around the hands, but generally there is a fair bit of flash which, being thin resin, falls away quite easily.

The detail is good enough to give a decent representation of the uniform and equipment details, and the faces with their prominent facial hair do all have quite a bit of character to them. The poses are reasonably well animated, in that they all seem to be doing something, even those standing still are gesturing and looking engaged, which is good to see and makes figures much easier to use in dioramas. Perhaps the greatcoats are a little lumpy looking on the skirts, and the tunic wearing officer has a slightly odd looking right shoulder.

I put my fairly basic painting skills to use on three men and the dog in order to give a better impression of their completed appearance. The shots with the black backgrounds show them front and rear having been cleaned up and then coated with white primer. The colours for this set are pretty straightforward, being mostly khaki uniforms, the officer in the tunic receiving red collar patches. The chinstraps offered something of a challenge as they are quite over-sized, so would probably benefit from some careful trimming prior to painting.

The last photos show how our three painted Gendarmes might interact with their faithful companion, with the dog perhaps chasing someone with the officer in hot pursuit, or on a leash, maybe at a check point or guard post (the leash is drawn on, and not part of the model).

Conclusion

An interesting and quite unusual set of figures of paramilitary policemen. The uniforms and nice hats seem accurate enough; not quite sure if the great coats might also have featured collar patches. A fair set of figures in terms of sculpt and detail, perhaps not quite as well sculpted as the Hungarian Army set that were recently reviewed. As mentioned, the faces, with their moustaches and chinstraps take some quite careful painting. Please remember when looking at the photos that the originals are only 25mm / 1inch tall.

References

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