With a flood of new 251s (and variants) hitting the market there will inevitably people looking for figures to crew their new kits. Alpine Miniatures recently entered that market with the release of a crisply molded four-part figure designed to fit the drivers seat.

In the box

This is a pretty simple figure, four parts make the figure when it’s finished (legs/torso, arms and a choice of two heads) and as usual molding is crisp and clean and requires very little clean up or preparation.

The figure is cast in a sitting position and is wearing a camo smock. His backside has been “hollowed out” to fit on the 251 seat ( I do not have a 251 to test this figure on, but the literature provided with the figure says it is designed for the Tamiya, DML and AFV club variants of the vehicle). The builder is given the option of using a head wearing a helmet with a camo cover one that is wearing a forage cap backwards. In both cases sculpting on the face is nicely done.

The build

The figure cleans up easily with the removal of a pour stub on the back of the driver’s feet. Stubs on the arms were also easy to remove with a no. 11 blade and cleaned up nicely with just a little sandpaper. Prepping the head is pretty much the same story. Since the plug is on the bottom of the head (of the guy wearing the helmet) that helps speed up the prep process and also builds in a slight margin for error. The plug for the figure with the cap is on top of the hat. Given the resin and history of engineering from Alpine, this plug should come easily with damage to the cap if the builder is careful.

The arms fit well attaching to the body about 1/4 of the way down from the shoulders. There is only a slight seam ( on some real items this appears to be the spot where there was an actual clothing seam) that can be dealt with using a little putty and sandpaper if the builder chooses. I was surprised and impressed at how well this joint came out. This kind of nice fit is pretty typical for these figures.

Fitting the head was simple, it just popped right into place and the figure was done. No additional equipment is provided with this offering.

Conclusion

While one of the more utilitarian figures from Alpine, it really is a nice figure that should do a good job filling his role in the 251. The choice of heads (as usual) is a nice addition that gives the builder a little bit of flexibility. At the very least, gives one more head that can be added to the spare parts box for later use. Even though I was unable to test fit this figure in a vehicle, it appears to be ready to drop in and should make a welcome addition to the growing line of 251-related items.

The figure is sculpted by Taesung Harmms.
The finished figure featured with this review is from the box art and was painted by Calvin Tan.

Thanks to Alpine for providing the review sample