Introduction

MiniArt has been issuing some really interesting figure sets lately; showing figures in a different context to the usual “soldier pointing gun”, “soldier shouting and charging”, and “soldier pointing finger” (that last one might be the green army men I’m thinking about). In this set we receive a couple of US Army infantry at rest: playing cards, reading a newspaper while sitting on his helmet (although at first I thought he was sitting in a different context), or just laying back and enjoying the sun (and a cigarette in one case).

Review

The plastic is nice to the touch, and the newspapers, magazines and cards are printed very well. (I took a couple of close-up photos: the individual playing cards can actually be identified, and the photos in the magazines are pretty good; the text, however, is not legible.)

The figures are placed onto their own sprues, so it’s easy to know what part belongs to whom; the equipment comes in five separate identical sprues. For firearms we get M1 Garand rifles and M1 carbines, we get some trench digging tools, bayonets, etc. Unfortunately we don’t get any straps for the rifles.

The layout is quite usual, actually; it looks like most any other figure set on the market: arms, torsos, legs, etc. are fairly conventionally set up on the sprue. There are, obviously, seam lines on the parts, which is unavoidable in injection moulding. These lines seem to be placed in areas where they are easy to remove without damaging the details. As you can see from the photos the detail is pretty good; especially on the faces. (Plastic kits for some reason usually have less defined facial features than the aftermarket resin ones. Even a lot of resin faces are quite out-of-proportion.)

The poses look natural, and convey the feeling of enjoying a brief break in combat (all their weapons and kit is close to the soldiers suggesting they only got a short respite before having to get up to move again). The figures are wearing M1943 uniforms.

The sitting figure uses his helmet to sit on. I did make a joke about it in the introduction, but going home this week I’ve seen a worker in the exact same position at Tottenham Court Road, so I have to admit the pose is entirely realistic. (I did not feel appropriate to take a photo of the gentleman.) There is one issue which is prominent: there is flash around the plastic.