introduction

Everybody should by now be familiar with Alpine Miniatures hailing from New Jersey in the USA. Their owner and principal sculptor is Taesung Harmms, and from a small beginning , Alpine now have an impressive range of 1/35th figures.

the figures

Taesung Harmms of Alpine Miniatures is a magnificent sculptor. That much can be seen from the figures he produces. That's only one small part however, of the success of Alpine Miniatures. Casting and moulding, and then painting, marketing.......... all of these contribute to get your figures noticed, and these have certainly been noticed.

This set of two figures are also available to purchase separately, but buy them together and they're slightly cheaper. Great marketing. The packaging is a great idea too. Transparent, so you can have a good look at what you're going to buy, but very strong, to protect it's contents.

The figures are in Alpines normal, very light grey resin. It's quite soft as resin goes, but holds the detail beautifully, and it does mean that it's relatively easy to remove the pouring blocks. Each of the two figures in the set arrives as a main torso and legs casting, with each arm separate, a pistol holster for each figure, and the really nice touch, a choice of heads for each figure. Nice marketing again.

If you examine each figure closely, the only place that there is any trace of a moulding seam is on the inside of one leg on each figure. This is very easily removed with a scalpel blade. Nowhere else could I even find a trace of a seam, so all you have to do really is remove the casting blocks and away you go. The small blocks on each of the heads can be snapped off very carefully leaving you only to swipe it with a bit of sandpaper. Similarly the ones on the arms can removed. Thoughtfully, the one from the torso is already removed for you, leaving a small amount of residue on the sole of each foot. After removing the blocks from the arms, and a bit of judicious scraping with a scalpel blade, the fit was near perfect. No filler whatsoever was required.

The first figure is posed standing legs apart slightly, right arm raised gesticulating at something off to his right. He is wearing a padded Parka and trousers, woolen gloved hands, binoculars are around his neck, and the choice of heads is between a side cap and peaked cap. A small detail is that there is a rip depicted in the right leg of his trousers.

The other figure is depicted in a similar position, but with his left arm bent at the elbow. He has the longer field glasses around his neck, and is wearing leather gloves. The jacket looks to be a zippered, sheepskin-lined type. The choice of heads for this figure is between a side cap and a fur-lined peaked cap with folded-up ear pieces.

Box art illustrations are painted figures by Calvin Tan.

in conclusion

A beautifully produced duo. From the overall pose to the close-up detail, these two figures are immaculately produced. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Alpine Miniatures for the review sample.