introduction

Well known sculptor Yoshitaka Hirano sculpts the Yosci range of figures for Miniature Park, itself owned by In Wood, a Japanese company. They have recently released a set of four figures in the SS Panzer Rider range. This figure is No. 2 in the range, a machine gunner.

the figure

The figure arrives in a small ziploc bag, with a cardboard header, so it's possible to see exactly what you get, however it does mean that little in the way of protection is provided for the parts.

Inside the bag are the parts to make one SS Panzer Rider figure, seated, leaning slightly to his right. No machine gun is provided. The figure is wearing a camouflage smock, field cap, balaclava and gloves, and has an MG34 ammunition belt around his neck.

There is a choice of heads provided, the other one wearing a camouflaged helmet and balaclava.

The resin used is not too soft or hard, and can be worked easily. The pouring blocks attached to the various parts can be easily removed, but does leave enough of a residue to require removing with a scalpel blade. Flash was present on the main torso part, but once this was removed, there was only a small moulding seam that required removal.

The right arm which is provided separately, fit into place with the minimum of fuss, and no filler was required. Once the pouring blocks had been removed from both heads, both slipped easily into place with no difficulty whatsoever.

According to the illustration on the cardboard header, the figure has a water canteen, some kind of map case attached to the right side of his belt, and something else which looks like it could be a knife also. None of these, apart from the canteen were provided, although there was a pistol holster for the side of the figure you can't see. There is a depression moulded into the figure where the map case should go, so I can only assume that there should have been one in the ziploc bag, but that it had not been packed. To hide this depression I could have provided one from the spares box but chose instead, to place the water canteen here, as if the figure had just been drinking.

The detail provided is excellent, very sharp, and particularly the ammunition belt, which should look excellent if care is taken to paint it well.

in conclusion

There can be no doubting the skills of Mr. Yoshitaka Hirano, however, I think the moulding may not quite enhance his work as much as it could. The accidental non-inclusion of two parts, and the purposeful non-inclusion of a machine gun (he is after all, a machine gunner), mean that I can only recommend this figure with reservations.

My thanks to Yosci for the review sample.