Introduction

In august of 1944, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) began an ill-fated attempt to liberate Warsaw from the German occupation forces. Poorly-equipped, and minimally trained, they nevertheless resisted the Germans for 63 days at an appalling cost in human lives and the destruction of the Polish capital. 18,000 of the Polish Home Army died in the battle with an estimated 250,000 civilians killed in retribution or during indiscriminate attacks on civilian centres. While the struggle was raging in the Capital, Soviet forces were halted on the other side of the Vistula River (around 2km from the centre of Warsaw) and gave no assistance to the insurgents.

This is the first of three reviews of 1/35th scale figures produced by the Polish Manufacturer ToRo Model (Poland) which are exported and sold by Adalbertus Miniatures. The figure is part of a series which, in a series of five figures, represent combatants of the Armia Krajowa.

Basic Statistics

35F07: MG Gunner is a 1/35th scale figure which consists of eight parts cast in a dark-grey resin. The figure is based on one of the (few) contemporary images taken during the uprising. The figure comes well-packaged in a stout cardboard box with the contents inside a plastic bag and well-protected with foam 'peanuts'.

in Detail

Once again, using the established 'formula', i'll be looking at the components of the figure:

Head: The figure portrayed is that of a young man wearing the typical beret much in evidence in the contemporary photos. Sculpting is good with a fair amount of character. The head is attached to a pour-sprue at the TOP of the headgear although, with care, it's easy enough to remove. Almost any combination of headgear is possible with this kind of figure - German steel helmets were much in evidence along with the occasional French-style Polish helmet.

Torso: As can be seen from the image of the (unassembled) figure, the body and legs come in a single casting. The figure is wearing a calf-length civilian jacket which manages to capture a 'rough' feel to it. Sculpting of the pockets, buttons etc. is nicely enough done although some softening of the edges and thinning-down may be desirable. What is nicely done is the open pocket on the left and the bulging pocket on the right - nicely lacking in 'uniformity'.

Arms/hands: The arms have nice (soft) creasing and are well-proportioned. Hands are well-sculpted and offer few problems.On the right arm is moulded the simple armband which was used by the Home Army

Feet: The shoes come as seperate items with a section of leg acing as a plug into the location holes at the bottom of the legs.

Weaponry: A single MG42 (with seperate bipod) is included in the set. This lacks a little in both detail and form and would be better replaced with one of the newer (plastic) weapons available in 1/35th scale.

Construction: The figure is simplicity itself to assemble. There is some cleaning-up required and in the case of the left arm, some care was taken to ensure that the shoulder and attachment point for the arm were totally flat. The right-hand comes with the MG ammo-box moulded onto it. This does requires some careful dry-fitting to ensure a good fit and there is a small gap between the hand and cuff of the sleeve which will require a small amount of filling. The head drops straight into the neck with no gaps visible and with a realistic 'expanse' of neck.

Conclusions

A very nice figure which, on the negative side is lacking a more 'dynamic' pose. The possibilities of this figure (and the others in the series) are, however, immense. With a few detail changes, this figure could be used as almost any civilian 'irregular' in various theatres of war - the French FFI, Russian, Italian or Yugoslav Partisans and even as a Republican soldier in a Spanish Civil War diorama all suggest themselves. At a time when we are lacking figures of the more 'irregular' types it should be warmly welcomed. A very promising release from a largely unknown manufacturer who deserve to have wider exposure...