Introduction

Released in March 2011, Resicast have produced the first 25pdr gun crew for NWE I know of. I recently reviewed the Commander of this series of figures, Officer in Great Coat here on site:

Officer in Greatcoat

There are a further 5 figures that make up the crew: The Gun Crew Sergeant, Gun Crew Layer, Gun Crew Loader No 1, Gun Crew Loader No 2 and Gun Crew Rammer. Each of the figures is available individually and I thought I’d follow on the review of the series by looking at the Gun Crew Sergeant. The figure was Mastered by G Detroeye and painted by Christophe Nachtergael. As with the Officer in Great Coat I don’t believe the picture does the figure full credit.

Gun Crew Sergeant

The figure comes packed in the standard Resicast format of a zip plastic bag containing a colour card insert of the painted figure and the manufactures details. The figure itself is contained in a smaller zip bag and consists of 4 parts.

Cast in a light cream resin the figure was free from any damage or air bubbles. The body comes case as a whole with separate arms and head.

The figure is dressed in Battle Dress and wearing a leather jerkin, with anklets and ammo boots. The trousers sport the correct pockets on left and right legs. The stance is one of leaning forward in the action of opening the breech of the gun. The casting is excellent and the detail on the jerkin, trousers, anklets and ammo boots very nicely done. There are only 4 small pour stubs to remove from the base of the feet and some very fine seam lines to tidy up.

The arms are clad in the sleeves of the battle dress and again the detail here is well done. There is also very nice detail on the hands. The head shows the face of a stern looking soldier wearing a Mk I/II helmet with the chin strap under the chin. The detail looks excellent and the head also has a fine crop of hair on display where appropriate.

The uniform has nice natural folds and creases. The figure has good body proportions and measures in at about 42mm heel to neck, so a perfectly acceptable height.

Normal precautions apply when working with resin.

Conclusion

A simple figure that will require minimal clean up and should paint up very nicely indeed. This one should be of interest to both figure painters and those looking for a RA Crewman/NCO.

Although designed for NWE, the order of dress could be used in Italy and probably the latter part of the N. African campaign. A simple change of helmet would take the figure to the latter part of the war in Europe.

A generic figure like this also gives opportunities for other uses by a simple change of head and arms. This figure would also be equally useable with any British Truck, Tank or Artillery piece all that is required is a little imagination.

Personally it was excellent to see the arrival of these figures, a 25pdr gun crew has been on the wish list of many for a long time and I see many possibilities with this one.