HISTORY

The Western Front of the European Theatre of World War II encompassed Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and western Germany, and was marked by two large-scale ground combat operations. The first saw the capitulation of the Low Countries and France during May - June, 1940. The second consisted of large-scale ground combat, which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945.

Master Box LTD has released “German Infantry, Western Europe, 1944-1945” (kit number MB3584), a set of four figures in 1/35 scale which represent four WWII German soldiers in different uniforms used by infantrymen on the Western Front in Europe during the time frame of 1944 to 1945. The figures were sculpted by A. Gagarin.

THE BOX AND PACKAGING

The box that the kit comes in is the typical soft cardboard end-opening box with artwork of the figures on the top by the artist Andrey Karaschuk. The bottom of the box has a very basic assembly guide in the form of photographs of the completed figures, an artwork painting guide, and 2 variants of German camouflage colors. The sprue is sealed within a sealable clear plastic bag.

THE INSTRUCTIONS

There is no separate instruction sheet included in the kit. There is only the basic assembly guide on the bottom of the box.

THE DECALS

There are no decals included in this kit.

THE PAINTING GUIDE

Included on the bottom of the box is a very basic painting guide. The paint brand referenced is Vallejo.

The suggested colors listed for the completion of these figures are:

- Skin Tone
- Black
- Gunship Green
- White
- Leather Brown
- Khaki Grey
- Reflective Green
- Yellow Green
- Medium Brown
- Neutral Grey
- Grey Green
- Gunmetal

THE SPRUE

The kit comes with one tan styrene sprue which contains 74 pieces. The sprue comes sealed in a clear plastic bag. All of the pieces are attached to the sprue with a minimal amount of contact points. When I examined the sprue I didn't find any bent, broken or missing pieces, nor did I find any poorly placed knock-out points.

THE PARTS

As I examined the individual pieces I found what I would consider to be a normal to minimal amount of flash, however there are seam lines present. I did not find any push-out (knock-out) marks on the individual pieces. The detailing on the individual pieces is fairly decent.

Note that you end up with one gas mask canister left over for the spare parts bin.

THE FIGURES

The kit comes with four WWII German soldiers with varying uniforms and weapons. I assembled all of the figures straight out of the box without doing any work on them (other than removing the small bit of styrene where I removed the piece from the sprue) to show all of the seam lines, flash, gaps and how the equipment fits on the figures. I feel this is a good way to show the work required on all of them – it has become my standard for figure reviews.

Figure 1. Figure with hooded smock and MP-40
The figure is made up of 6 pieces for the main body; with the gear and weapons the figure contains a total of 18 pieces. The figure is wearing the appropriate uniform for the time frame with the M35 helmet with cloth cover, canvas gaiters over the boots and a camouflage hooded pullover smock. It is carrying the metal canister for the M1938 gasmask; however there is no molded strap for the canister. He carries the M1931 canteen, M1931 mess kit, M1931 bread bag, two MP-40 ammunition magazine pouches (one with the loading tool pouch), an S84/98 bayonet and an entrenching tool. The figure is armed with a German MP-40 submachine gun which fits into the figure’s hands fairly well with some gap. If desired the modeler will need to scratch-build a sling for the MP-40. The MP-40 is a nice representation of the actual item. The figure’s neck fits into the collar nicely. The helmet fits well on the head and the detailing on the figure’s face is decent. There is a molded chin strap for the helmet. There is very little flash present; however there are seam lines which will need to be removed. The overall fit of the pieces is good and there are very few gaps that will need to be filled which is nice. The detailing on the clothing and other molded items is nicely done. The attachment straps for the bread bag and the entrenching tool will need to be slightly bent so that they make contact with the belt.

Figure 2. Figure in Zeltbahn with Panzerfaust and Gewehr 41 rifle
The figure is made up of 6 pieces for the main body; with the gear and weapons the figure contains a total of 19 pieces. It is wearing the appropriate uniform for the time frame with the M35 helmet, canvas gaiters over the boots and a Zeltbahn being worn as a poncho. The figure is carrying the metal canister for the M1938 gasmask which attaches to the molded strap. He carries the M1931 canteen, M1931 mess kit, M1931 bread bag, two K43 ammunition magazine pouches, an S84/98 bayonet and an entrenching tool. He also has on an enlisted man’s leather belt. The figure is carrying a German Gewehr 41 rifle. If desired the modeler will need to scratch build a sling for the rifle. The Gewehr 41 rifle is a nice representation of the actual item and fits into the figure’s right hand well with little gap. The figure’s left hand is holding a German 60m or 100m Panzerfaust. The Panzerfaust fits into the left hand nicely. The figure’s neck fits into the collar nicely and the helmet fits on the head well. The detailing on the face is nice and there is a molded helmet chin strap on the head. The attachment straps for the bread bag and the entrenching tool will need to be slightly bent so that they make contact with the belt. There is very little flash present; however there are seam lines which will need to be removed. The overall fit of the pieces is good with a few gaps that will need to be filled.

Figure 3. Figure in Zeltbahn with MP-40
The figure is made up of 6 pieces for the main body; with the gear and weapons the figure contains a total of 18 pieces. The figure is wearing the appropriate uniform for the time frame with the M35 helmet, canvas gaiters over the boots and a Zeltbahn being worn as a poncho. It is armed with a German MP-40 submachine gun which fits into the figure’s right hand fairly well; however the left hand does not close around the ammunition magazine and will required some work to close it. If desired the modeler will need to scratch-build a sling for the MP-40, which is a nice representation of the actual item. The figure is carrying the metal canister for the M1938 gasmask which attaches to the molded strap. He carries the M1931 canteen, M1931 mess kit, M1931 bread bag, two MP-40 ammunition magazine pouches (one with the loading tool pouch), an S84/98 bayonet and an entrenching tool. The figure’s neck fits into the collar well. The helmet fits on the head well and there is a molded chin strap on the figure’s head which is nicely done. The attachment straps for the bread bag and the entrenching tool will need to be slightly bent so that they make contact with the belt. There is very little flash present; however there are seam lines which will need to be removed and the overall fit of the pieces is good with minimal gaps to be filled.

Figure 4. Figure in hooded smock with Mauser Kar98 rifle.
The figure is made up of 6 pieces for the main body; with the gear and weapons the figure contains a total of 18 pieces. The detailing on the clothing is nice. The figure is wearing the appropriate uniform for the time frame with the M35 helmet with cloth cover, canvas gaiters over the boots and a camouflage hooded pullover smock. It is carrying the metal canister for the M1938 gasmask which attaches to the molded strap. One flaw with the positioning of the canister is that it will not align with the molded strap when all of the gear is attached. He carries the M1931 canteen, M1931 mess kit, M1931 bread bag, two Kar98 Mauser triple ammunition magazine pouches, an S84/98 bayonet and an entrenching tool. He is armed with a Mauser Kar98 rifle. If desired the modeler will need to scratch-build a sling for the rifle, which is a nice representation of the Kar98. An interesting item that this figure is carrying is the German Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger stick grenade double pouch. I like this detail as it shows how equipment can end up in military units that the item was not intended for. The attachment straps for the bread bag and the entrenching tool will need to be slightly bent so that they make contact with the belt. The detailing on the figure’s face is nice and the neck fits into the collar well. There is very little flash present; however there are seam lines which will need to be removed. The overall fit of the pieces is good with few gaps to fill.

CONCLUSION

All in all this is a decent set of figures. You get four figures with different styles of uniforms which are nicely detailed. I was impressed with the detailing and the poses of all four figures. A modeler will just need to be prepared to spend some time removing seam lines and filling the few gaps. Other than my few complaints I was very impressed with the kit and I feel that anyone who purchases this set of figures will be pleased with them. I would have no hesitation to recommend this set of figures to others.

REFERENCES

World War 2 Combat Uniforms and Insignia
Squadron/Signal Publications, #6013
Published in 1977
Martin Windrow with color illustrations by Gerry Embleton

The Military Book Club Encyclopedia of Infantry Weapons of WWII
Saturn Books Ltd.
Ian V. Hogg

Guns of the Reich:
Firearms of the German Forces, 1939-1945
George Markham
Arms and Armour Press

German Infantry in Action
Squadron/Signal Publications
Combat Troops Number 2
Created by Uwe Feist
Captions by Norman Harms
Uniform Illustration by Ron Volstadt