introduction

If you are fan of those figure sets that put together several soldiers that would never actually be seen together in real life, Master Box has really got something for you! One of the latest releases from our prolific friends in Ukraine is “The Generals of WW II era” that puts six famous commanders from the war all in one box. The six that they have chosen are a nice collection with no more than one from any of the warring powers (reading between the lines, it means only one German general, running a bit contrary to the tightly held belief that German anything is what sells).

contents

The set is molded in typical Master Box tan plastic on one sprue packaged inside an end opening box. The box has a nice painting on the box top with a painting guide on the back of the box. The painting guide is keyed to Vallejo paints only. The back of the box also has the parts map printed on it as well as where they go on each of the figures. Construction should be more than just a bit intuitive as each of the figures has all of its parts in one section of the sprue.

review

Hats off to Master Box for the six generals they included in the set. From the American and British forces we get George Patton and Bernard Montgomery, both of whom have been molded before. Each of these Allied titans are very well molded, the head sculpts are excellent with more than just a passing resemblance to each. These figures, like all the figures in the set, do have a bit of molding part lines to be cleaned up but nothing that looks like more work than it is worth.

The other four generals have, as far as I know, never before been molded in 1/35 plastic. Two more from the Allied side of the struggle; Georgy Zhukov (long overdue in my opinion) and Charles de Gaulle who at a conservative 6’ 4” is molded appropriately taller than his box mates. From the Axis powers we get one German and one Japanese general. Surprisingly the German general is not named Rommel; instead Master Box has included von Manstein, a nice inclusion although I would only grade the head sculpt only as passable, not nearly as life like as Patton or Montgomery. For the Japanese Master Box has included Field Marshal Hadjime Sugiyama, former Chief of the General Staff. I wasn’t familiar with Sugiyama and I’m sure you can quibble with Master Box’s choice but it is nice to see some of the under-represented powers in plastic.

Each of the figures is constructed with the standard torso, two arms and legs, head, and headgear. Not much in the way of weaponry, side arms for von Manstein and Zhukov and a famous brace of revolvers for old Blood and Guts. The moldings have lots of nice detail: apparently some of these guys wore a fair amount of ribbons, awards, and decorations - good luck painting them accurately! A couple of things missing from the painting on the box top, no ‘Willie’ (the dog) for General Patton, and Marshal Sugiyama is depicted on the box with a samurai sword at his side which has gone missing.

Conclusion

This should be a fairly popular set; most modelers shouldn’t have to much trouble finding one of their favorites in the box. Each of the figures included has a virtually unlimited number of diorama and vignette possibilities for the scale modeler.