When I was at the second annual Twenot meeting in Deventer last weekend I stumbled accross a stand that sold Master Box products. And I found this kit of 2 German Tank repairmen. I did not had a direct goal for it still the poses and the subject of it were enough for me to buy the set.

the box

Master Box is a quite new company on the market and so far they have pleased the modelling world with a couple of nice items such as their panzer 1 A variations and this again is a nice kit. The box shows a very nice drawing made by E. Pronin and shows a scene which could be created with these figures. The back shows the sprue numbering as the numbers are not on the sprue itself. Further it showsa the figures and all the bodyparts are numbered for assembly. Same goes for the table and the workshop clamp on it. Next to that it shows the paintcolors you have to use and some pictures of the figures finished both painted and unpainted. I have to say that from a designers point of view I really like the boxes Master Box put out their kits as it is all high quality print work.

Content

The box provides you with 1 sprue of grey styrene and it is a little soft. Which is absolutely not bad as it cleans really easy that way. The sprue holds 20 parts of which 12 are for the figures while the other 8 are for the Table, the workbench clamp and the ladder. The figures are sculpted by A. Gagarin (as the boxart tells me) and the detail is quite nice, not perfect (but nothing really is isn`t it). Also mister Gagarin did a good job on giving the guys a nice pose which tells a story on it`s own. Also the addition of the table and the ladder gives you an option to built the story further. Only little mistake I found was a sinkhole on the side of the workbench clamp (see picture) but that really was all. The rest was superbly molded with a minimum to clean (only there where the parts were connected to the sprue and the moldline

Assembly

Assembly is pretty straight forward and no big problems were found here. Cut the parts off the sprue and clean the mold lines. Then assemble. no problems with that. The guy that is scratching his head with the wrench went together without problems. the guy with his hands in his pockets required some dryfitting first as I encountered some problems with his righthand. Had to sand a little bit off the inside of his arm to let it fit better against his body and to let it rest better in the pocket.
With the table there were absolutely no problems and a note needs to go out for mister Gagarin about the really nice bolt detail on where several parts of the table connect to each other.
Last but not least for the assembly some putty is needed to fill the little spaces of where the several bodyparts meet together but that is not a big problem and not a rare occasion by injection molded figures

Conclusion

Well it seems that of Master Box from the Ukraine goes on in this direction we can expect to see some really nice and original figure sets. This set with the 2 mechanics is a really nice addition to their catalog and it is a nice and versatile kit as the guys are wearing just normal workers blouses and normal army trousers they can be virtually placed anywhere where the weather was good enough to work with rolled up sleeves. Also these figures have some other potential. Because they are wearing a standard workers Blouse and normal trousers they can be, with little modifications, made into mechanics for a lot of other purposes. By adding hornet heads to it you could easily transform him into an Brit or an US mechanic and with the addition of a bare head without a cap or helmet you could even make a civilian mechanic of it.
I think it is a good kit and for the price it is definately a winner

With Friendly Greet

Robert Blokker