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Alpine Miniatures
British Armoured Crew Set #1
1:35th Figure Set No. 35078
Review by Terry Ashley

Alpine MiniaturesAlpine Miniatures
Figures sculpted by Taesung Harmms
Painted by Calvin Tan
The Set:
This is the first British figure set from Alpine Miniatures since the British Tank Crew Set (#35048, 35049, 35050) wearing the late war “pixie suits” with this figure being an early/mid war British Tanker typical of the North African, Greece, Crete or Italian campaigns.

He wears a pair of tropical shorts, long woolen socks with black leather boots and khaki battledress blouse with binoculars over his tropical shirt with cravat and as usual for Alpine figures there is a choice of two heads, one with a field service cap and the other a black armoured corps beret.

The figure is standing in semi-relaxed pose with one hand shading his eyes from the sun while gazing into the distance, something a lot of figures seem to do and has the other hand in his shorts pocket which adds to the relaxed feel and gives you one less hand to paint.

The full body is cast as one piece with just the two arms and heads separate with a bare minimum of cleanup required consisting of removing the small casting plugs and some fine casting seams between the legs which are easily removed with a #11 blade.

The facial features have natural expressions with in proportion ears and the hand is very well done as is the exposed legs which look nicely in proportion with the torso, something that can be a problem on some figures.

Detail on the uniform is very well done with nicely defined details on items such as the seams, pockets, collars and fabric folds with the socks in particular having excellent texturing. The only thing you may consider is to hollow out the flat bottom of the shorts a little to give more relief for a better appearance.

The battledress blouse has excellent details as well as nicely defined Sergeant strips on both arms and four small insignia squares on the left arm but there is no indication as to the colours for the insignia which is probably due to you being able to add whatever unit insignia you wish using available references. You could also cut off some of the cast on insignia patches to suit your needs. The beret has a well defined RTR badge that will stand out nicely once painted.

There is one issue with the battledress blouse in that it is the later 1940 Pattern without the pleats in the breast pockets and has exposed buttons while the more appropriate style for the earlier campaigns would have been the 1937 pattern blouse with pleated pockets and hidden buttons.

Assembly of the figure was very straightforward with the fit of the arms spot on leaving no gaps to be filled, the arm join seams help portray the prominent join seam of the actual battledress blouse very well. You do need to take care removing the casting plug from the left arm to not cut away too much resin from the shoulder which could leave a small gap when attached to the body.

As with previous figures I added a small “wire” pin to the neck of each head to go into a hole drilled into the body to make fitting and swapping the heads easier if you don't want to glue the chosen head in place. This also allows the heads to be painted separate and easily attached later. A small tip if you do add the pin is to always drill the hole for the pin at right angles to the neck cut-off on both the torso and head as this will ensure the head sits correctly as intended when fitted together.

Conclusion:
This is a superb early/mid war British tank crew figure with the battledress blouse a very good inclusion and not the usual short sleeves for desert figures as it does get very cold in the desert at night.

The uniform detail and casting quality of the figure is first class as we have come to expect from Alpine and results in an excellent Tank Crew figure either on its own in in conjunction with set #35079 British Armoured Crew Set #2

Very highly recommended

Also see set #35079 British Armoured Crew Set #2 and combined set #35080 British Armoured Crew Set

The resin parts
Alpine Miniatures
Views of the assembled figure
note alternate heads with wire pins added

Alpine Miniatures

See the Alpine Miniatures web site for ordering details and thanks to Taesung from Alpine Miniatures for the review sample.



Page created March 11, 2009