PMMS
Dragon
Flak Artillery Crew 1943-45
Dragon Kit No. 6275
1:35th Scale
Review by Terry Ashley

This set of figures was first seen as the bonus figures in the recent 88mm Flak 36 (kit #6260) and is now released as a separate kit with the inclusion of an extra small sprue providing alternate arms, legs and heads for some of the figures.

The set contains six figures all wearing the reversible winter parka, gloves and steel helmets and have poses for three loaders, one gunner and a range finder and gun commander holding a pair of binoculars.

The three loaders and commander have alternate arms provided for a choice of pose while the gunner has alternate legs and right arm so he can be shown relaxed on his seat or moving the hand wheel while the commander and range finder also have alternate heads depending on the positioning of the binoculars and rangefinder.

The extra 88mm rounds and ammo cases from the Flak 88 kit are still included so the loader’s will have something to load with the etched shell base caps also still provided to add additional details. The large rangefinder and shoulder supports are included for the appropriate figure but no weapons or additional person equipment is included.

The figures are moulded in a hybrid mix of DS100 soft vinyl and “normal” hard styrene plastic which makes them slightly softer than normal styrene figures but harder than earlier figures and accessories moulded completely in the DS100 vinyl.

This allows excellent uniform details to be incorporated into the figures with well defined collars, webbing, parka hoods, fabric seams and realistic fabric folds and drawstrings around the parka extremities as well as excellent facial features.

One issue arising from the use of this material is the mould seam on all the parts is quite difficult to remove as the usual method of shaving the seam with an X-Acto #11 blade as with hard plastic simple doesn’t work with this softer mix.

I tried a number of methods to remove the mould seam which is quite prominent on some parts and found the best method was to use a very sharp blade to trim the sprue attachment point and mould seams as best I could and then using liquid cement such as Tenax-7R to “paint” over the remaining small scar thereby smoothing this out. It should be noted that applying the liquid cement will also smooth any surrounding fine detail that may get in the way and you should take care when using this method but the end result was acceptable, if not a bit of a waste of expensive Tenax-7R.

Image showing original part with mould seam (left), seam trimmed with sharp blade (middle)
and final part with seam smoothed out with Tenax-7R as per text above (right)

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I guess we have to weigh up if the added detail definition is worth the considerable extra effort needed to remove the moulding seams as the one figure assembled for this review took longer to clean up than the two assembled figures in “normal” plastic in the US infantry set also reviewed today.

One good thing to come from the hybrid mix is that the figures will glue together using normal plastic cement which makes things easier once you have cleaned up the mould seams and the fit of the parts was very good not needing any additional trimming or filling.

A full page colour assembly and painting guide is included but you can choose your own finish as the parkas are reversible with white on one side and various camouflage finishes on the other to exercise your painting skills.

Conclusion:
The detail on the figures is excellent with very well defined and realistic uniform details but the seam cleanup will test you but once finished the figures will certainly add life to any Flak 88 but of course the uniforms will restrict their use to winter scenes which isn’t really a problem.

Recommended.

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Assembled figure D with alternate arms
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Thanks to Dragon Model Ltd for the review kit.


Page created 25 July 2005

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