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Warriors continues their large figure/bust series with this big 1/9 scale Fallschirmjaeger. While no historical description is provided, the subject certainly looks to be from the Ardennes fighting. The soldier is wearing a standard paratrooper helmet with mesh cover, para jacket, neck scarf, gloves, and is armed with an MP-44 assault rifle. The bust is really more of a half figure, as the figure is cut off below the belt line, but above the hem of the jacket. The figure is packed in a standard Warriors green box with a color photo on the front. Plenty of foam packing made sure the castings were not broken in any way.
The model is broken down into eight parts, cast in light cream colored resin. Parts breakdown is as follows: head, torso, left arm, right arm/MP-44, left hand/gun barrel, gun sight, ammo clip, gas mask canister.
Cleanup is about average for a mainstream product. There are some large casting blocks to be cut from the parts but aside from the torso, most of the work can be done with a sprue cutter and X-Acto knife. I removed the big torso block with a Zona saw, then cleaned up the area with a knife and sandpaper. Since the bottom of the figure is not flat, this takes some care. The left hand, which is cast around the barrel of the MP-44 requires some careful work, as there are three pour blocks and a web of flash attached to the gloved hand. Fortunately, the blocks are cast on the inner side, so the loss of detail during cleanup will not be noticable. Total cleanup took less than an hour.
Casting quality is very good overall. The torso has a small vertical seam on the lower back, and the two arms have light seams around the casting blocks. Aside from those casting marks, there are no other seams, air bubbles, etc. I sanded and scraped the seams smooth during cleanup.
Fit of the parts is generally good, but with figures engineered like this, with the weapon molded into different hands, care is needed to align everything properly. Fortunately, Warriors has provided very positive alignment points for the arms. The model's left arm snaps into position with absolutely no "wiggle" or "slop" The right arm has maybe 1 mm up/down wiggle, which is enough to make sure the weapon fits properly and is straight.
Fit of the gas mask can is a little tricky. There is no real depression on the body for the can to fit into and a little work is required to blend the molded strap on the torso to the attachment point on the can.
Detailing ranges from good to excellent. The overall pose is well done, and has a realistic tension. Facial features again are well done. Although the helmet is cast to the head, there is a very nice undercutting all around the brim of the helmet. The chin straps are a bit thick and chunky, though. Same with the uniform belting. The "Y" straps are thin in some areas, but on the front they tend to get thick, and have minimal undercutting, so they don't look very convincing. I used a Bare Metal Foil plastic scriber to accentuate the strap detail in a few places. Careful painting takes care of the rest here. The gas mask canister is used in other Warriors figures and, while well detailed, suffers from a canvas opening strip that seems to defy gravity. The real can has a small fabric tab attached to the lid latch. The strap just hangs naturally (on the real can) but sticks out awkwardly on this model (and many others). Having access to some good pictures of the canister will be helpful in figuring out how it attaches.
While no assembly instructions are provided, none are really needed. The box top photo shows all the parts in palce aside from the gas mask canister. It is also a good painting guide. Most modellers who would buy such a figure/bust as this would have some detailed reference books anyway.
I really like this figure overall, but in the end I kept wishing it was the whole subject. The pose and animation are so dynamic that it is a shame not to have an entire figure. Possibly you could combine the torso with the legs from a DML 1/9 vinyl figure, although you would need to sculpt the hem of the jacket from epoxy putty. Without legs you pretty much need to make some sort of stand for the figure. I drilled a 3/8" hole into the bottom of the torso and used some brass wire to mount the model to a tall wooden base. The large scale of the figure makes it appropriate for someone wishing to attempt to paint German camouflage painting, but is afraid to try 1/35 scale.
Review sample kindly provided by VLS.
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