No. of Pieces:  85 parts on 2 sprues, sheet of maps

When I opened the box I was mighty impressed by the quality of these figures.  I had taken a long break from modeling, and my last experience with Tamiya figures was in the mid 70s, and these guys are very different from the stocky fellows I worked on back then!  The kit consists of five figures with a separate sprue for their equipment, a field stove, and a dog.  The moldings look great, and the breakdown ofthe parts is different for each figure.  There are plenty of weapons, water bottles, helmets etc. for the spares box, all of the late war variety. I have assembled two of the figures, the officer and the figure holding an MG42.  I've also painted some of the faces (three of five).

The detail is very nice, and the different subassemblies for each figure allow for reasonable detailing in different areas.  It was easy to undercut the plastic at the collar of the machinegunner to produce a good effect of an untied jacket at the neck.  I have been messing with various combinations of white for the officer, and the machinegunner is in full camouflage.  I used humbrol sand for the base colour (slightly darkened for the trousers versus the jacket), and a Tamiya brown and dark green for a splinter pattern.  Both figures await final touches such as painting the leather, boots, and some dirt and mudstains.

The figures are all in winter garb, ranging from overcoats to reversible white/camouflage smocks with different varieties of boots.  All of the figures look like the winter wear just isn’t bulky enough. IN contrast to DML kits of cold-weather figures and in comparison with photographs in my various references these guys just don’t cut it.  In most photos I have seen the troops look well bundled up with bulky winter clothes, and in spring/fall shots the winter uniforms are hanging off the troops as if underlying garments/padding have been removed.  So the figures should look bulky, or the winter smocks should look rather baggy and hang off the troopers.  The Tamiya figures capture neither extreme.  The figures I have assembled are just too skinny back-to-front, the jackets just look too small rather than bulky or saggy.  I noticed a similar trend for the figures from the Tamiya Wespe, but they painted up OK (although my wife’s disinterested comment was that the heads looked too small).  The officer looks more acceptable once some equipment is glued on, but he’d be mighty cold and uncomfortable in that get up (unlikely given the late war nature of the set). Tamiya seems to have overcorrected from the stocky figures of the 70s to these 90s characters.

Then there are the faces...  I don't know, but these guys look a little odd.  I think Tamiya has overcompensated and made the expressions too strong for the scale.  These fellows would be gargoyles at full size.  It makes them easy to paint given the deep crevices around the mouth and eyes, but there is no subtlety to the expressions.

Overall, the equipment, detailed moldings, and variety of poses are the strong points, but there are some big weaknesses here.  I’ll reserve judgment until I get some more of the recent figure kits, but my glee at opening the kit has moderated a lot.  I find the recent Dragon figure releases to be of superior quality.