German soldiers (Revell)

[Arbogastiz]

Hi friends, my last work, a few early war Wehrmacht soldiers (therefore I painted bluegreen tunics with dark green collars, dark grey trousers and applegreen helmets with national emblems) and additional Sdkfz 70 Krupp 'Protze' (made by First to Fight Wrzesień '39)






Best wishes,
Chris

[Bill Slavin]

Really nice painting, Chris. Despite the awkward bits of solid plastic on this set it is still one of my favourite WWII Germans. The poses are very life- like.

[Bluefalchion]

Agreed, and Arbogastiz has done a great job working around the limitations of this set.

[Wiking]

I own this Revell figure set too.
Never seen so well and detailed painted as you have done it.

[huib]

Excellent modelling and painting!

[ToneTW]

Its a great set! Wonderfully painted the colours look great!

[T. Dürrschmidt]

Top painting on these early war Germans....the small details are excellent.

[Arbogastiz]

Thanks guys, I'm really happy you like my painting efforts done at these figures, but in fact they're terrible - poorly sculpted and molded, lot of work with very sharp hobby knife to get rid of extra plastic... Never more

[Susofrick]

I am quite fond of these! Some of the poses remind me of old Tamiya figures I had as a kid.

[Bill Slavin]

Agree with Susofrick. Poorly molded, perhaps, but I think the sculpting top notch. Despite the extra plastic, there is a naturalness to the action poses you don't often get in this scale. There is a pair of running figures (lmg and loader) that I think is terrific. I still rate it one of my WWII favourites.
But if one was inclined to carve out the extra bits that were a result of the sculptor pushing these poses, as you did, Chris, I could see that would create a lot of grief!

[Erich von Manstein]

First-rate painting on this almost 25 years old Revell figures.
This Panzergrenadiers were originally sculpted by Preiser, like several other Revell sets at that time.
Although the Preiser-Revell co-operation was quite ambitious & fruitful, this set is one of their few less attractive ones.
That said, the excellent & authentic "in-action" poses outweighed the subpar molding back then.
One of the first sets that offerd really lifelike figures. Remember, before we only had nicely sculpted but often stiff Esci or too small, flat & often inadequate Airfix & Matchbox.

Regarding the Kfz.70 Mannschaftskraftwagen (Kfz.69 is the Protzkraftwagen, please excuse my nitpicking ), can you possibly comment on how it compares with one or more of the related Dragon, ICM or Caesar kits?
Would really like to see a comparison of the different kits, but couldn't find one so far.

Again, excellent paint-job on this early war subject.

[Arbogastiz]

Hi Erich!
Thanks for info, I really didn't know about Revell-Preiser cooperation, maybe I'm too young to remember that IMO original Preiser figures look much better: https://minikiwilandshop.co.nz/product-info/344/Preiser-16504-German-Panzer-Grenadiers
I think they used harder plastic than Revell company and difference is visible
About Sdkfz 69 and 70 - I'm little confused after research 'cause I found... 'Protze' is used for both of them, but I trust you (and your modeller's experience) it's more accurate for sdkfz 69
This kit is made for polish company First to Fight - Wrzesień '39 series. Good quality, hard grey plastic mold, not too many elements and no problems with assembling them, all fits perfectly. It was pleasure to build and paint it. You know, maybe I'm not very ''sensitive'' for such details, I'm rather figures painter that model builder

[Erich von Manstein]

Cześć Chris,
yes, Preisers 1/87 version of this figures looks better, because thats the scale they were originally designed for.
In the first place, Preiser is a very well-known manufacturer of H0 (1/87) products since long.
Unfortunately, in the case of this Panzergrenadiers the upscaling process resulted in inferior figures.

"Krupp Protze" may have been soldier-slang for the vehicle series in general (Krupp L2H43 & L2H143).
The nickname was surely based on the fact that the most numerous variant of the vehicle was the Kfz.69 "Protzkraftwagen". It's easy to recognise the origin. "Protze" is & was the general description for horse-drawn artillery limbers or (later on) for analogous towing vehicles.
It may be useful to distinguish between the different versions I think.

Hope you won't put me on your ignore-list now, but I need to get rid of one last correction.
Only (half-)tracked and/or armored vehicles were classified as Sonderkraftfahrzeug (= Sd.Kfz.).
The Krupp "leichte geländegängige Lastkraftwagen" (~ light all-terrain truck) clearly didn't fall into this category. So it was classified a Kraftfahrzeug (= Kfz.).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the FtF kit. I bought quite a bunch of their figure & artillery sets over the last years. Although they are obviously aiming at wargamers and quick-build customers, the quality is reasonable in general. Didn't buy many of their vehicles by now, thats why I'm looking for comparisons with other kits I already have in my stash.
I truly hope FtF will consider more polish soldiers for the 1939 Campaign. There is still much room for way more & diverse figures. FtF sets contained small quantities and few poses so far and let's not talk about Häts terrible attempts... . Hoping for more to come.

Once more, very nice & convincing paint-job on this lifelike but otherwise subpar figures!

[Peter]

Excellent painted figures and car!

[Hobbyinovator]

Well painted, especially with the truck. Like the Weathering of the Soldiers boots and trousers. I agree with everyone else on the poor molding of this set and the oppponents , the Soviet infantry. The guy shooting the rifle has Always seemed a bit awkward to me. He seems to be more suitable in a situation where he leans againts something, e.g, a wall, debris, a trench or maybe from the inside of a SDKFZ 251?

[Arbogastiz]

Thank you mates for positive feedback, I really appreciate that

@ Erich
Yes, you're on top of my ignore list! Of course I'm kidding Thank you very much for explanation of differences between Sd.Kfz and Kfz. and roots of 'Protze' nickname, I'm always opened for constructive criticism. I suppose it's much easier to pick up these details when your native language is German
As I've already mentioned, FtF models are A class, you shouldn't be disappointed when you'll start assembling them. But their figures... I just don't like them. They German and Polish soldiers are dedicated to one battle system (Wrzesień/September '39) and are sculpted in at least... two different styles. Poles are similar to Caesar figures (I think they were made by the same sculptor, as Waterloo 1815 set 027 US Marines, generally good but with a bit too small heads) when Germans remind me old, bad flat Airfix or Matchbox soldiers. It's a shame, I only hope their next releases will be better...
But I must admit if somebody is searching for very Early War Germans he can turn a blind eye to their quality, they are good choice from one crucial reason - those figures have only anti gas capes in pouches, not Y-suspenders (Koppeltragegestell M39), little detail often ignored by some wargamers
@Hobbyinovator
Yes, this guy looks strangely, aiming/shooting during running isn't easy job To be honest, I prefer classical version of this pose, like Esci or Zvezda did.

[Ben90]

They look fantastic! Nice work on the details!