| 4th Cuirassier | 11 May 2011 1:56 p.m. PST |
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John Leahy  | 11 May 2011 2:12 p.m. PST |
Yes they are. Most of that range still hold up pretty well. You can also use them for the West 44-45. Thanks, John |
| Jeigheff | 11 May 2011 3:39 p.m. PST |
Those are some nice looking figures. The paint jobs are clean and the color choices are good. Furthermore, you did a fine job of taking off the mold seams, which always improves a figure's appearance. Jeff |
| freecloud | 11 May 2011 3:53 p.m. PST |
I thought the DAK, Russians and Japanese were the nicest in the range…. |
| 4th Cuirassier | 12 May 2011 2:01 a.m. PST |
Cheers guys. Yes they are indeed mine :-) I am thinking about doing some of these as late war Germans although I may get hold of some of the mountain troops and use those. Some of the mountaineering poses look like they could be turned into guys hunkered down in a Hanomag. The skiers could make good drivers or Kettenkrad crew. Agree about the DAK and Japanese certainly. The Australians are also excellent. All the work of one Ron Cameron I believe, whose full size sculptural work stills sells today. He does naked women in bronze, as would I if I had the chance. The weakest 1/32 sets are IMHO the two Allied paratrooper sets and unfortunately the German infantry. There is a nice grenade chucker but quite a lot of mistakes in the other figures. |
| NigelM | 12 May 2011 2:06 a.m. PST |
Other than the SMG (which looks like the MP41) you can't really fault them. What's you issue with the British Para box which is one of my favourites. The US version has some really strange poses and I have to agree with you on the German Infantry set has an even stranger SMG! |
| 4th Cuirassier | 12 May 2011 3:12 a.m. PST |
I take that back about the British paras, it was the American ones I was thinking off. The proportions seem a bit iffy somehow, like all their legs are too short and bandy. The smocks come down to their knees which also seems wrong. The German infantry SMG has a forward grip no German SMG had (and nor did any other I can think of offhand, except the Thompson). The guy running with a rifle looks twisted round in a weird way, and unfortunately because of the way it went into the mould, his prominent midsection is almost detail free. The Afrika Korps guys have an unlikely but not impossible SMG but overall the figures are so superbly animated that they just look right. If I want any Germans in steel helmets with accurate SMGs I think I'll have to invest in some multipose. |
| NigelM | 12 May 2011 4:18 a.m. PST |
Would it be possible to do head swaps with the new material? |
| 4th Cuirassier | 12 May 2011 4:48 a.m. PST |
Definitely, it is gluable with poly cement. |
Frederick  | 12 May 2011 7:51 a.m. PST |
Nicely done – they do take me back! |
| Tirailleur corse | 12 May 2011 1:05 p.m. PST |
Be carefull guys!
I kept some of my childhood boxes of unpainted figures and gave them to my sons twelve years ago or so.
Bought in the early 7Os, as soon as released!
I remenber my first box was the german infantry, probably not the best, beside of the officer with his P38. Yes, the NCO with a MP41 is a true curiosity. Where did they find such an idea?
Among the best sets not previously mentioned were also the british commandos,withy the guy sneaking with the Sten gun in one hand and the knife in the other.
The point is that I discovered my figures have
"degenerated" with the years, and instead of the usual elasticity of the airfix's, they now tended to break like cristal!
So neatly in fact that I first suspected one the kids to have them cut with a very sharp blade!
So be carefuul with those old relics.
An old regret, I never had the ANZACS and the british airborne. Should I became to old and more interested by mopeds ans girls when they were released?
Cheers to all. |
| 4th Cuirassier | 12 May 2011 2:18 p.m. PST |
Hi Tirailleur Yes, the brittleness is a well-known issue with some 1960s/70s Airfix plastics – it is something to do with "ftalates" leaching out. Not all suffered, for some reason. They become as brittle as biscuits. You can see some of the commandoes here:
TMP link |
| freecloud | 12 May 2011 4:13 p.m. PST |
Not just Airfix – my WW2 1/72nd US army is 1980's Matchbox, Airfix and ESCI and they are snapping off at the ankles in droves. I may have to redo them…. Interestingly I have a few unpainted ones still and they re not in nearly such a bad state (I used Humbrol matt enamels base coat with Tamiya acrylics detailing at the time – I wonder if turps based paints are harsher?) |
| Etranger | 12 May 2011 7:30 p.m. PST |
No problems with breakage in my 1970's era Airfix plastics which get the full workout with my children. Nice work on these DAK. |
| 4th Cuirassier | 13 May 2011 1:44 a.m. PST |
One concern I would have about buying the modern generation of hard plastic 28mm is exactly this question of how long they'll last. In the 1960s and 1970s, probably mass production of polythene was so new nobody would have known this. In a toy soldier application, it only had to last till the customer grew out of toy soldiers. I doubt anyone planned for a lot of Airfix figures still being around and treasured fifty years later. One museum I read about won't accept ship models made of modern media. Models are required to last 100 years without repair, but nobody yet knows if models made of plastic, resin and superglue actually will do so. I understand that what's happening here is that the plastic is starting to separate. It's what gives rise to that "old plastic" smell you sometimes get when you open the box. Varnishing them won't help. All that does is seal in the plastic. Inside the seal it's still separating. It seems very unlikely that metals will ever fall apart, so if you want your figures to be an heirloom in 100 years' time those seem like the way to go. If you wanted Airfix plastics in 100 yeras' time the way to go would be to clone them now in metal while the plastics's still good enough to act as a master…It probably wouldn't be hard, it's not like you can't see the seam lines or anything… |
| Martin Rapier | 13 May 2011 2:46 a.m. PST |
Somene did give me some figures with 'plastic rot' a few years ago, fasicnating the way they just broke up, but they had been stored for decades in an unheated garage. I've got original Airfix figures from the late 60s which are still as good as when I first painted them, as well as models from the early 70s – that is round 40 years and still going strong. My major casualties have been Tamiya 1/35th scale tanks (particularly the KV-1) where the glue just seemed to give up and bits fell off, and I had some track rot in a 1/76th scale Airfix Lee. |
| Carpet General | 13 May 2011 1:14 p.m. PST |
Hi 4th,
these are every bit as good as your commandos. The officer in the DAK is probably my all time favourite Airfix figure. I use all my Mountain and DAK figures as late war germans. There are a few strange things about these Airfix though like no steel helmets in the DAK, mountain, Japanese, Australians and Ghurkas, the odd smg in the german infantry and the US Airborne prone figure with a sten without magazine.
Still a massive slice of my childhood though and I have a big box full of originals that me and the kids like to 'play' with on the floor. |
| freecloud | 13 May 2011 1:33 p.m. PST |
@Martin ah that might be it – my WW2 armies were in the unheated attic for 2 years |
| 4th Cuirassier | 14 May 2011 2:49 a.m. PST |
Thanks CG – the DAK officer ties with the Japanese one for me, the guy with the samurai sword. The slightly odd thing about these Airfix boxes is that they tend to look like seven different pose variations of the same guy. There is always one hat, one boot type, etc throughout the whole set, and this one guy picks up a different weapon for each pose…Odd but quaintly appealing… |
