Kit: German Machinegun Crew “Eastern Front, Kurland, 1944” #MB3526
Manufacturer: Master Box Ltd. (MB)
Scale: 1/35th
Type Review: In the Box
Reviewer: Roy A. Schlicht
The Kit: This figure kit by the Ukrainian company Master Box Ltd (MB) represents a late war German machinegun crew manning what appears to be an old Maxim 08 machinegun. The box is decorated with the outstanding work of A. Karaschuk and shows a three man crew pin pointing a target to “open up on” in the distant. The art work shows a definite sense of urgency in the crew. The back of the box has a sprue layout, building and painting guide. Now for a description of the parts.
The Parts: Contained in a re-sealable plastic bag is a single sprue containing 59 beige colored plastic parts to build into the three troopers and their weapon.
Each figure is broken down into six basic pieces with two legs, two arms, an upper torso and the head along with the equipment and weapons needed to outfit the crew minus one.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
For some odd reason the man laying on the ground doesn’t have the rifle that is depicted on the box art. This is really no big deal as one could be scavenged from the parts box.
Fig. 3
Also a nice feature is that every figure has a choice of either a helmet or a soft cap of some kind. The soft caps included are a knit cap (watch cap for you sailor types out there), a M43 Einheitsfeldmutze and the lastly a fur cap. The figures are all wearing two piece reversible winter suits. The molding is again very good but the details while still being well defined seem to be a little light. The hoods for the reversible smocks are separate pieces for added depth. The heads are typical for plastic kits and although are not that bad will probably be replaced by most serious modelers. Some clean up and filling will be necessary as there is some minor flash through out and the helmets have a few very minor sink marks. The weapons included are a MP 38, and one Maxim 08 machinegun. The tripod for the machine gun appears to be quite thick and I have no idea if this is correct or not. The gun is fed with a mounted ammo can and not the belts as pictured. There is no ammo belt in the kit. Again this can be fixed with a trip to the spares box. Also, mounted on the gun is a telescopic sight. The molding on of the 08 is pretty basic and lacks detail.
Weapons
Conclusion: 3.5 stars out of 5. Again it is minor hits that all put together keep this kit rating much higher. The lackluster MG and missing rifle along with the light flash keep the rating down. I do not know if there is another 1/35th German Maxim 08 machine gun out there but these guys could easily be posed with a sustained fire rigged MG 38 or 42 with no problem. I just like the box art. Happy modeling.
Roy
Threaded Mode
