Preview in detail - Alpine Miniatures new 1/16th sculpt - General Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel

Alpine Miniatures has an overdue birthday present for us all this month – not only their set of two figures of SS tank men from WWII but this sculpt of the “Desert Fox” - Erwin Rommel himself in 1/16^th scale – he looks a lot like the real man himself and maybe just worth the wait..

Erwin Rommel

Scale 1/16^th

Kit no: 16024

The pictures show the figure with 2 different heads.

Sculpture by Satoshi Tsujimura

Boxart by Dr. Jin Kim

Last month saw two interesting things happen at Alpine Miniatures HQ – they were awarded with "Model of the Year" by the premiere international model magazine "Modell Fan" for their large scale figure (1/16^th) kit 16021 "German U-Boat Captain" (2014)  . The medals were awarded at The Nüremberg International Toy Fair. Congratulations to them!

The other thing of note was their tenth “birthday” – in business for a decade alpine miniatures have not dropped their standards at all – however last month they had planned to release a large scale figure of the famous “Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel. It never got to market…

At market IN TIME that is – as this month sees the large scale figure of this – the most famous and lauded of German Generals during the Second World War.  He was a conflicted man in some ways, a great soldier of the Reich but also involved (accused) in the plot to assassinate Hitler. He was famous as the man in charge of the “Atlantic Wall” to repel the invaders on D-day and his early success in the battle of France and the Blitzkrieg, but most famously for his campaign in the desert .

 

Alpine has gone all out with this figure – just like the award winning U-boat Kapitan of last year they have gotten a top sculptor at the helm – Mr Satoshi Tsujimura from Japan to  sculpt and just as talented a painter in Dr. Jin Kim to finish off the boxart version. We were lucky to get some exclusive pictures from Dr. Jin Kim of his finished job that has just gone to market through Alpine’s Distributors.

This figure is sculpted in 1/16^th scale in grey resin and includes two head choices – a very subtle difference between a figure who has goggles on his officer’s visor and one without the dust goggles. Rommel was famous for wearing this pair of goggles on his visor cap which was captured from British supplies. Post war collectors often call them Rommel Goggles and he has indeed made them more famous that the allied soldiers ever did.

The body of this figure is dominated by a large heavy leather greatcoat. The official Wehrmacht model was made by the firm of Max Schleusner of Dresden. These coats were prized by the higher ranked soldiers in the Wehrmacht and often signified a soldier’s seniority to have such a good coat. These coats were well worn but often because of this suffered wear and rubbing at the edges and the painting of this sculpt really shows how you can do the same with your own kit.

There are some large field glasses on Rommel’s chest which was typical as was his hound’s-tooth blue and white scarf which he was seen in many pictures in the desert campaign. Signature items like these are so important in the replicating of an icon like this figure – this is how he might look on your workbench after he is completed – well we can all dream can’t we?

I hope this is a big seller for alpine (it doesn’t need my help) – with such an iconic figure and a good sculpt I think they will sell more than a few!

You can get this figure through Alpine Miniature’s Distributors.