The Modelling News: Alpine Miniatures are largely into turning heads this December

Returning to what they do the very best Alpine Miniatures have issued a few new items this month – some 35^th scale GI’s and these releases of 1/16^th of some very nice looking spare heads and Waffen SS tanker that turns heads as well..

Alpine Miniatures December 2014 new Items in 1/16^th scale

German WSS Tank Crew 16028

1/16 scale

The pictures show the figure with 2 different heads.

Sculpture by Taesung Harmms / Boxart by Dr. Jin Kim

This dashing young man would have been on the cover of any “Signal!” magazine of his time – looking very much the young hero of the German armed forces this blond Waffen SS tanker is seen in a “tea pot” pose looking every much the type of man the German armed forces needed. Tall, Aryan and athletic – he is sculpted here by Taesung Harmms.

The figure is supplied with two head choices – both with the same face but there are two headwear choices on offer for you. One option being the the regular officers' cap with pink band of the armoured corps - the "Waffenfarbe Rosa” as it is called, or the alternate headgear is the flat officer's forage cap.

You can see clearly on both of these head choices the details like the strong jaw and facial features, the hair around the back of the head and the death’s head and German eagle emblems all pointing to the excellent sculpting done by Taesung. The figure is looking slightly off to the right and you can see the excellent way the neck of the SS man is engineered for a clever fit here.

This SS panzer commander is wearing the all over tanker’s wrap jacket with all of the seams and folds in the right place - his uniform which in the box-art is a printed autumn pattern is hemmed in by a simple SS leather belt and buckle. The herringbone twill camouflaged jacket of the panzer Korps had large collars with seams and button holes present and a shirt that can be clearly made out underneath (along with details like buttons) You can clearly make out his two medals on his torso – one at least is the Panzer Assault badge whilst the other lower on his torso on that side looks like a maybe wound badge and of course the Iron Cross on his chest.

Sinews and wrinkles at the wrist along with some great detail really bring natural life to this figure's hands.

He carries little in equipment but a Walther P38 pistol in its holster on his left hip (these small pistols were favoured by tankers who had to get in and out of hatches and crawl around inside AFV’s a lot), while some binoculars around his neck are all he wears on his front torso. His shirt lace up boots top off the bottom of this full figure in style – he looks every bit the very detailed and impressively engineer figure Alpine are known for.

Alpine have also released two sets of 1/16^th scale heads – both alternates from their earlier sculpts but eminently handy for upgrading your own, older figures from other brands which might need that “extra” to make them look as good as you want them to.

German Head Set #5

H6007

1/16 scale