With the Centennial of the First World War in the news
Revell has released soldiers twelve figures in one box from 1914 - the start of that conflict. Now we are seeing more vehicles modelled from that time in 1/35th
scale we thought we might
get Nic & François to make and paint up this set to see if they can cut it…
Build review: WWI Infantry German/ British/
French (1914)
Revell Of Germany Kit No:# 02451
Kit type: injection moulded
Scale: 1/35
12 figures in each kit
Part Count: 451
Product Link on the Revell
of Germany Website.
All over Europe, 4 years of war that took place a century
ago, are being commemorated. The first World War has long been forgotten by
model companies, but the centennial has changed that. Aircraft, tanks and
figurines have been released by quite a few companies. Revell’s release of
these World War I figures are a great addition indeed!
This box actually contains 3 sets of re-boxed ICM World War
I figurines: German, French and British soldiers at the beginning of World War
One. Each set has 4 figurines, so the Revell box has 12 in all, with a whole
lot of extra parts that you don’t have to use, but might come in handy for
anyone building WWI dioramas.
Building all twelve of them would lead us too far, but we
still wanted to know how they would go together. François and Nicolas teamed up
to build some of them.
Here is one of the
German soldiers built up.
The figurines are very nicely done and come with all
necessary detail. Not having much experience with figurines, Nicolas found them
not easy to construct and this was due to the unclear plans Revell provides in
this box. The accessories are simple enough, but the figurines themselves have
to be built from a constructed view only. This proved to be especially
difficult for the French soldiers, with their odd looking coats.
The British soldier has quite a dynamic pose, and like the others in this set, is very nicely moulded. The face has a realistic expression indeed.
The French soldiers were harder to get right… Again, it’s not the figurines themselves, it just the plan.
The French soldier is in the attire of the very first days of
the war. The uniform is the same as those of the French-Prussian war of 1870-71
and were hopelessly out-dated. The soldiers, called “Les Pioupious” – The Young
Ones – were dressed in blue caps and coats with bright red trousers. The rifle
they carried was a 1886 Lebel rifle, which was out-dated as well.
Here’s a Pioupiou in
1914:
The French officer is much easier to construct and looks
exactly like I would imagine a French officer would be at the front, complete
with cane, gun and curly moustache.
Before François started painting the figurines, we looked
for some documentation. This showed that they were very accurately represented.
A British soldier in
a very similar position:
François used Lifecolor
paints for painting the figurines
The German soldier is
very nicely moulded too and with some talent can be painted into a very
convincing figurine.
Here are the 3
painted figures tall done:
The end result of this test was very motivating indeed. And
creative as he is, François made a little vignette, so the 3 soldiers could be
placed together.
Looks kinda like a
cookie, doesn't it? Anyway, here is the base and the figurines from all 3
angles:
This really is a set to recommend pretty easily. You get a
lot of figurines and extra equipment like helmets, backpacks and weapons for
less than 20 euro. You should take care with the plans though. I mean,
everything is there to build some very nice looking figurines; it’s just a
puzzle sometimes. You don’t need to be a very good modeller to make them
(that’s Nicolas) but some careful painting (that’s François) is needed.
This set is very good value and you’ll have a lot of fun
with them. They will fit just perfectly next to one of those World War I tanks!
Nicolas Deboeck &
François Laloux
Our thanks to Revell
for sending us this very nice little kit! Revell model kits are available from
all good toy and model retailers. For details visit www.revell.de/en
