The Modelling News: MiniArt return at last with 1/35th scale "Civilian Drivers 1930-40s" four figure set...

MiniArt are BACK! - And this time they have a new kit to back it up. Their kit no #38050 brings us four new figures of civilians, driving and fixing tractors and vehicles in 1/35th scale. WIth all of those beautiful MiniArt tractor kits out there, how could this not be a high demand item? We look at the plastic and the made up figures in our preview...

Preview: 1/35th scale 38050 Civilian Drivers 1930-40s from MiniArt

Civilian Drivers 1930-40s

From MiniArt

Kit No #38050

1/35th scale

The kit contains four figures

Product Link on the MiniArt Website

The subject: Tractor drivers from the 30s & 40s:

Still a luxury item for many farmers in the 20s, by the 30s and more so the 40s, tractors were becoming something most farms could afford.

Women were often farmers after world war one, when husbands did not come home, so they often drove these vehicles and tended their farms as the men did.

During the Second World War especially women and older farmers were pressed into service fr their countries as the men of fighting age went to the front lines. These home-front warriors on all sides became almost as important, some would say just as much.

The farmers drove small and larger tractors. Workers went from towns, both men and women. to work on the farms and to drive tractors. It is this that MiniArt want to capture with their new tractor driver set.

The Kit:

The kit contains four sprues of figures, each with one civilian driver on the runner each. These will suit very well the tractors that MiniArt have recently brought out to much acclaim and unusually for a model kit - many of them have actually been made. And made into amazing kits can we say.

All they needed to top them off were drivers to tell a story...

Some of these figures are already available with tractor kits from MiniArt. The four of them have never been sold together. Let's look at each of them in turn:

Woman with oil can: This sprue features a woman bending at the knee to work on the tractor's side, maybe an oil or a grease guns she is holding? Maybe just greasing the nipples? Who knows? She is given full coveralls with many wrinkles in the material.

Shown here painted up and put together by Konstantin Pinaev (as are all these figures in the preview)

The man bending down, turning the wheel. This could be on an old steam tractor or a pulley. This man could just as well be repairing some vehicle or turning a circular control as he bends over forward.

Either turning a wheel or putting his back into it. This is what he looks like built and painted up.

The second lady driver is looking behind her, off to line up the furrows as she uses a plough or a scarifier, or even a seeing machine to sow the seed.

Konstantin's painting skills enhance the already great body language in all of these figures.

The last figure is that of an older man driving the tractor with both hands on the wheel/ tiller. Seen in an old fashioned pants, shirt and vest with railroad style hat. He really is a bit of a grandad in this sculpture.