US G.I. Medics with Casualty
Modeling the U.S. Army in WWII

Minuteman Models
MM032

When I built my Hurtgen Forest diorama in 2000-2001, there were but a handful of medic figures available. Since then, we've seen a few more battlefield doctors from Plus Models, Dragon, Helo Miniatures, and two from Nemrod (with a casualty and without). Warriors produced a few Marine corpsmen and litter bearers.

I picked up this kit at the 2012 AMPS and it's a good addition to the medical staff. There's a good sense of urgency as one of the medics holds a plasma bottle and gestures, perhaps for a litter team. The other is applying pressure to an abdominal wound and biting off something with his teeth; there is nothing visible in his hand so it could be a morphine styrette or you could make a roll of tape from putty.

This medic also wears the yoke over his shoulders that helped bear the weight of the two medical bags carried on his hips. The gesturing medic has a gas mask pouch that often was converted to a supply bag carried over the the shoulder. My box came with an extra pair of the large medic bags, and two pair of canteens, as it was common for medics to carry two.

Both medics wear the M1941 parsons jacket and trousers that could be either wool or OD cotton twill. They wear the canvas leggings, and in a nice touch, the combat shoes have some sculpted detailing on the soles.

The unlucky GI has an injury to his bare ankle that has been bandaged as well as the more serious abdominal wound. He too wears the parson's jacket, with a wool shirt and cotton undershirt underneath. While he has the legging and shoe on his left foot, the kit does not include the shoe and legging removed from the right. His head is cradled by a blanket.

Sculptor David P. Ackerman has done a fine job with these figures. They don't have quite the finesse of Brian Sewart's work, who made great contributions to Jaguar, Warriors, and the defunct New World Models, but Ackerman has nailed all of the details, down to the tape that is holding the needle in place for the plasma transfer. The plasma bottle itself is perhaps the weakest part of this kit, as it should be clear, and the bottom of this bottle is sloped. I'll likely look at drilling it out and replacing it with a resized clear wine bottle that is found with the Tamiya Churchill kit. Another option is to stretch some clear sprue over flame. You need to supply your own tubing for the plasma, and as I discovered in my research for the Hurtgen medics, this rubber tubing was colored red (which may confuse viewers who think plasma is red as well).

The figures scale out on the larger side: measuring the prostrate GI from heel to helmet brings him to 6'. There is some cleanup necessary to remove pour plugs and some flash, but nothing that is too obnoxious. The wounded GI has a serious bubble below the netting on the top of his helmet and there is some mold shifting on the other two helmets that will need attention. The heads are molded onto the torsoes, so replacements will not be a clean swap, particularly if you want to replace the rather serene expression on the wounded soldier with one more dramatic.

This is a good set for diroamas from the North African campaign through early fall in Europe, and can make a compelling vignette on its own terms.

-tss-

 

Modeling the U.S. Army in WWII © Timothy S. Streeter