Verlinden Productions
1358

These two officers are crisply molded---one of them has captain bars on his epaulets and shirt collar. One is walking and pointing with his left arm. The other is standing still, speaking into a walkie-talkie. He has a featureless musette bag slung over his shoulder, binoculars around his neck, and is carrying a map. It's puzzling why Verlinden decided to mold a rather thick resin map into the figure's hand, since other Verlinden figures that hold maps have empty hands and the maps are a separate purchase. The resin map has to be painted, or an accessory map glued over it.

Both men wear the M1941 jacket, correctly detailed. Depending on wear and fabrics from various manufacturers, these jackets can be painted various shades, including buff, khaki, or dark yellow (Tamiya colors). Officer's shirts can be tan or, chocolate brown, as well as field drab.

The pants are featureless and can painted a greenish-tinged rust color for the wool trousers (I use one part ModelMasters Field Drab to two parts Leather) or olive drab for the herringbone tweed pants. Both figures have pistol ammo and first aid pouches on their belts, and wear canvas leggings.

The parts of the figures fit together very well. The only drawback to these characters is that they are TALL, scaling over 6'8" with helmets on. Trimming 1/8" or so from the top of the waist helps bring them more in line with other figures. I know people come in different sizes, but the relative height of these men is quite distracting.

Accessories include two standard sets of holstered pistols, ammo pouches, canteens, and binocular cases.

Overall, these are very nice figures. Minus the large dose of human growth hormones and chunky resin map, they'd rate 5 stars.

-tss-