There’s a saying – ‘The army sleeps under the stars, the navy navigates by the stars, and the navy chooses its hotels by the number of stars!” This newest 1/35 scale figure set well and truly represents the former. The box contains three German Wehrmacht anti-tank crewmen along with a temporary bivouac they’ve set up in the field. This is such a typical scene on any battlefield, but no kit manufacturer has bothered to represent it thus far. Such a shelter could be swiftly created by erecting a triangular M1931 pattern Zeltbahn (‘shelter quarter’). The Zeltbahn was a very handy and crucial item of kit, as it could also be used as a rain cape, emergency stretcher, flotation device, or combined together to form a complete tent. The kit includes such a beautifully detailed Zeltbahn in which a soldier can rest. The kit does not include the anti-tank gun.

The three soldiers are sharply sculpted in casual poses as they await the war to reach them. Appropriately, they’re in various states of casual dress. One is wearing a woolen pullover while the other two are in shirts and braces. Various accessories such as a haversack and a range of personal gear are valuable for a diorama scene, though the 7.5cm leIG18 light infantry gun shown on the box-top isn’t included in the set. This domestic scene, especially with the erected M1931 Zeltbahn shelter, fills a gap in the range of plastic figures currently available on the market. While it would best suit an early-war scene, the figures are versatile enough to be mixed and matched to fit multiple scenarios planned by the modeler.

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