Review: Masterbox MB 3584 German Infantry - Western Europe 1944-1945 in 1/35th

MasterBox has three releases for us this month, some US Marines in the Pacific, A troupe of Germans in the biting cold and this kit – MB 3584 German Infantry - Western Europe 1944-1945 Which sees four late war German soldiers ready to do a co-ordinated search of a house. We will look at the quality of the kit and show you pictures and the four troopers and give our opinions of the results.

Kit No: MB 3584 German Infantry - Western Europe 1944-1945

Kit type: Styrene injection moulded
Sprues: 1 in tan
Figures: 4
Scale: 1/35
Available from: MasterBox Distributors

This new kit of four figures from Ukrainian model makers MasterBox has four German troops as its focus. These are late war soldiers offering a variety of different outfits and weapons for you to choose from. The single sprue in tan has a soldier in each corner of it so you don’t get one part mixed up with another.  Part of me thinks that this set is to be added apposed to the British infantry set who are in similar poses maybe on the other side of the door - Masterbox 3585: West Europe, British Infantry, 1944-1945 

The two variations of camouflage are shown as a helper on the box

The instructions for making the figures are on the back of the box as is per usual for MasterBox. They have nicely coloured pictures of the completed soldiers from two angles each with colours listed in Vallejo paints. There is a sprue layout with all of the kit numbers on it on the box. MasterBox don’t supply them on the kit so by paying close attention to the box you will not go wrong with the construction.

The figures themselves are all cast extremely well as an overview. There are seam lines on the sides of each of the bodies but they are not large or too much clean up. There is no flash present and no untoward sink marks or faults in the moulding. The faces need to be addressed in this release – I am impressed with the work of the sculptor of the originals Mr A Gagarin whose face work is improving always. He used to produce a more “golem” looking face but now the soldiers are looking a lot more realistic in their features. They look as good as any other injected faces on the market today and better than a lot of them!

The Soldiers are all wearing regular uniforms with baggy clothing on the outside of each of them, some with a poncho which sit nice and baggy with realistic wrinkles and folds on each of the soldiers evident. There are some seams on the trousers and torso sides on all of these soldiers but this isn’t so thick as to affect the texture of the soldier when removed. Also some of this is hidden by the ponchos supplied for two of the troopers anyway.

The uniforms pinch at the belt and sag when they are hanging over as they should, straps sit well and the equipment the troopers are carrying is supplied separately on the sprue. More on these extras and the weapons they are carrying later. Let’s look at these soldiers - each in turn starting with the soldier holding his MP-40 up to port.

This storm trooper is wearing the later style baggy camouflaged smock which is tied up over the soldier’ regular uniform (or sometimes regular clothing) and these gathered ends look very convincing and baggy where needing to be and tight at the drawstrings when tied up, especially around the wrists look impressive and will weather really well.

The soldier’s MP-40 looks great and the regular style German helmet attaches to the soldier’s bare head (you can choose a bare helmet or a fabric covered type) and this solder carries a standard set of equipment in a water bottle, bread bag and twin set of MP-40 magazine holders which are moulded separate for dynamic posing as well as a large knife in its sheath. These all look great and can be added or subtracted as needed on all of these soldiers.

The soldier leaning to the left and downwards peeping around the corner is wearing the large camouflage smock which hangs to each side of his body and is drooping over his torso with his regular uniform coming out of his sleeves and his trousers are showing out from under his poncho, The trousers are tucked into some gaiters which cover his short boots.

This soldier carries a semi-automatic Gewehr 43 rifle and over his shoulder (which he is holding out of the way a Panzerfaust anti-tank projectile. This soldier is equipped with an entrenching tool, a bread basket, a water bottle and some rifle ammo pouches for his rifle as well as a large knife in its sheath. Again all of the weapons and the equipment are optional so choose from what you want here.

The third soldier leaning back to his left and holding his MP 40 to the side and up again is wearing the large camouflaged poncho, again is wearing the standard German helmet which like all of the soldiers here on top of the head separately and can be interchanged for bare or cloth covered versions.

 This soldier is wearing a camouflage parka over his regular uniform of which is only really visible on the legs and the uniform sleeves are poking out of the poncho which is just baggy enough.

The soldier has an MP40 which he is holding up to his left hand side port position and for equipment is carrying a gasmask canister as well as a bread bag and water bottle, an entrenching tool, long knife in its sheath and two x tree holders of MP40 ammo.

 

The last soldier is holding his rifle to port across his chest walking forward - he is wearing the same separate helmet as the others and is carrying a bolt action Kar 98 bolt action rifle with ammo pouches to be secured to his waist. For equipment he carries a mixture (your choice again) of gas mask canister, water bottle, long sheathed bayonet/knife and entrenching tool as well as his bread bag.

 

The soldier is stepping forward onto his right foot as he enters the building if you are following the (rather excellent as usual) artwork on the front of the box. In reality he could just be walking or creeping forward. He sure has a serious look on his face!
This soldier is wearing the loose smock with hoodie and you can see to good effect his regulation uniform trousers that are nice and lifelike.

This is a great little set of four soldiers from MasterBox -  well moulded with no real errors in equipment, I think it could have done maybe with some soft caps for the soldiers helmets and the option of a soldier maybe kicking in a door – but maybe its ok as it is and they are creeping in? Anyway I like these a lot and these are pictures at the bottom of this article to show how they build up from the MasterBox site.

Another great set sure to be popular with WWII fans, especially German soldier fans ( as many people seem to be) The quality is there and the faces are very nice -  Well done MasterBox!

Adam Norenberg

Many thanks to the guys at MasterBox for this kit to review

Here are some of the figures made up at the  MasterBox site