Thursday, July 30

Alpine’s new 35th scale figure of Joachim Peiper with a comrade sus out the opposition…

Alpine Miniatures have releases two twin sets in 35th scale this month. Just now available is this set featuring both an SS soldier and the figure representing the controversial figure of Joachim "Jochen" Peiper. Peiper - an SS commander during WWII was tried and convicted for being in command of troops who participated in the “Malmédy Massacre”. Well we will cut past these other considerations and show you the figures painted up in today’s preview…


Alpine Miniatures August 2015 New releases

This twin set of figures are both in 35th scale and both come with two head choices. Sculpted by Taesung Harmms and painted up in this instance by Toshihiro Sano. We thought we would give you a look at these soldiers just on their release… A little first about the prime subject of this set. Joachim Peiper.
Joachim "Jochen" Peiper was born in 1915 and lived until 1976. From early beginnings as a hard man and early member of the SS organization he rose to the height of SS Lt. Colonel (SS-Standartenführer) in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, and at one time was adjutant to the leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler from April 1938 to August 1941. Peiper was best known for leading the section of “Kampfgrüppe Peiper” which spearheaded the assault in the Ardennes in 1944 - commonly known as “The Battle of the Bulge” 
By the end of his military career in 1945, Peiper was the youngest regimental colonel in the Waffen-SS, holding the rank of SS-Standartenführer. An intelligent man and well read – Peiper had many friends in the Nazi party but was never himself a member. Although he doubted the success of the Ardennes plan he led one of the vanguard units in the attack. 
During the Attack in the Ardennes one of Peiper’s units murdered some 84 POWs who had surrendered to one of his battle group. Although Peiper himself was not present at the time of the killings no and no one has come forward to say that Peiper ordered the massacre he was at the infamous cross-roads prior to the incident and was hunted by the allies as the man in command of the unit after the war. He was eventually convicted of the Malmédy massacre, but his death sentence was commuted to a life sentence. Years later after release Peiper retired to France. He was killed in 1976 when his home was bombarded by communist party members who set his house on fire with Molotov cocktails. It will never be known if he did command the actions of the massacre – and because of the contradictions of his character he has become an enigma with WWII historians and modellers.

Joachim Peiper
in Kharkov
#35199
1/35th scale
Sculpture by Taesung Harmms
Boxart by Toshihiro Sano
This figure bears quite a good likeness to our subject. He has two choices of headgear – either the M43 cloth brimmed hat or the “Schirmmütze” officers' cap which here is suitably battered and rumpled. Officers – the old Hares or long serving soldiers wore their caps with pride and often made them look “worn in” by taking out the wire in the brim of the cap. Giving it a folded and squashed look which served as a bonus in working inside cramped armoured vehicles – this was a common trait of the officer corps in the SS and Wehrmacht.
 
Peiper varies a map in his left hand with his right in the warm pocket of his padded overalls. These are suitably pinched at the waist where they are gathered by his two pronged officer’s belt and loose at the feet over his short boots. 


SS Panzer Crew Winter
35200
1/35th scale
The pictures show the figure with 2 different heads.
Sculpture by Taesung Harmms / Boxart by Toshihiro Sano 
This Panzerman of the SS is seen in pretty typical late war winter gear. A reversible parker over thick padded winter pants keep him warm while these are gathered at the boot it makes me think there was either elastic or some tucking in with galoshes going on there. He has his binoculars at the ready – looking at something in the distance and you can see with Toshihiro Sano’s painting his warm woollen gloves. Again the thick officer’s two pronged belt holds his clothing in at the waist – this creates more depth and wrinkled texture to the torso.
Again we get the choice of two heads with this figure – on with the M43 peaked cap and the other with the side worn forage cap. This sported the death’s head of the SS tankers and German national symbol on it. I like the lifelike effect the painting and the sculpting by Taesung Harmms has achieved here.


Joachim Peiper Kharkov Set
#35201
1/35th scale
Sculpture by Taesung Harmms
Boxart by Toshihiro Sano
This set of two figures is sold as a single or as a pair. The fact they are both looking at something in the distance and Peiper with the map makes them complement each other quite well as this set.
Alpine have also released some French 1/35th scale tankers which we will look at as well – Till then check out Alpine Miniatures site for more info on their stuff..