We had six ladies turn up unannounced this week – they were scantily
clad and reminded us of the sort of woman you might see adorned on a WWII
fighter, bomber or tank. They are Masterbox’s latest set of figures in 35th
scale – Pin-Up series. We thought it would be nice to put them together in our
construction review so you can see the cut of their jib(s)...
Construction Review:
Masterbox’ "Pin-up" figure
set
Kit No# 35183
1/35th scale
Set contains six figures & 1 flag
Available from Masterbox’s distributors
Masterbox have hit a rich vein of figure modelling normally
reserved for much more expensive white metal figurines sold for a lot more
money. This set of six figures – in 1/35th scale is meant to be
maybe a replacement for many of those little figures you see on the specialist
market, but are they any good?
The “Pin-Up” was first introduced to the people through
mass-produced pictures that were intended for informal display, i.e. meant to
be "pinned-up" on a wall. What most of us know to be pin ups started
in the Esquire "men's" magazines in the ‘30’s which featured many
drawings and "girlie" cartoons and also the “Vargas” girls. Prior to
WWII pin ups were praised for their beauty and less focus was on their
sexuality but during the war, the drawings transformed into women playing
dress-up in military drag and drawn in seductive manners. The Vargas Girls were
adapted as nose art on many World War II bomber and fighter aircraft;
Generally, they were considered inspiring, and not seen negatively but mostly
as inspiring female patriots that were helpful for good luck
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Masterbox have taken the popularity of these figures,
combined with the recent popularity of the burlesque scene which borrows from
that era as well. Recently we saw the figure and young lady sets of the German
Paratroopers & US Infantrymen kit doing a peeping tom act. This set is all
USO tour, with six new figures of pin-ups that were of a lot of interest to
modellers.
Artists like Romain Hugault carry on this tradition in his series of popular "Pin Up Wings" books (which we love)
From looking at the box it looks like the US navy, air force
and army are covered in this release – Those who are worried about
discrimination don't worry - if this set is popular we are sure there will be a
German, Russian and British set as well!
Just how you explain buying it to your girlfriend (or
your mum) is another matter…Let’s look at these figures now
The box art is a very glossy all-American looking affair
that is glossy and full of stars and stripes and scantily clad ladies. This
pretty much shows you a way that you might want to display your figures – all in
one or used singularly on the wing of your airplane. Although these ladies are
seen in a WWII era you could use them anywhere up to the late 60’s really I think.
The rear of the box is in a usual Masterbox style which has
both the sprue map and the painting reference chart on it. Although the nature
of this kit says you can paint these ladies in whatever colours you want. The
shades are given in the better known brush painter’s colours Lifecolor and
Vallejo.
The sprue map is there because these figures do not have
numbers associated with them. The good thing is with Masterbox figures is that
each sector is dedicated to one figure. When they are all together like this it
makes it dead simple to glue everything together.
The plastic is light grey and without too much in the way of
seam lines and no flash. The face sculptures in particular are on a continual
upward spiral from Masterbox, and seeing that these are ladies they had better
look good! Well again we are impressed by the improvement in the faces and the
rest of the body and small clothing details are very nice. We have seen better
of course in resin and small run figures but these are pretty good.
Let’s have a look at these figures one by one… we can’t
speak too much about the figures clothing as there isn’t much to talk about.
The lady saluting - This air force babe (we know cause of the
nicely done air force peaked hat she is wearing.) She is also wearing a short
top and some short pants that don’t keep the cold away for very long.
The seven parts are
simple to put together
And here she is all
made up…
The lady sitting with her leg raised. This lady looks like
she is in something that looks like a mechanic’s wall as she carries a monkey
wrench in her left hand.
The seven parts again
that make up this figure are a simple construction
And here she is all
put together, the baseball cap and wrench are a nice addition to this figure.
The flagbearer:
This lady is proudly flying her banner of the stars and stripes for all to see.
The figure is made
from eight pats that are simply clad..
This figure comes with a plastic American flag – now this is
good but kinda flat – so maybe some paper flag would have been better so you
could twist it. This one is far too flat, but we are sure smart modellers like
the readers of TMN could rustle something up!
And here she is all
together
Next we see the belle of the Navy – saluting just as well as
her airforce sister did – she is definitely in the navy though as her hat and
shirt tied up in the same manner as the navy servicemen would have.
The eleven parts of
the figure are a simple construction and this time include a baseball bat for
that “All American” feel.
Here she is – coming out
swinging..
The next is the
blonde bombshell…
Nice parts of grey
plastic and a very prominent brassiere make up this lovely lass.
She is seen as she
reclines on… whatever she wants to sit on really! A car, a jet a bomber’s wing –
whatever you want. Here she is all made up.
The last lady is here in US army helmet and with a short
carbine for “self defence”…
And she will need it too! Although she has a top on it looks
like she is topless apart from the straps on her belt – but she is clothed – if
you want her to be…
Here she is together.
Weapon(s) on show…
So there these are all made up – with not much explanation
as they have virtually not a lot on – but the figures are smartly conceived and
they look good. A little more of a clean-up on some areas will see these
looking all the bit as good as some of their more expensive short run resin and
white metal counterparts that you buy for a hell of a lot more. sure the skin around the neck joints especially needs a little work - but these were put together in about 60 minutes so you can see that they can be improved on more then you see here.
Nice body language, the ability to mix and match these and
to use them singularly make this a really cheap and very cool set.
This kit is available through all of Masterbox’s distributors Thanks to them for sending this kit for us to build up in this review...
