1:35 Waffen SS Panther Crew Set (Operation Zitadelle / 4 Figures)

A whole bunch for one vehicle

The high point of this series builds on numbers. With four figures the hatches in the turret can be occupied and the remaining men placed about the hull or around the machine, which is only how a scene with a story of its own arises. Period photographs often show crews outside: they sat on the fenders, leaned on the road wheels, smoked in the shade of the turret. A model with a single head in the cupola comes across as empty against that.

A note on the setting

This type of tank went into action for the first time in the summer of 1943 at Kursk, and at that time it was used by units of the army. Crews in Waffen-SS equipment sat in it only several months later, during the autumn and winter fighting in Ukraine. Anyone who sets store by this detail will place the scene rather at the end of 1943 and later.

Building advice

The figures are resin, unpainted and unassembled. With a larger group it proves worthwhile to paint each one separately and to join them only at the end, because a brush is hard to work between closely standing figures. Choose differing shades of face and small differences in equipment as well: a uniform foursome looks like a casting from a single mold, even when it is not one.

The layout of the group

With four figures it pays to think in two planes. The men up on the turret form a vertical, the remaining ones below balance it and set the scale of the whole machine. When everyone ends up on one level, the impression of depth is lost. It also helps to leave one figure with its back to the viewer: the scene thereby gains the impression that it is taking place for its own sake and is not posing.

The machine, a base and terrain elements are not included; it is assumed that you already have the tank.