I think there were a lot of people who were not particularly impressed with their previous sets for the Battle of Marathon, and unfortunately, these new sets will probably reinforce their opinion of the company's 1/72 scale efforts.
The Israel paratrooper set consists of five sprues of 8 poses, and a single sprue of 4 poses.
The sculpts of the Israeli paratroopers are very soft, but there was minimal flash on the figures for the most part.
The personality figures (from left to right) include Shlomo Goren holding a shofar and Torah scroll, and Moshe Dayan. The poses are based on photographs of them on the ground in East Jerusalem after the territory was seized from Jordan.
I'm not sure if the other two figures are based on specific people, but one is a soldier performing (presumably) a morning prayer recital, and the final figure is a paratrooper with what looks like an SCR-536 (handie-talkie) slung over his shoulder.
The Egyptian Army set was pretty hard to get early on, and was selling for ridiculous prices. The box contains five sprues of 10 figures in 9 poses, and one sprue of 3 poses (although the box says there are a total of 47 figures).
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| There are two of the advancing pose on each sprue. |
The sculpts are basic and somewhat sharper than the Israelis, but for some reason, the rank and file soldiers are undersized, and closer to 1/76 scale. I don't know why Chintoys always makes one set in each series of figures that are the wrong size.
The single pose figures (from left to right) include a tank crewman and a pilot in a high-altitude flight suit (which I assume is referring to the events described here at Trench Art).
The final figure is an officer, who I believe may be Abdul Munim Riad since the sculpt appears clean-shaven, and the pose reminds me somewhat of the statue dedicated to him in Martyrs' Square, Port Said.
The Jerusalem defenders set consists of four sprues of 9 poses, and one sprue of 3 poses. The figures represent the Jordanian Arab Army with some wearing shemagh, and some wearing berets.
These sculpts were the roughest of the lot, with a lot of flash that needed extensive clean up.
Its not clear to me who the personality figures are, but the figure standing at ease is reminescent of pictures of King Hussein I (although the sculpt doesn't appear to have a moustache).
I think the figure with binoculars might possibly be Habis Majali, though I doubt he would have been in the field with rifle and bayonet, so I'm probably mistaken. The final figure is a soldier firing a pistol.
Overall, I would say the sets are as some people have critiqued — not up to modern standards. However, as someone who already owns thousands of plastic soldiers that are not that different in terms of appearance, I'm not too bothered by it. To me the more upsetting thing is the incorrectly scaled Egyptians.
