Willers Miniatures

I received a package today from Toys and More by Winterkamp in Germany. The package included two sets by Willers Miniatures, which I ordered to do a figure comparison with other 1/72 scale miniatures.

The first set is the Mongolen Köpfungsszene (Mongol beheading scene) set (WiFi-001) consisting of four foot, and two mounted figures. The figures display nice proportions, and are cast in a very soft metal. The thinner pieces like the spear shaft, and sword blade can be bent at the slightest touch, yet seem to be more resistant to snapping because of this. All the same, I think these figures are probably more suited for diorama purposes than wargaming. The last figure is of a prisoner being beheaded, and it seems to look rather familiar... I only took pictures of the foot figures for this post, but the mounted figures are of similar proportions.


In the next image are a pair of Willers Mongols, flanked by a Giant Mongol (in yellow) and a Zvezda mongol (in red-brown). As far as size is concerned, these figures are perfectly compatible with each other.


The set also comes with a camel, which is shown next to a camel from the Italeri Mongol Cavalry set. While I believe the Italeri camel is undersized, the Willers camel is probably very much over-sized. Various sources state that the Bactrian camel can reach the size of the one modeled by the Willers camel, but all of the actual photographs that I have seen of camels in the Gobi Desert show them the same as, or only slightly taller than a standing person.


The Song dynasty painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival shows the relative size of a Bactrian camel to a person. I would definitely say that these camels are nowhere as big as the Willers camel.


Detail from Along the River During the Qingming Festival
by Zhang Zeduan

The next set is the Samurai Kampfmönche (warrior monk) set (WiFi-002) consisting of five warrior monks and various bits and pieces (including separate arms for one of the figures). Most of the monks are dressed in heavy clothing, making them appear quite hefty. They are cast in the same soft metal as the Mongols, so again are probably better suited for diorama purposes. The set does not come with any instructions or images of the assembled figures, so it's up to the buyer to figure out how to put everything together.


Below, from left to right: Willers warrior monk, RedBox warrior monk, Zvezda samurai, and a Caesar samurai.


The RedBox monk looks undersized, but all the other figures are quite comparable.

Fiat Ansaldo M13/40

I remember seeing this kit in the local hobby shop as a child, and thinking how cool it was to have kangaroo markings on a tank, so when I got the Italeri re-release of the old ESCI M13/40, I wanted to build it up as one of the Italian tanks captured by the Aussies. Here is the near completed result:


The kit was built almost OOB, except I replaced the tow hooks with some bent wire, and drilled out the headlamps so I can eventually add some clear lenses. The instructions for installing the pioneer tools was not particularly clear, so I ended up putting one of the brackets in the wrong position. The diagram for installing the tools is better in the instructions for the ESCI/Italeri Semovente 75/18, so I'll probably move the offending bracket to the proper position later on.

I decided on the sand color scheme, because that's how I remembered the kit, but there is some controversy as to what color these tanks actually were. A number of the captured tanks look to be a dark color (Italian green?) in period photographs, and in one case, it almost looks as if the sand colored paint was removed from the tank.

The last bit to finish up the model is to find an Aussie tank commander. I think I have some British tankers somewhere, so one of those will probably do.

Italeri also makes a quick build kit that has two M13/40's for about the same price as the ex-ESCI kit. Some of the details of the quick build kit seem simplified, and the commander's hatch in the turret is molded shut, but it looks to be a decent kit. I'll have to pick up a box sometime in the future.

Moving to diecast models, we have the M13/40 from Altaya. This is one of the nicer Altaya models, with hollowed out barrel, and good overall detail.


One odd thing was that the tank was screwed into the base with tamperproof screws - why?


Luckily, I recently received a TP3 head screwdriver that I purchased from Amazon for a mere 99¢.


The two models are almost identical in size, but the positioning of the hull is a little different, with the Altaya model being a hair shorter, and the hull sitting more forward with respect to the fenders compared to the Italeri model. I also noticed that the Italeri turret is higher than the Altaya turret.

Goth Gang

Here is a rear view of some figures from Elhiem's The Dead Shall Consume line -- Goth Gang (TDSC-11), sculpted by Matt Hingley. The entire set of painted figures (except for the "messed up zombie") can be seen on the Elhiem website. I made some slight modifications to the female figures in the set. On the Wedding Dress Goth, I shaved her jawline a bit, and narrowed her waist. Then I added a little better definition to the right side of her corsette with Kneadatite. Since she looks like she is wielding a giant kukri (a khanra?), I carved the kaura at the base of the blade. The Gothette needed a bit more work. I think that she was supposed to be carrying a 2x4 in her hands, but I shaped it into a baseball bat. She wears a Sheepy backpack, but I'm actually going to modify it into a Hoshimaru backpack. This was the weakest figure of the set, and I had to do quite a bit of work on her face and hair. The last figure is the zombie. It's quite nice, and there's even a worm poking out from his left eye-socket!


Here are the figures after priming. The two female figures are sculpted in a style that is slightly on the thick side, but they don't look too out of place when compared to the Italeri medieval ladies. The zombie is a bit short perhaps, but he is perfectly proportioned.