1942 Luftwaffe Africa set

Kit # WFM72006

Wee Friends has started to re-release CMSC's metal figures. This used to be set DF09 and is now in Wee Friends' catalogue as WFM72006.

We can be very happy that Friendship Models chose to resurrect this line as these are wonderfully sculpted items (by Tony Boustead). As with almost all metal figures, a seam line is present, but this is very minor and should be easy to remove with a hobby knife. No other casting defects were found. Detail is abundant and facial expressions among the best I have seen in this scale. About the scale: they are labeled as 1/76, but their anatomy and size leads me to believe they would be perfectly suited for 1/72.

You get five figures:
- an officer or NCO wearing an Italian Sahariana tunic (occasionally worn by German troops) holding binoculars. The arms are separate parts and you have the choice between four different heads: one wearing goggles and a tropical pit helmet, one wearing a peaked cap, one wearing an Italian cap and one with an Italian helmet.
- an officer or NCO wearing the typical Luftwaffe baggy tropical trousers and 'Hermann Meyer' cap with neck flap. He's holding a map and pointing. The arms are separate.
- a soldier lying on his side wearing shorts, holding a canteen and reading a book. One arm and the book are separate.
- a soldier cleaning his rifle while sitting on a jerrycan. Arms, jerrycan and weapon are separate parts
- a soldier lying on his side eating from his mess tin. Arms are separate parts.

This set is one of the nicest I've seen and the very casual poses would make for an instant vignette. An ideal source of inspiration would be the Ramcke Brigade or Hermann Göring Division.

The set comes packed in several plastic bags. In the pictures I've grouped the items like arms, bodies and heads together per bag, as I suppose these are meant to belong together, although I guess you can easily swap limbs.

Sample kindly provided by Ian Hanratty of Wee Friends.

Article Last Updated: 16 March 2010