I have been painting miniatures for over 40 years and have seen some bad and some great. This set of figures depicting important Generals of WW II is one of the best I have ever seen.

It is a set consisting of six Generals, including General George S. Patton, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, General Sugijama Hadjime, General Erich von Manstein, Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, and General Charles deGaulle.

I was totally impressed with the fine casting and how accurate each face was for the particular general. This is something I have rarely seen in my many years of figure painting.

There is a color guide on the back of the box to help the modeler paint each figure accurately. As far as assembly goes, I couldn’t have asked for more. The fit was perfect on each figure without any seam lines to show. It took me about five minutes to assemble each one.

• Product/Stock # and Price:
  • Workshop – 72022, $43.00
  • City Building – 72019, $62.00

MiniArt is a Russian, I think, company that has produced a line of 1/72 scale buildings. These could be of use not only to the small scale modeler, but also to the model railroader as well.

This five-man crew is designed for Bronco’s British 17/25 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun “Pheasant”, #CB35071. They are dressed for the Tunisia, Sicily, or Italy Campaign. Each crewman is molded on his own sprue, lettered A to E. These sprues are attached to a central sprue rod, so it looks like they could be mixed and matched later with other figures or weapons sprues. We get a loader, ammo handler, seated gunner, an officer pointing, and a guy standing with his hands on his hips. The instructions are on the back of the box, along with paint references for four different brands.

The molding is flash-free and has very nice undercutting details on the pockets and collars. The heads are molded sideways on the sprue, in one piece. The seams run around the heads on the helmet chin straps, which make then a little too thick. But it sure makes for easier cleanup and painting. I left the heads attached to the sprues and used it as a handle while painting.

This is the second pilot figure I’ve had the pleasure to review from Aero Line. If you are like me, you like to add a figure outside your model for scale and visual interest. Well, probably also like me, you aren’t a figure modeler, so you don’t want a big hassle doing it. Happily, Aero Line produces scale resin figures.

My example was perfectly molded in light grey resin with no blemishes or bubbles anywhere. The figure is a one-piece affair on a small pour block with some minor pour wedges that will need to be removed. The single piece ensures that the figure is easy to remove. The detail is quite impressive. The proportions look perfect to me. The pose is natural and will look great next to an F-16. The face is exquisitely detailed, as are the speed jeans and equipment. This really is a perfect first figure and is detailed enough for the figure painter.

MiniArt has been prodigious in producing accessories for armor dioramas. Though I am primarily a ship and aircraft modeler, I couldn’t help but notice the endless stream of new releases in vehicles, buildings, and figures. So when this kit came up for review, I decided to take the plunge and try a new genre. I used to be a model RR enthusiast, so this was not my first building kit, but it certainly was the biggest in scale and size. What I did not realize until I received the kit is that it is one large vacuum formed model project.