Latest edit, at the bottom: British, Indian, and Australian Pacific War Sets - HQ and Mortar Sections
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Expeditionary Force Free French - Assault Section - Part I
I intentionally placed similar poses next to each other for ease of comparison. Subtle differences in the positioning of the legs and arms, and the weapons they carry. Note how the first and fourth men from the left, are based off the same body, and the arms make all the difference. The helmets also make a big difference from how they look as GIs, particularly the officer who is wearing a kepi in this case.
Expeditionary Force Free French - Assault Section - Part II
Three out of the four bodies are repeats, just with different arms. The new body is the one holding the bar, and smoking a cigar. Again, the arms make a substantial difference. Overall, they have managed to create a good range of figures using this interchangeable system of bodies and arms, without sacrificing much in terms of movement or creating awkward poses.
Expeditionary Force Free French - HQ Company - Part I
This set has the most diverse poses. They call it the HQ Company, but it also has a few heavy weapons. Note how the officer is holding a set of binoculars. You will see that this is a theme that repeats itself quite a bit. Perhaps a bit too much. The bazooka team turned out pretty good. The sniper seems a little too exposed in my opinion.
Expeditionary Force Free French - HQ Company - Part II
Out of these guys, I really like the flame thrower and the radio man. The rest are good role players to fill the ranks. The bar man is a repeat of the earlier set.
Expeditionary Force Free French - Defense Section - Part I
This set has a few more kneeling guys with the same base body. I also put them next to each other for ease of comparison. The arms are some of the ones that we have already seen on the standing figures. The officer is similar to one of the earlier ones, but they have given him a pistol this time.
Expeditionary Force Free French - Defense Section - Part II
And we got a third bar man in this set. I could have used a few more sub MGs and fewer men walking with the rifle across their chest.
Expeditionary Force Free French - MG Section - Part I
A nice set of figures. The arms of the machine gun team attach in such a way that you can only put them in one position, which helps to make everything line up well. Other poses allow you to rotate the arms as much as you want.
Expeditionary Force Free French - MG Section - Part II
These are very similar to the previous ones, except for the officer and the rifleman.
The man standing with the rifle across his chest was supposed to be kneeling. The standing man was supposed to be another officer, but I swapped them so I could have a kneeling officer, as seen in the next picture.
Expeditionary Force Free French - MG Section - Part III
The only thing I don't like about the kneeling officer is that he seems to be pointing his binoculars downwards. So I guess I need to put him on high ground to make it look adequate.
Expeditionary Force Free French - Mortar Section - Part I
These three mortar teams are almost all the same. the only thing that varies is the officer.
Expeditionary Force Free French - Mortar Section - Part II
This one has a kepi and is holding a sub MG.
Expeditionary Force Free French - Mortar Section - Part III
This one is similar to the first one, but I raised the left arm to give it some variety.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Assault Section - Part I
This assault section contains a good number of automatic weapons. Particularly well suited for the task is the man firing the Sturmgewehr 44. It's also an interesting touch to have a man firing an MG 42 off the hip.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Assault Section - Part II
The rest of the section is armed with rifles with fixed bayonets in case the assault runs into close quarter combat. The bayonets are a bit tricky to glue as there's not much contact surface to work with, but with a strong glue, they stay in place just fine. There's an extra bayonet for the man firing, but I chose to leave that one off.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Defense Section - Part I
As you might agree, the most interesting pose in this section is the standing machine gunner, particularly because of the tripod. Note also that instead of having the ammo fed by a belt, it has a drum attached to it. A really nice pose. The officer is a variation of the officer in the assault section, with different arms. The man on the left with the assault rifle is also nicely done. The ammo carrier is OK.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Defense Section - Part II
As you would expect with a defense section, there are also some guys crouching. Based off the same base body, they have managed to create four poses. The man on the left is actually a sniper. the man on the right has a grenade launcher attached to its rifle.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - HQ Section - Part I
The HQ section has a few additional heavy weapons. The panzerschreck team is another well done couple poses. There's also a phone operator, which is based on the same body as the man with the panzerschreck. The man with the assault rifle is a repeat of the one in the defense section.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - HQ Section - Part II
The rest of the section gives us another standing machine gunner (yes!), a panzerfaust, another sniper, another ammo carrier, and yet another officer, with the same arms as the one from the defense section, which I've posed differently to create some variety.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - MG Section - Part I
This section features another superb couple poses operating the machine gun, and the MG itself. You get two of these in the set. You also get two of the crouching poses on the left. Rounding up the set are three men leading the teams. One is the officer shown here.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - MG Section - Part II
Then there are also two other officers (NCOs?) wearing helmets and also holding binoculars.
I posed one with the binoculars at eye level.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - MG Section - Part III
The other one Iposed with lowered arms. He could be tapping the shoulder of one of the machine gunners or simply signaling to cease fire.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Mortar Section - Part I
The mortar section is also very well done. One thing to point out about the mortar teams as well as the machine gunners is that their arms are manufactured very precisely so that they can only be attached in a specific position, which is very helpful so that they line up just the right way, as the left and right arms need to meet in just the right place. Many of the other guys allow you to rotate the arms and pose them at any angle that you wish.
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Mortar Section - Part II
This set also comes with three different officers/NCOs and just as I did with the MG section, I've posed them slightly differently yo create some variety,
Expeditionary Force German Infantry - Mortar Section - Part III
A frontal view of the mortar, as well as the last officer with binoculars at eye level.
Expeditionary Force Late War German Infantry - Part I
These guys are smaller than the first set of Germans, but they are still larger than 'big 1/32' scale.
Each set has 9 figures, and I purchased 2 sets so that I could assemble a greater variety of poses by combining different arms/weapons, heads, and bodies. In this picture I meant to display the figures I assembled with the base body that's stepping forward with the left foot. Only afterwards did I notice that there two base bodies in this picture. The differences are very subtle, mostly in the tunic, and one has a grenade tucked in the belt. I would have preferred to see more noticeable differences in the placement of the feet. Setting that aside, as you can see, I was able to make quite a few poses with them. Sometimes just rotating the head a bit give the figure a different attitude.
Expeditionary Force Late War German Infantry - Part II
These are the poses I was able to assemble with the base body that is stepping forward with the right foot. Again, thanks to the variety in weapons and heads, you can get a good range of fighting poses from a grenade thrower, to a panzerfauster (a late war weapon), a charging man, a firing man, etc. BTW, another sign that these are late war Germans is the absence of jackboots, and also the prevalence of cammo tunics and helmet covers.
Expeditionary Force Late War German Infantry - Part III
These last batch is also stepping forward with the left foot. The two on the right side of the picture are using the same base body as as the first batch. The 4 on the left are using the last type of base body, which has the back foot pointing forward instead of sideways. Again, a more pronounced difference in the base body would have been preferred. The set came without one of the heads, so for now the guy on the far left is headless. Expeditionary Force will be shipping it to me with my next order. All in all, I like the set's range of arms/weapons and heads, but the base bodies could have been a bit more interesting and diverse.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry - Part I
A nice set from Expeditionary Force in what nowadays is being referred to as Big 1/32 scale. Meaning, more compatible with TSSD than Airfix. As is EF style, their figures are produced as a set of bodies to which you can attach different heads and arms/weapons. Each set comes with 9 figures and 6 base body types. In this post, I have created 18 different figures from 2 sets, but you can certainly create more/different poses. The level of detail is very nice, and the quality of the plastic is also good. Robust so that you don't have a lot of bent tips, but not hard. And it is also easy to glue. In this first picture I have 3 different bodies. Unfortunately, some of the bodies have very similar stances, you have to watch the feet very carefully to tell them apart, which makes me wish they had made them more different so that we could see the variety more easily.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry - Part II
The next body type is a man advancing with his right foot forward. Note that by giving them different weapons they already look quite different. On top of that you can attach a head with or without the flaps hanging on the back of the helmet, and you can also tilt them slightly to give the body language a different expression.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry - Part III
This next base body is stepping forward with the left foot, and leaning forward slightly more than the men in the next picture. And not seen here, there's also some differences in the pouches attached to the back of the belt. One thing to note about the figure with the flag is that the flag does not come attached to the rifle. Therefore, you need to attach the flag to a man who is holding the rifle horizontally. I almost glued it to a man who was carrying the rifle across his chest, but then realized that gravity would make the flag hang differently. Same thing with the tassel on the officer's sword from the first picture. You need to watch how it hangs, or else be ready to cut it off and reattach it at the right angle.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry - Part IV
Another base body stepping forward with the left foot, but these guys also have the back foot pointed forward, more than the men in the previous picture. So as you can see, some of these base bodies are pretty hard to tell apart. It would have been better to make one less base body stepping forward with the left foot, and add a crouching or kneeling pose. But even with so many similar base bodies, the variety of arms and weapons, makes it possible to avoid having two figures turn out exactly the same. You just have to plan things out well before you start gluing them so that you don't end up making a clone by mistake.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry Machine Gun section - Part I
This MG set can be purchased with one or two MGs. You still get 9 figures, which means that if you only ask for 1 MG, then you will get 7 additional infantry men. Since I already had 2 sets of regular infantry, I opted for the two MGs. What's interesting in this set, aside from the obvious nice addition of the MG teams, is that the officer comes with the option of looking through binoculars. You also get a new head type, wearing a bandana around the head with the rising sun design on it, like the one that the kamikaze pilots used to wear. I gave it to one of the MG men who is likely making a final stand at his position. And you also get a couple of ammo boxes to round up the scene.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry Machine Gun section - Part II
What was a pleasant surprise with this set is that it also comes with a couple of extra options for the arms/weapons. Apparently these had been intended for the original set, but ended up being a bit late and got released with this set instead. So with this set you can look forward to being able to assemble a grenade thrower, and also a man firing a submachine gun. As you can see I opted to 'sacrifice' the second MG ammo handler and instead armed him with the submachine gun, which turned out nicely. Lastly, note that in this set, we also got a new body type: the kneeling guy on the background. I chose to arm him with a rifle in the aiming position. All in all a nice add on to the original set.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry Mortar Team
This set forces you to make some interesting choices. You have the option of assembling 3 mortar teams. 2 of the figures -the kneeling ammo handler, and the standing ammo handler- could be assembled in the same position, but that would make the set a bit dull. In order to introduce some variety I assembled one set the intended way. For the second team, I gave the standing ammo handler, the arms of the kneeling ammo handler, which requires him to stand on the opposite side of the mortar, and I also turned the kneeling handler into a sub machine gunner. For the third team, I gave the kneeling handler the arms of the standing handler, and also turned the standing ammo handler into a grenade thrower. On top of that you get a commander, and two other standing figures that you can give a variety of weapons, from the ones included in the set, or from any extras that you might have from the previous sets. You also get a few options of headgear in the set which provide some additional variety. This set also came with a wall section, but I used it for the picture below.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Infantry - Jungle Defense Set
What makes this a jungle set is the helmets and cammo worn by the sniper figure, all covered in leaves. I am pretty sure the sniper is going to look really cool once it is painted. The highlight of this set is the 20mm anti-tank rifle team -note that there's also an ammo handler/loader. This 2-man team can be nicely emplaced behind the wall, which BTW is made of dirt on the outside, and lined with wooden planks on the inside. There is also a light mortar in the set, which offer a good contrast with the heavier mortars in the previous set. The rest of the figures are average poses. You will need to get a bit creative to find ways of making them look sufficiently different, given the similarity in the base bodies -I wasn't too thrilled that all of them are kneeling, but I guess that's why they are a 'defense' set. Once they are mixed together with the figures from the previous sets, this will all be less noticeable.
Expeditionary Force Japanese Naval Infantry
This is such a timely set. Just as Plastic Platoon released its set of Japanese Naval Infantry, we now have 9 additional poses to assemble a full squad, or an understrength platoon. The two poses that stand out from this set are the flag bearer/bugle player and the flamethrower. Very nicely done. The other figures are pretty standard charging/firing poses, not unlike the ones that were released as part of the Japanese infantry sets. What makes these uniforms stand out is that all have the naval infantry insignia prominently displayed on their shoulders and on the front of their helmets. A nice detail that will stand out well if you paint the figures. One thing I do have to say is that when placed next tot he Plastic Platoon guys, these marines do feel a bit bulkier -or the other guys seem a bit slimmer- which one is it? Anyhow, now need to plan a landing operation for these guys!
This is the first of what will be 5 sets of British Infantry for the Pacific War. They are mostly wearing MKIII helmets, aka 'turtle helmets' -although one of them is also wearing a beret- and are equipped with a variety of weapons, including their beloved Bren gun, a Sten gun and a couple of Thompson submachineguns. All the figures also come with a standard backpack. Being an assault section, they are all on the move or firing, and as an acknowledgement to the tropical weather, they have all rolled up their sleeves. In fact I am a bit surprised that none of them are wearing short pants, but maybe it was better this way to fend of the mosquitos.
Expeditionary Force British Defense Section - Pacific War
These guys represent a defense section, and therefore, their poses are better suited for a static position, with a nice mix of kneeling and standing men. You even get a grenade thrower. They are equipped with MkII 'Brodie' Helmets with netting added to them, which smooths their shape a bit. As with the previous set, you also get a man with a beret, and another one with an officer cap. The standout figure of the lot is the kneeling Bren gunner firing behind the tree stump. One thing to be aware of with this set is that they all come with backpacks as well, except for the officer. This means however that you want to make sure that you glue the officer's head on the body without the hole in the back. Just in case you were contemplating gluing the officer's head on a different pose. I suppose you could always fill the hole in the back with putty if you really wanted to mix and match the heads and bodies.
It's nice to see a new set of Australian figures being released. It's been decades since we've had a new set of Australian troops. At first I was a bit skeptical about the extent that different headgear could make them feel really like their own set, and I must say that they do pass the test. In addition to the hats, the set also comes with a couple of machete knives and an ammo bandolier for one of the shooting figures that also make them look more authentic. And I am sure that once they are painted, it will be even better. In terms of the poses, you do have to try to make them a bit different by gluing the arms at slightly different angles, and making the heads face different directions. All in all, very exciting to see a new set of ANZAC troops arrive on the jungle scene!
This is another very welcome set, as there haven't been any recent WW2 Indian Army sets. I had similar concerns about the ability to make them look like their own set just by giving them a different head, but once they are assembled, they look just fine. I only have two bits of criticism. The first one is that you only get two different types of heads, and they are very similar to each other. The only difference is that one of them has the mouth slightly open. The end result is that all your men look like clones of each other. The second observation is that the body build of these guys is a bit robust and Indian men tend to be slimmer. But I am totally happy with this trade off. Much better to have these strong Indian guys than none at all. As with the Australians, you have to get a bit creative to pose them in ways that are slightly different from the Commonwealth sets, although that's probably not a big deal anyhow unless you plan to deploy them on a scene side by side.
Expeditionary Force British Machine Gun Section - Pacific War
This is the third set of British Infantry for the Pacific Theater of Operations. They are wearing the Bridie style helmet, but as opposed to the Defense Section, they are doing so without the netting, which gives these helmets a flatter appearance. The set consists to 2 MG teams firing a water cooled Vickers heavy Machine Gun. Each team consists of a gunner, an ammo loader and a third man directing fire. Additionally, there are three support troops. As is the case with all Expeditionary Force sets, you can swap bodies and arms, so if you wanted to, every man on the MG teams could be kneeling, and all the support troops can be made to stand. I chose to mix it up a bit.
Expeditionary Force Australian Defense Section - Pacific War
These guys would go well providing support to the MG team, as they all come in poses suitable to be firing behind cover. One of the most interesting figures in this set is the man firing the Lewis machine gun on top of the tree stump. Two other men are firing sub machine guns and the rest, aside from the officer, are riflemen. One of them throwing a grenade. I do have to say that the Expeditionary Force grenade throwers are some of the least exciting. Perhaps it is because they are assembled on top of a base body that is also used for firing/advancing poses, but they lack sufficient momentum in their body movement. But I don't think the body is the limiting factor. I think that by stretching the arms a bit, some of this could be addressed.
Expeditionary Force Australian Machine Gun Section - Pacific War
In this other MG set, I chose to have all the men in the MG teams kneeling, and the three support troops standing. Note also that you can glue the ammo box to the base of the ammo handles in a slightly different way, with the lid opening forwards or backwards. This gives them just enough variation to avoid making them feel like clones. Note also that the weapons on two of the three support men are different in each of the sets (Australian, Indian, and British). The third guy is either holding a set of binoculars, or pointing, depending on which arms you use for the machine gun team lead.
Expeditionary Force Indian Defense Section - Pacific War
And here we have the Indian Defense section. In this case the man behind the stump is firing a Bren gun, which sets him nicely apart from the other two Defense Section sets. Other than this difference and the head gear, the rest of the men are equipped very similarly. A couple of sub machine guns, although one of them is a Sten gun, and the rest are regular riflemen, and one officer. And there's also the grenade thrower. You can play with the positioning of the heads, and arms to provide a bit of variation.
Expeditionary Force Indian Machine Gun Section - Pacific War
The third MG set is for the Indian Army. Again, a nice degree of differentiation is achieved simply through the headgear. One thing that you do have to pay attention to when gluing the MG teams together is that the cooling box may easily end up being pulled upwards when you glue it to the side of the Vickers gun. You need to hold it down so that the base does not end up lifted up in the air. And you also want to make sure that when you set the arms of the loader, the back leg of the MG's tripod is resting on the base of the gunner. Else, the ammo belt will not line up properly with the slot where it is supposed to fit in. Lastly, the bodies of the ammo loader and the gunner looks similar, but they are actually different so make sure you glue the correct set of arms to each, or else the bases will get in the way of each other and the ammo belt will not reach the MG. Yes, I had to redo my first set because I did not pay attention to these small details the first time.
Expeditionary Force Australian HQ Section - Pacific War - Part I
The HQ sections are probably my favorite ones. I really like the mix of poses and weaponry. All of them come with a radio man, a piat anti-tank gun, and a light mortar. From there, there the other 6 poses are pretty versatile, as you can attach a variety of upper arms and weapons to the base bodies of which you get a good mix of standing and kneeling poses. Note also that the radio man comes with a listening headset or you can also attach a head with regular headgear.
Expeditionary Force Australian HQ Section - Pacific War - Part II
These are the rest of the set. Sometimes I like to attach the heads at a bit of an angle to show that need to communicate with the rest of the unit, and also to show that the men need to be watchful of what's happening all around them. Note also that the headgear for these Aussie troops comes in a couple of variations, with the folded brim (slouch hat) or without it. BTW, the way that these guys turned out, I feel that they could very well be the assault section.
Expeditionary Force Australian Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part I
The mortar set is composed of 9 figures. It comes with 3 mortars, 3 loaders and 3 ammo handlers. The other 3 figures can be either officers/NCOs coordinating the firing, or some other free standing figure as you will see throughout the rest of these pictures. The set comes with 3 kneeling figures for the ammo handlers and 3 standing figures for the loaders, but I tried to mix it up a bit so that not all the crews would look the same. For example, here the loader is kneeling and the ammo handler is standing.
Expeditionary Force Australian Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part II
Here the loader is standing and the ammo handler is kneeling. These guys also got the officer to coordinate the action. You can tell that he is the officer because he has a side arm and he's also not wearing a backpack as the NCO in the previous picture.
Expeditionary Force Australian Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part III
This third crew got a radio man as the free standing figure. I also switched it up a bit by having the loader hold the shell at the waist, and use his other arm to adjust the mortar. This also allows him to stand on the right side of the mortar.
Expeditionary Force British HQ Section - Pacific War - Part I
These British HQ guys came with berets as headgear. I am thinking that this allows them to be painted as commandos or even Paras. In terms of their weaponry, this set also came with a heavy MG, which I assume was meant as an alternative for the piat pose, but I decided to give it to one of the standing guys. This means that I will need to find some wall or something else to lean him against, but I really like how it turned out. Note also that I have him a head without any cover and I glued a helmet at his base. He must have lost it in the heat of the moment!
Expeditionary Force British HQ Section - Pacific War - Part II
The rest of the HQ section, with the 3 standard poses (mortar, radio, and piat) and a couple of supporting guys. Note that here I have turned one of the kneeling guys into the NCO which is directing the movement of the guys behind him. In the case of the Australians, I glued those arms to a standing figure.
Expeditionary Force British Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part I
The British mortar crews come with two options for headgear. You can give them turtle helmets as I did for this first crew, or berets as you will see below - and with the NCO coordinating fire in this picture. Again, I have tried to mix up the loaders and ammo handlers so that there's some variety on who is standing vs crouching and which side of the mortar they are standing on.
Expeditionary Force British Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part II
Here I have made the loader kneel, and instead of dropping the shell into the mortar he is performing some adjustments before firing the shell. This crew also got the officer to direct the operation.
Expeditionary Force British Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part III
This last crew got issued berets, which means that I could use them as a crew for Paras, who don't have a lot of heavy weapons options. I also assigned them the radio man, who happens to be a bit distracted and reaching for his rifle, perhaps because he saw something threatening on his flank?
Expeditionary Force Indian HQ Section - Pacific War - Part I
In the case of the Indian HQ section, I also gave them a kneeling sniper and a kneeling man with the sub mg at the ready at the waist. The other 3 poses are the standard ones, but if you pay attention you may notice that for some reason the sun decided to highlight the radio man. It only happened in this picture. Maybe he has some critical message to relay in his upcoming battles?
Expeditionary Force Indian HQ Section - Pacific War - Part II
The rest of the HQ section is ready to move forward and complete its mission. The officer and the NCO are issue instructions and the other two guys are ready to neutralize anything that moves. What's nice about these Expeditionary Force figures is that the headgear really makes them look different from the other sets.
Expeditionary Force Indian Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part I
These guys are setup the way they were originally meant to be assembled, with the standing guy dropping the shell, and the kneeling one handing over the next one. In this case, the targets are being relayed to them by radio.
Expeditionary Force Indian Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part II
This one is a slight variation on the previous one, with the standing guy reaching out with his left hand to perform some adjustment on the mortar before dropping the shell. And they also got the NCO to direct their fire.
Expeditionary Force Indian Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part III
I had to get a bit more creative with this last crew. I made the man on the left stand ready drop the shell with two hands, and in this case the kneeling man is performing some adjustments, while holding another shell on his right hand. The officer is in charge here.
Expeditionary Force Scottish Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part I
This set is a bit different because while they are part of the Pacific series, the fact that they are Scottish troops opens up the possibility of using them as B8A guys in North Africa or the ETO. Which is a good option given the few heavy weapons available from other vendors for that service branch.
Expeditionary Force Scottish Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part II
It is quite nice how just the bonnet makes these guys look significantly different from the other mortar crews in the series. BTW, one small mistake I made was to place the container for the piat's rounds next to the mortar, thinking that it was meant to contain mortar shells.
Expeditionary Force Scottish Mortar Section - Pacific War - Part III
In this set I decided to give turn the NCO into more of a fighting figure. Not only did he get a Sten gun which he is using to cover his men, but he also got a highlander's cap instead of the bonnet, which by the way, includes some pretty cool ribbons hanging from the back. Just a little extra touch to make him stand out. 