German Panzerjagers WWII

Unpainted plastic soldiers in 1/72 scale depicting German WWII infantry man with anti-tank weapons, including (2x poses) mines (Tellermine 42), (1x poses) magnetic mines, (3x poses) Panzerschreck (Raketenpanzerbüchse 43/54), (1x poses) Panzerfaust and one pose with a grenade bunch.

Box contains 40 figures in 8 different poses, one single sprue repeated 4 times. A first look to the sprue show two poses are repeated in the sprue, the man sitting about to fire his Panzerschreck and the man about to fire the Panzerfaust, so you get 8 figures of each. The second think you can notice quickly is that poses are good and figures are well proportioned.

Back box and sprue images.

The close up detail shows as always flash and mould lines, though some of the figures are more clean than others, and this is not the worse example by Mars you can find, your eyes quickly goes to men kneeling and working to place a mine, Tellermine 42, which as excellent and uncommon pose. The result here is pretty good, but the mould failed to fill half of the face of the man as you can see in the picture. The plastic amount which should be in the face forms a thicker helmet with some plastic excess between the helmet and the left arm. The excess can be removed and because the pose, once the figure is placed, the angle hides this fault pretty much, so the figure is useful yet.

Another nice detail is the man about to fire the Panzerschreck, his Panzerschreck hasn’t placed the protective shield, os he is wearing the mask gas instead creating a very interesting figure. This figure is included two times in the sprue, it would have been great if one of them were a variation using the Panzerschreck shield and without mask, but the two figures are equal. The pose of the legs looks a bit forced to us, awkward.

The pose who carries a Panzerschreck with shield, also carries the ammunitions in his back, the normal would have been a team of two as in real, maybe this pose could have been used to feed the man about to fire. Also in this figure the strap to slung the Panzerschreck is too thick and may need bit of re-work. There is a third pose yet with a Panzerschreck, which seems also to be an officer.

Flash/mould line halo

Pose with damaged face

Close up detail pictures.

Mars follows time ago, especially for their WWII sets, the way of downscale the 1/32 figures, this formula is giving them good results in terms of the poses, which are being very interesting, natural and proportioned in many sets, but this formula causes the detail to don’t be too crisp, and never will be with this formula, which sometimes is a pain when you get into paint the figures.

The mould is not the worse example by Mars, in fact is a very good one for this brand, but we still get here a pose damaged because the mould doesn’t works and some flash in some of the figures that you need to clean. As the brand is not constant in this mould quality, when the mould is worse, in combination with the soft detail because the downscale, the result goes to far from perfect or good, but it’s not the case of this particular set, which is nice and usable and represents the best Mars can do.

This set is a useful set for the late war, which can complement other products existing in the market, though to us, there is a bit of disproportion in the number of figures you get of some poses, and we miss a pair poses, one for a Panzerschreck loader and maybe a second pose with a Panzerfaust in a different attitude.