Small Scale Military Headquarters

The Eaglemoss 1:43rd scale line---also going under the Atlas or Altaya names----includes armored fighting vehicles and various jeeps, trucks, etc. I've been buying fighting vehicles on a selective basis and the latest arrival is a Mk.IV Panzer. For some unknown reason, the factory painted the model in over-all muddy brown, not Panzer yellow and there were the usual sloppy aspects such as failure to sand off excess plastic bits on the add-on parts before painting plus other chop, chop shortcuts. So I had to repaint the model in the markings of the 3rd Panzer Division. Here's a picture:

And here's a picture of my entire Eaglemoss collection, so far, including major repaints of the Mk.III Panzer, the German halftrack, the Humber AC and the French and Italian tanks:

Where did you get the Eaglemoss models? From Ebay?

Eaglemoss have just annouced the release of this series Fighting Vhicles of World War II here in the United Kingdom, kicking of with a SdKfz 251 "Stuka zu Fuss" followed by a US M16 AA 1/2 track. Subscribers will get two models a month. The planned releases include all the models in your photo plus some trucks and armoured cars. The "hook" for potential subscribers is a German tank transporter trailer and half-track prime mover and a separate PzKw IV (in grey). I realise you obviously have issues with the paintwork of some of the models, but what is your overall opion of the series?

I get these models from eBay where they can be found from several sellers if you search under the scale ( 1:43 ) under diecast vehicles.

As for the molds, themselves, they are generally OK, though there are exceptions, such as the Puma armored car, whose main gun is too thin at its base. The secondary, or add-on parts, like the road wheels on the tanks are iffy. Some are full of excess plastic roughage, as if they didn't bother to sand them down before painting. Many road wheels have their rubber linings painted in black, but only on the outside rims, not the inner ones----again, a time saving device, but it is a noticeable flaw. As for the colors, they are way too dark---especially the greens and, in certain cases, way off---the Italian tank, which has a desert scheme, comes off as a light green model; the Pz. IV is brown, not panzer yellow, etc. Also, they cut corners on the French tank by omitting the dark lines that separated the three colors.

I will keep buying these models---selectively----especially the Bren Gun Carrier, White Scout Car, etc.------and generally, I like the scale so it's worth the bother to repaint those models that need it and clean up the add-on parts.

Thank you for your most helpful comments. I must confess I'm attracted to the larger scale, so I might give the series a go. I hope they do a few more tanks in the future say a Sherman and perhaps a Tiger!

Some of the ones on subscription over here might have different colour schemes. Interesting that they are doing a bren gun carrier. Hope you post photos of the additions to your collection in the coming months.

You may be interested in this link to the website

http://military-vehicles-collection.com/

All the very best

You're welcome, graycap. Here's a link to a vendor's site listing the old Atlas series, which didn't include tanks. The last page has a complete picture set showing all of the models, including the Bren Gun Carrier:


http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... bih%3D1032

Thanks for the link. Very interesting, the bren carrier looks very nice. The scale of 1/43 gives a bit more of a substantial model than 1/72. I wish Corgi had persisted with their 1/48 diecast armour range. Evidently their management panicked somewhat a few years ago when facing bankruptcy and dropped a whole lot of its ranges almost overnight. and one of those were its armoured vehicle ranges.

I wonder what tanks Eaglemoss/Atlas have in the pipeline? However, I think the next model is a M3 US
half-track. Happy collecting!

i don't have any of these models but have looked at them a few times in interest. I like the scale due to its size and the fact it fits with 1/43 cars which i used to collect many years ago. Have always thought about going back to that hobby...the lack of military vehicles is a big reason i left it.

The models to my eye look ok but could definitely benefit from sprucing up......Epap the Panzer iV colour was supposed to be the pea green colour the germans used in Tunisia. A sort of greyish olive green. It's perhaps a bit too browny but when you view it with that colour in mind it's not so bad.

I saw an JS-3 today on ebay, in 1973 paint scheme. Interesting model. My big concern about collecting these is that when the line dies, as these always do, that's it. Nobody else makes armour in this scale, save Schuco whose releases are minimal

Epap......i went through the pictures in the link you posted and there seem to be a lot of vehicles missing. The panzer iii, panzer iv, m13/40, ab 41 to name a few. Are the missing vehicles from another series by another manufacturer?

aferguson wrote:Epap......i went through the pictures in the link you posted and there seem to be a lot of vehicles missing. The panzer iii, panzer iv, m13/40, ab 41 to name a few. Are the missing vehicles from another series by another manufacturer?

That's the way it looks, AF. The Atlas line shown in my link, above, had no tanks, so Eaglemoss seems to be using tanks from another series in this line to augment the first one. As for the Pz.IV, the color was really brown on the model I received so I changed the markings as well as the color to depict a tank on the Eastern Front.