British 8th Army
Airfix 1:76 Scale Miniatures Review
Airfix British 8th Army in 1:76 scale. This excellent new release, published as an upgrade of 8th Army 1st Edition in 1974, is among the best Airfix figure sets to date.
Contents
45 Figures in 14 Poses – 22 mm equal 167 cm Height
- Officer with Webley .38/200 Service Revolver, running (1)
- Corporal (Section Leader) with Sten SMG, running (4)
- Corporal (Section Leader) with Thompson MC, standing, firing (4)
- Heavy Machine Gun Team
- Corporal (Team Leader) with Binoculars, kneeling (2)
- № 1 Vickers, kneeling (2)
- № 2 Vickers, kneeling (2)
- .303-inch Vickers Machine Gun (2)
- Engineer with Long-Arm Detector (3)
- № 1 Bren with Bren LMG, prone (3)
- British Rifleman with Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield, advancing (4)
- British Rifleman with SMLE, ambling (4)
- British Rifleman with SMLE, charging (4)
- British Rifleman with SMLE, standing, firing (5)
- British Rifleman with SMLE, kneeling, firing (4)
- British Rifleman with SMLE, in Melee (3)
Evaluation
Excellent choice of subject, these British 8th Army troops in tropical uniform are suitable for campaigns in Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, Greece and Italy. The figures are anatomically correct, properly equipped, and unsurpassed to this day.
The figures are wearing “aertex” tropical shirts, khaki drill shorts, hosetops with puttees, ammunition boots, 1937 pattern web equipment, British Mk. II “Brodie” steel helmets, or the khaki officer‘s service dress cap.
The steel moulds appear to have suffered some damage over the past 50 years. Mould offset and mould lines need to be removed prior to painting.
Only six soldiers are wearing the water-bottle correctly on the right and the bayonet on the left of the waistbelt. On the remaining eight figures, the sculptor has placed the water-bottle incorrectly in the center of the lower back or on the left hip. The officer wears his pistol case behind the right hip, like a cowboy, rather than in front of the left hip. One pistol ammunition pouch and the binoculars case are missing.
The heavy machine gun team consists of three men, the team leader and two gunners serving the .303-inch Vickers Machine Gun. The condenser container is missing, as is the flexible tube which connected it to the steam valve at the front of the evaporative cooling jacket around the barrel.
The № 1 Bren gunner has got to be one of the most popular figure poses in this scale. This is despite the fact that the machine gunner is crawling around somewhere in the sand, completely uninvolved, while the other soldiers in his unit are charging or providing covering fire for the assault party. There is no suitable No. 2 Bren assistant gunner in the set.
The engineer appears to be using the long-arm mine detector in ernest, even if he has left the requisite back pack with the battery, oscillator and amplifier box in camp, and is not wearing the headset either. Clearly, this demining effort is about to end badly.
Compatible with Fujimi, Matchbox, Milicast, Cromwell Models, Ostmodels, MMS, and Vac-U-Cast.
Possible Conversions
Airfix British 8th Army is among the best and most popular figure sets in this scale.