Harry-1211392

I'm pleased to see that Airfix are re-releasing some of the 1/32 figure sets. The new resin plastic seems to hold the same detail as the old polyethylene did so I am happy with that. Does anyone know if they are planning to eventually re-release all of the sets (commandos, Afrika Korps, Soviet infantry etc)? I'm wondering if I should continue hunting for original release figures to complete my collection of the old polyethylene figures (anyone got an Afrika Korps officer or a Waterloo Highland infantry officer going?) or if I should just wait for these. I can still appreciate the sculpture, anatomy, posing and engineering and it's much cheaper!

That's a fantastic collection! Ich bin echt neidisch ;o)

The figures in the Airfix Infantry Combat Group set appear to be (ahem) "heavily influenced" by the Britains Herald British infantry figures from the 1960s [pictured below). These latter portray squaddies in post-war khaki battle dress (note the open collars of their blouses), Mk III "turtle" helmets and (rather fascinatingly) using the No.9 bullpup self loading rifle(!) Interestingly (unless its just clumsy sculpting, of course) some of the little guys appear to wear their helmets back to front which was commonly seen in the late 50s and 60s in real life (for example look at the one about to skewer one of Her Majesty's enemies with his - quite respectably portrayed - No.7 bayonet) When it turned out that the No.9 was going to be dropped in favour of the SLR some later editions of the Britains figures have them carrying a strange Frankenstein rifle which has the No.9s carrying handle and sight but with the magazine moved in front of the pistol grip. [Edited to add. Looking closer at the one I have in my collection, it's not a "strange Frankenstein rifle". It's actually the trials version of the FN rifle with the British optical sight!] I have a mind to convert a set of the Airfix 1/32 WW2 British Infantry to be dressed like these. I am not sure how good that weird K-Resin will be to work with, though.