Airfix vs Italeri Smack Down

To satisfy the requests of several folks, I have done some comparison shots of the new Italeri WWII US Army set with some sets of old. As you can see the scale creep monster has infiltrated this set and they are a bit on the big side. Seen here with an Airfix USMC second edition soldier. I remember we thought he was big at the time.

Airfix USMC first and second edition soldiers. Not the feet, the first edition guy has no feet, he must be slogging through the mud.

Both of these are good figures, too bad we have moved to the Land of the Giants.

A nice collection of Italeri figures in dark OD and the first edition Airfix in light OD. The Italeri are much better figures, the detail is way better and the sculpting of the poses is better. The selection of poses is better in the old Airfix set. Notice the Italeri even have thinner stands. I plan on buying the Italeri but I won't mix them with my Airfix armies. Too bad.

Italeri WWII U.S. Army II

The Italeri WWII U.S. Army infantry set has a pretty good .30 caliber machine gun team. The tripod and gun are two separate parts. The hand grip of the machine gun has the hand of the gunner molded onto it. It fits together pretty well, but I would rather have had a larger base for the gunner and gun. It is nice to get a three man team, it would have been even better to get an ammo belt for the machine gun, a major omission!

The Grease Gunner is one of the few firing poses in the set. A great figure.

This tanker is firing his Colt .45 pistol. The barrel looks a bit short, it may be a Colt Commander, a slightly shorter version. General Patton was a tanker and an Olympic pistol shooter. In the old days duelers used to turn their side towards the other duelist so as to present a thin aspect to their opponent. This stance eventually became popular for Olympic and law enforcement and military shooters.

Several of the figures in this set look like they are on patrol, this little vignette shows the BAR gunner. Pretty good, but it would have been great if the BAR man was looking in the direction he was pointing his automatic rifle.

Two more men on patrol, Italeri seems to like the point the gun left and look right pose. I do not. Troops point the gun where they are looking so they can shoot at what they see. Nice carbine and M1 rifle armed troops. The sculpting of this set is fantastic and the figures very lifelike.

WOTW Manta Ray II

The Pegasus Hobbies Martian War Machine from War of the Worlds, the 1954 George Pal version is mounted on this little base.

The chrome copper underside of the manta ray. I like the little hatch for the Martian to exit the machine. The front, wing tips and three spots on the underside have green plastic inserts.

The heat ray is awesome. It was a great weapon in the movie. While this model is 1/48th scale, I may get some and use them for 1/72nd scale. I really like this kit.

This model stands well on the stand. I would replace this base for wargame use. The originals were "walking" on invisible legs. My thought it to use clear plastic rods that I could insert from underneath. These legs would then replace the base and the war machine would walk on those legs.

I am thinking about how cool this machine would look with Italeri WWII US Army Infantry and Imex Korean War US Army and ROK sets. This could be really good. In the movie the war machines had a force field to protect them. I always figured there had to be a way around it or to deactivate it. Maybe fire straight up from underneath, maybe as if flys over an open manhole cover. Or perhaps commando raids on Martian camps. Plenty of things to think about.

Italeri WWII U.S. Infantry

Italeri have stepped up to the plate in the last two years for those of us who like World War Two. Their latest offering is World War Two US Army troops. This after their German Elite infantry, Russian infantry, German Pak 40 with crew and Russian 76.2 cm ATGs.

Later this year Italeri are doing American Army in winter, an Italian heavy ATG, and a multinational AT set.

This set is ever so slightly larger than the other existing WWII American Army troops. In my opinion, they are just within the acceptable size for WWII American Army troops.

The bazooka guy is moving and not as interesting as a bazooka guy shooting, but I hope the AT set will have a firing bazooka team. The radio guy is a good one, more interesting than one just walking around. The radio and particularly the battery was heavy.

If you click on the picture you can see how incredibly detailed these figures are, look at the sling. This is a one piece figure. Awesome. The set has more kneeling figures than I like and they are a bit larger than I like, maybe one millimeter too tall, and just a bit chunky. I like the plastic color, it should be the plastic color for all US Army WWII troops. I seldom paint troops and so plastic color is important to me. I hope the AT set and the American winter set will be good and fill some of the gaps in this set. They need more shooting figures and more standing. I am going to buy a lot of these.