1/72 Revell: German Navy (Images and review)

A quite interesting set.

To one figure (the bare head) I replace the head covered by hood with this from Preiser.

Except one figure, I painted my "marines" as infantry, artilery and maintenance troops.

Any comments and opinion on images and review are more than welcome.

Cristian Florescu  

Revell 1/72

WW2 German Navy 

Review

Due to the continuous increased number of WWII 1/72 German U-Boats and battle ships, it was high time for a set of adequate crew to appear.

In an obvious manner, based on the large number of U-Boats and ships produced by it in the scale, Revell took the decision to manufacture a set of figures dedicated to Kriegsmarine, in this way depicting an extremely rare topic in the field.

Likewise, its moment of appearance on the market was inspired and in full accordance with any market strategy, it was closely linked with the launch of a PC game also addressed to Kriegsmarine, namely the sensational Silent Hunter 3, one of the best, maybe the best U-Boat simulator ever produced.

The present set is also very useful one taking into account that the figures can be used both on U-Boats and battle ships. In addition, most of these soldiers, some with little modifications, can serve in other army corps, for instance not only maintenance for panzers or Luftwaffe, but also artillery, tankers or infantry.

There is included a lot of variety for uniforms and all reproduce with high accuracy the mix of cloths found on a U-Boat or battle ship.

In this regard, four figures are dressed in leather or cloth jackets, two in overalls, two in Italian leather jackets, five wear lifejackets over various cloths, one has the typical marine shirt and one officer is dressed for parade.

Regarding the Italian leather jacket, it has to be said that a large stock was confiscated by the Germans in 1943, some being delivered to U-Boats crews and the other to Waffen SS, plenty of them reaching the 12 Panzer Division. With reference to the overalls, since there are small differences between, the soldiers dressed in such items can be painted as wearing shirts and trousers.

Furthermore, various models of trousers can be met here and most of them have boots or shoes, while a rich diversity of caps, hats, helmets and bad weather hoods are worn by those figures. In this respect, three have officer caps, two bad weather hoods, four have the M34 overseas cap and two wear Pudelmutze (when we were young we had something like this).

The weaponry is almost completely missing to these soldiers and except one officer who has a stiletto, all are unarmed. 

Several figures hold different items such as a coil of rope, bow fast, a tool and a box. In addition, on the chest of two soldiers there have been sculptured binoculars. The 10X50 type is specific to specialized units like Kriegsmarine, but the same binoculars were used and by specialized ground troops like artillery, searchlight or reconnaissance units, numerous reference pictures attesting this fact.

Taking into account the designation of these figures, namely to be posted on submarines or battle ships, their posses may be assessed as realistic and well done. Thirteen figures are standing and two seated. The last two poses and another standing one were thought as a crew for an onboard gun, but they ca be used for vehicles or ground artillery.

In the set there are at least three officers, the rest being soldiers implied in various on board or dock duties.

Even if the poses are not quite dynamic, a lot of figures having their arms along the trunks, just staying still, which was in fact a pretty normal thing on a submarine or battle ships on patrol or berth, these figures bring life and a distinctive note to any kit of Kriegsmarine U-Boat or vessel. A good example is that just simply using several poses from here it can be reproduced a nice image of the conning tower of a U-Boat in patrol.

In order to enlarge the number of poses from the set, Revell appealed to a quite often used tactic in the last period, to be precise, extremely slight modifications in gear or heads.

In this regard, to the four figures dressed in leather or cloth jackets the manufacturer has just added binoculars or changed the heads. Thus, it can be said that there are two basic poses, the rest being variations on the same theme. The set provides numerous options for dioramas and the figures can be posted on submarines, battle ships, in docks or even it can be realized a dio depicting a parade both on board and on shore.

The bodies are well proportioned, the facial expressions are realistic and well sculpted, some of the best in the field and even two figures have beards.

At their turn, the uniforms are nicely detailed, being detectable a lot of particulars and from all distinguishing the leather jackets, especially the Italian ones, a type of jacket turning to be a real rarity in 1/72 scale. In addition, adequately done are the parade officer uniform and the lifejackets which with little effort can be turned into leather jackets.

Likewise, the objects held in hands by the figures are fine detailed and proportionate. 

Flash is insignificant, very rare and can be removed very easy while excess of plastic does not exist at all.

The plastic used for manufacturing is good and accepts the paint without any problem. 

As it has already been stressed, this set is unique in soft plastic, but still there are several 1/72 resin sets on the same topic, manufactured by Nikolai and Czech Master's Kits (CMK).

Furthermore, most of the figures presented here, some with few and some without any modification can be serve in other Korps, not necessary Kriegsmarine, the owner having plentiful choices through which can be nominated Panzer, Luftwaffe, Infantry or Artillery troops. 

These figures are a little bit taller, but can be used together with Preiser figures, the producing company of the largest number of soldiers dressed in working cloths or leather jackets.

The "marines" from Revell can join the large majority of 1/72 figures from other companies replicating the German Army in WWII as well other soldiers belonging to different armies, bearing in mind that life or leather jackets were not used only by the Germans. In addition, this aspect is facilitated by the lack of weapons or gear specific to a German trooper.