Tristar 001 German Panzer Crew (Normandy 1944)
James Blackwell
A new name and player on the injection
plastic model scene worth keeping an eye out for is this Hong Kong-based
Chinese company who has recently entered the market on very high note.
Their first effort is a sure fire seller of a 5 figure SS tank crew set.
The first thing you notice on the box is the name of the very talented
Japanese designer Yoshitaka Hirano (of CD Yoshi fame), who has
previously sculpted some outstanding resin figures released under that
label and others (Blue Max etc.) in the past, and who's work has been
featured in many of the Japanese Model Graphix and Model Art Specials.
So with his involvement, straight away expectations are high.
An inevitable comparison will naturally be
made with Dragon and Tamiya figures to see how this new brand stacks up
against the established main players, and on close inspection the
comparison is very favourable indeed. Similar in concept to Dragon's
Tiger Aces set with a relaxed crew lounging on an AFV, Tristar's first
effort fits very comfortably in alongside them, and as a set combines
the best of both worlds - Dragon's finesse of sculpting and natural
posing, and Tamiya's razor sharp crispness of moulding.
4 full and 1 half figure are supplied,
along with a comprehensive painting guide on the rear of the box. Parts
breakdown is very well thought out, and sprue joins seem intelligently
placed on the faces of least detail and thankfully without any extra
annoying ejector pegs attached. Flash is non-existent and seam lines
very light. The uniforms themselves are very nicely sculpted down to the
most minute detail such as the ankle gather loops on trouser legs.
Boot detail, a common weakpoint of some injection figures, is also sharp
and the clothing has very realistic looking creasing and folds in the
cloth. The poses are all very natural and the scale size of the figures
looks to be just right too. Undercuts under pocket flaps and lapels are
a little chunky perhaps, but probably as good as current injection
moulding techniques allow, and will only take a few flicks of a knife
blade to open up. Faces though - often the critical area for achieving a
quality look, are very sharply done and honestly not far off some of the
top resin heads for detail and expression. In fact they are probably
better than many so can certainly be used OOB with no problem or even in
combination with resin heads, and it would be very tough to pick which
was which once painted.
A nice touch too is the inclusion of 7
handy fill colour scale maps on the 4 box end flaps, which just need the
top layer of cardboard to be pared away with a razor blade for scale
thinness, and once in position, given a mist of dull coat to take the
boxtop sheen away.
But all in all, if this is the standard of
release we can come to expect from Tristar in the coming years, then
their future looks assured and healthy (rumour has it they have up to 10
releases scheduled up to Xmas 2003 including a new Pz.Ia amongst others
which augurs very well for the hobby indeed...).
Highly recommended to anyone wishing to
crew up a mid to late war AFV with 5 high quality figures without
wanting to pay exorbitant resin prices.
Tristar http://www.tristarmodel.com
Australian Distributor at www.modelmania.com |