Plastic Soldier Review - Matchbox British 8th Army

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Matchbox

Set P5005

British 8th Army

All figures are supplied unpainted (Numbers of each pose in brackets)

Stats

Date Released	1977
Contents	44 figures
Poses	17 poses
Material	Plastic (Medium Consistency)
Colours	Brown

Average Height

21 mm (= 1.51 m)

Review

This 1:76th scale set includes 17 poses and lots of useful figures for the famous North Africa troops.

Amongst the many good poses are two officers. One wears a battle jerkin and carries binoculars, though there is no sign of the case in which they would normally live. The other officer, in pullover and beret with two badges, can surely be none other than Lieutenant-General Montgomery himself in characteristically casual attire.

All the troops wear the classic regulation khaki drill shirt and shorts, and either the normal helmet or the tam-o'-shanter. The almost obligatory piper wears his kilt as you would expect, and the officers exhibit a more personalised outfit as already mentioned.

Weapons include a good cross-section of rifles and Bren light machine guns, plus two mortars and two Vickers .303 machine guns. Where they are provided, the bayonets on the rifles are really too short, looking more like penknives than anything else. The mortars too are sloppy in design, each being a barrel that passes through a loop on top of the supports. This makes a firm construction but leaves the loop round the middle of the barrel that should not be there.

The only other fault is a very minor one - the pipes on the bagpipes have no material linking them near the top, which would make them impossible to keep in the correct position.

A very nice set, and the inclusion of a surrendering German prisoner is a nice touch (the Afrika Korps set has a corresponding British prisoner to keep things equitable!).

Ratings

Historical Accuracy	8
Pose Quality	10
Pose Number	9
Sculpting	10
Mould	10