Meng French FT-17 Crew & Orderly Figure Set (HS-005) 1:35

[Mike]

French FT-17 Crew & Orderly Figure Set (HS-005)
1:35 Meng Model via Creative Models

The diminutive Renault FT-17 tank from WWI is a personal favourite, and Meng did a superb job of creating models of both the cast and riveted turret versions a few years back. This new figure set fills a gap in providing crew for the tank, plus a dispatch rider handing over some new orders to the two-man crew. So we have three figures right? Nope. We have six, as there are two of each figure on duplicate sprues, plus two early motor bikes on an additional sprue, making a total of three sprues in the box. Said box is the de facto standard figure box sized, and has an excellent painting of the contents, with the majority of the tank greyed out to imply for the hard of thinking that you don't get the tank too!

Meng's small but growing figure line is produced under their "human Series" banner, and the sculpting is always first rate. The standing figure is wearing a beret with a chainmail anti-spall mask hanging round his neck and a pistol holster on his hip. An additional left arm is also included to give an alternative pose to vary your figure from the next modeller's. The seated figure is designed to be hanging out of the rear hatch on the turret, taking the orders off the motorcyclist. The motorcyclist figure is handing the orders up to the commander, and is supplied with a head with a leather motorcycle helmet on, or a peaked cap to add some more variation. The bike (there is only one) is a Peugeot 1917 750cc 2-cylinder bikes, according to a search of the internet, and of course it wasn't possible to mould the wheel spokes to scale, but I'm sure you can forgive the designers that under the circumstances. Sadly, one bike means that one of the figures will have nothing to sit on. There's a little flash on the figure sprues as you can probably see from the photo, but none of it seems to be on the parts, so you can ignore it.

The paint codes are called out on the back of the box, which doubles as the construction guide for the motorcycle. The codes are in the new Meng paint range that stems from their collaboration with AK Interactive, supplying modellers with convenient colours for their new kits.

Conclusion
A figure set designed with a particular kit in mind can often be used elsewhere, and with the growth of the WWI armour genre this is bound to be handy somewhere, even if you don't have an FT-17. The figures are superb and with two sprues of them, you end up with six figures, and the remainder figure can be adapted either using the spares, or your own modelling skills.

Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Kallisti]

Nice addition, I enjoyed building this little tank and I used the Tamiya British WWI figures with it, even though that is a little anachronistic