Review 75mm Valkyrie 12 Miniatures British Pilot & Tally 1917 - 18, WW1 kit 80~09

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Steve Brodie

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The figure comes in a white cardboard box with a image of the completed figure, painted by Brett Avants on the front and a small description on the side.





Inside the box is a small zip lock bag, wrapped in bubble wrap. The figure consists of 6 parts;
Main Torso, right arm, two heads, a square base and the tail of an German Albatros fighter, as i have been relaibley informed.



Main Torso





The main torso comes crisply cast in light cream resin, Figure is cast wearing a short leather jacket, with a map inside the left breast pocket, his gloves sticking out of his left pocket. The Collar has nice fur lining, like his gloves the jacket features excellent button details, creases and stitching. His left hand is placed on his hip and has nice details.




He is wearing flying trousers/ jodhpurs with nice lining detail on the back, which are tucked into his fur lined Fug Boots, these again have nice crisp detailing on them including the straps at the front. He has a clipboard shoved into the top of his right boot.
Their is just a small casting plug on his right foot which needs removing, nice and easy and cut away the front part of the plug on his left foot. The remainder is used to attach the figure to the base.


Right Arm



This is cast separately to the main torso and again has excellent cast details, including veins on his hand, which has a cigarette between his fingers. The arm needs no clean up at all and easily attaches to the body via a plug / socket arrangement. Once glued to the body, the very small gap at the rear just needs a swipe of putty and all is good.

Head(s)



You are supplied with the head as shown on the box art, this chap is sculpted with his flying helmet on his head and his googles over his eyes, he has a nicely cast moustache on his face. The second head is cast without wearing his googles, in fact they are not present at all. He has more a characters face and the first thing i thought of was a jester, so i will be sticking with the 'goggle head', which had a small casting block at the base, swiftly dealt with, with a razor saw.







Tail



Asking on other forums, the general consensus is that the tail belonged to a German Albatross fighter, it is cast with bullet holes in the fabric and this can be painted in a few different colours.





Ground Work



Final piece is a nicely cast bit of ground with a socket for the plug onthe left foot to attach to and that completes the figure.




Completed piece, tail held in place by the accurate positioning of the arm, head just tacked in place


Its the first time i have purchased a figure from Valkyrie but it wont be the last, Very Highly recommended.

Valkyrie dont have a website, but items can be ordered from their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Valkyrie-12-Miniatures-101090221807143

The figure cost $45 plus $18 shipping to the UK, communications with Robert were also excellent.
 
Always liked this figure. Kudos for keeping Fusilier kits on the market.
It's a great pity that the brutal cost of postage from the US nowadays means that it would need to be a must have to justify £14 for something weighing less than an egg.
You begin to see the attraction of downloading a file and having a piece printed.
 
Always liked this figure. Kudos for keeping Fusilier kits on the market.
It's a great pity that the brutal cost of postage from the US nowadays means that it would need to be a must have to justify £14 for something weighing less than an egg.
You begin to see the attraction of downloading a file and having a piece printed.


Not helped by the fact it took longer to get from Heathrow to my house (just over 100 miles), than it did to get from Williamsburg to Heathrow lol
 
Hi Steve

Great review on a welcome rerelease from Valkyrie, as Del says good to see the old Fusilier kits back

Like the head option on this and the good pictures you've done

Look forward to seeing this painted

Thanks for sharing

Nap
 
It's a great pity that the brutal cost of postage from the US nowadays means that it would need to be a must have to justify £14 for something weighing less than an egg.

Plus the roulette wheel of it *maybe* getting stopped at customs and you're then looking at 20% VAT on top, plus an eight-quid-fifty ParcelForce "handling fee".

Great to see these kits getting a new lease of life though.

- Steve
 
The Fusilier range of kits was excellent and had some crackers. Fortunately I still have a few of his 1/32 WW1 aircrew figs for my pending Wingnut Wings builds.

The tail with the kit represents an Albatros DIII as the tails on the DV and DVa series were much 'rounder' at the base. The aircraft with the red wavy line and the more 'slab' sided fuselage is the DIII in the above colour image but is not mentioned. The DV/Va is the one clearly identified and the tail difference is visible to see.

Great figure and I hope it does well despite the almost prohibitive post/shipping costs going both sides of the pond these days.

Gary
 
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