Mars news 2020 - 2023

[Erich von Manstein]

The ukrainian company Mars is offering more & more in-house developed figures in recent years.
Their 3 latest 1/72 sets are previewed at PSR by now.

72115 - WWII Soviet Infantry (winter uniform) 40 figures in 8 poses





72116 - WWII Soviet Assault Troops (late war) 32 figures in 8 poses with PM 1910 Maxim and SG-43 Goryunov MGs





72117 - WWII German Volkssturm (late war) 40 figures in 8 poses






As mentioned before, Mars frequently shows pictures of their (much better) 1/32 figures on their 1/72 boxes. Personally, I think this indicates a rather dubious willingness to possibly mislead potential customers.
As can be seen above, Mars 1/72 figures rarely (actually never) live up to the pictured quality level.

That said, they managed to improve and some of their recent figures are at least usable.

And as Paul also anticipated previously, the Volkssturm set offers a suitable Tommy Shelby (with Lewis gun) from BBC "Peaky Blinders" series (story about british mobsters during the interbellum period).

In the meantime PSR states that Mars announced a further WWII related set.

72118 - WWII German “Night Hunters“ (very late war & what if/“1946“)
Most likely snipers & infantry with Zielgerät 1229 active infrared devices and what looks like a Luftfaust man-portable, multi-barreled ground-to-air rocket launcher.


Boxart - front

[Paul]

Is this the first time the Fliegerfaust-B ( Luftfaust ) has been modelled in 1/72nd? Or in any scale thinking about it

[marc zijp]

Apparently in 28mm and LEGO.

[marc zijp]

Anyway: I was hoping for some more Volkssturm to place along with my Pegasus and cpmodels/tqd casting figures. And I also hoped I could use the caps and hats for conversions.
Alas!
So now waiting for more poses with the future Zvezda mini sets.
Btw I got a feeling that zvezda soviet assault troopers will contain six different poses. Box art in the catalogue shows six different poses and that might be an indication.

[Beano Boy]

i suppose the lights will be left on for photographs? BB

[marc zijp]

PSR posted a quite positive review on the Volkssturm set. As a matter of fact: they find it the best Mars set ever and ‘thoroughly recommend this set from Mars’!
Am I really going to buy a Mars set for the first time?

[marc zijp]

@paul: .TQD got it in 1/72. TQD has several sets dedicated on the Neu Heer. As I don’t do post ‘45 (you know, the ‘what if’-scenarios) I only collect stuff for ‘45 Berlin. They got them too and more. And I got quite a few of their sets now (us/uk/German para’s), so of you want a good Luftfaust I can recommend them.

[Jesse]

The volksturm set seem to have a couple of unusual weapons. The one with curved magazine might be the Volksturmgewehr. The man standing with rifle pointing downwards (also on the box art) might be a Volksgewehr 2. Must have been very rare in use?

[Erich von Manstein]

Well spotted, Jesse.
The one with the curved magazine could indeed be an attempt to depict the Volkssturmgewehr VG 1-5 semi-automatic assault rifle with 30-round magazine. (see leftmost soldier on the picture below, Oder river defense february 1945)
The other one you mention, could be the Volkssturmgewehr VG 2 bolt action repeating rifle with 10-round magazine.
Both rather rare weapons I would guess. On the other hand, for many modelers everything seems possible when it comes to the last gasps of Third Reich arms production.
Actual production numbers are uncertain, the usual documentation got lost during the oftentimes “turbulent“ situation towards the end of WWII.

[Erich von Manstein]

PSR announces another upcoming Mars set.
72119 - WWII German Fallschirmjäger (in tropical uniform, late war)
40 figures in 8 poses, the box seems to show larger figures again.



If they turn out reasonably, this could be very useful reinforcements for the Battles of Ortona and Monte Cassino.

[Bluefalchion]

They look like they will go well with the Italeri Tropical Falschirmjaeger set.

[Jaques]

I had great expectations for these figures, but I was disappointed.
In my opinion, despite the improvement in figures as the PSR comments and I agree, there is still more to improve.
The poses are excellent, original and the details in the 1/32 scale are also great. However, when scaled down to 1/72, the figures appear to be melting, so I won't buy and wait for the equivalents of Zvezda or another manufacturer.

[Wiking]

Fighting pose. All of them.
Good old Esci french soldier set with wounded and careing mates.
Airfix, wounded man.
Always only fighting Dios to make with this kind of poses from mars.

So I start to aske myself.
Is it good to get new manufacturer if they do the same or less as all the earlier ones?

[marc zijp]

Finally we can see the Night Hunters.
(finally a bit of news at the plastic front I would say)

[Wiking]

Volkssturm at Mars.


https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.bxaHwqI1Q ... =5&pid=1.7

[marc zijp]

Apart from the size: do you think they are okay Wiking? Can you more or less live with them?

[Wiking]

marc zjip wrote:
Can you more or less live with them?

Yes

But be aware of that I use figures in a quality range from Alexminiatures , Nikolai down to Hegemony.



Evolution in red and a 1/72 copy of an Airfix 1/32 (I think) is planned to use in my next Dio.

The size of the Mars figure are really good. Old man are not so high as the younger ones. The same count for the woman, girl and the boy.
So Mars do in that case an excellent job in my opinion.

[marc zijp]

Thanks, also for the comparison.
Don’t need 8 of some certain poses (not even four actually), but the extra ones are good for head conversions. The caps and the hats in particular.

[marc zijp]

I suppose this is a new future Mars set.
I’m into us paras too, a small dio, but say they will make a D-Day set too then maybe maybe maybe I will buy them. Perhaps.
(if only those Preiser sets had come out for I really can use some more poses for my D-Day project)

[StellarX]

Those are some excellent US Para Poses. Would be great to see them in 1/72.