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It seems strange, that nearly all producers of 1/72 miniatures have ignored marching soldiers of WW1 - the old Airfix sets are really an exception and 2-3 sets of other producers for the early phase of WW1. I have bought actually some WW1-vehicles and started a search, where I can find some figures which I can combine with the vehicles to create interesting dioramas. It was a search with much frustration..
I am the only one who is missing this pose for WW1?
I presume that staying in the trenches and marching were the two main activities of many soldiers in this war. Why didn´t found the marching pose any representation in 1/72? Are there anybody who is missing also WW1-sets with marching poses?
I know that some are missing marching soldiers for WW2 too and the old sets of marching (or resting) germans from Preiser receive always very high prices in Ebay.
I would like to imagine marching french, english, austrailians, germans and turkish soldiers for WW1. And it´s a dream to see some resting soldiers too.
According to my understanding marching poses in any era were not common until the advent of HaT in '99, and even they tended to embed their poses within bigger sets. The specialization of sets to specific topics rather than just having a set that tried to cover the whole faction by itself outside of WWII is really something that has only come about in the last fifteen years, with Strelets being among the main proponents of it. To this day there are only 5-10 sets that focus specifically on marching poses for all of pre-1789 AD history combined, with Strelets providing most of them.
So to answer the question more directly, WWI is missing marching poses because most eras outside of WWII and Napoleonics are.
Maybe it's the OCD in me but I've always loved the sight of troops marching in formation. But I appear to be in the minority among many of my fellow collectors, who prefer action poses. And I believe most makers cater to the desires of the majority. Back when I was a boy and our toy soldiers (military miniatures, if you prefer) were made by large corporations in massive quantities folks like Marx and MPC (among others) could provide a large compliment of poses on a sprue (think of the ten different poses for each side of the original Marx ACW figures - there were thirteen WW2 German poses - eventually some 32 or 33 US GIs!). Now the industry standard seems to be eight (thanks Strelets for the exceptions).
Back when we were kids a lot of kids just threw their marchers aside (along with the minesweeper/pool cleaner poses). You can do that when there's thirteen-plus poses. Nowadays it doesn't seem practical. So unless someone (hint, hint) decides to make a dedicated set, it looks like the gap of marching troops for 20th Century figures will remain unfilled unless there is an evident demand.
marching up to front is a great shout all the old reels of film always show them marching up the front it could be on the way to mons ypres or the somme full of cheer.always a sad thing as we know not a lot came back would make a good subject i think
It depends on your needs. I can find 1/72 plastic marching WW1 soldiers for Russian, Ottoman, German, Austro-Hungarian, French, Belgian, British, U.S. and ANZAC units in my collection, which is far from complete.
Dear Pa,
I am quite curious where you have found marching germans, british, ottomans or french besides the old Airfix sets or till 1915/16.
Please give me a little help. I haven´t found them, unfortunatly.
I have studied already before PSR. Besides one Revell german all your named other sets are early war and the uniforms and equipment quite different to the later ones. So a simple head swap won´t be sufficient.
And I have indeed a problem why the producers can´t integrate one marching pose in theirs sets.
I'm with you. A full set of marching figures in assorted poses would be grand. An ideal one for the 'Strelets touch'; if they can fit it into their already busy and full schedule!
I would rather have a man at sling arms walking along the road than the wounded or dead guy.
I like the man at right shoulder arms marching also, on parade, or guard duty, better than the bayoneting guy.
This is true for all figures.
Personally I like the Caesar Miniatures German Marching figures and would like these for all the major combatants. In the 1920s and 1930s marching toy soldiers and even marching band toy soldiers were very popular. Even today Preiser makes marching bands and they are super expensive, but HO 1/87 scale.
Airfix made two of their first few sets were marching guards and a guards band which are long out of production but fetch large prices for collectors.