German Panzergrenadier (Normandy 1944) 1/72 Ceasar Miniatures M7716

German Panzergrenadier (Normandy 1944) 
1/72 scale plastic model kit
Ceasar Miniatures M7716

Manufacturer: Ceasar Miniatures 
Scale: 1/72
Material: Plastic
Paint: Unpainted, assembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue.
Condition: New in Box 

Review 

The Panzergrenadiers that faced the Normandy Landings in 1944 had evolved from the German infantry that invaded Poland in 1939 and France in 1940. The weaponry and armour was becoming more powerful and the uniforms were becoming more practical. This kit from Caesar claims to portray such men, and so it does. All the bits of figure here wear the same uniform, which includes the hooded camouflage smock laced at the neck, anklets and short boots. The weaponry is fine too, although as the weapons sprue is the same as that in all the sets produced in this series it lacks any late-war weapons, most particularly the panzerfaust, so it is a shame that this absence is highlighted by the portrayal of this weapon on the box artwork. In general we would also expect helmets to have covers or some form of camouflage by this date, yet despite that the components are pretty accurate. 

The actual contents of this set are much like those in the other sets in this series, for which see our image of the sprues. Our review of the German Infantry 1943 discussed the assembly concept of this product, so we will merely repeat that a figure will have between 10 and 15 elements to put together, and the result is not particularly pleasing, at least to our eye. The range of arms and legs is also not as good as we would have expected, although of course there is much room for variety here. Several of the hands have an odd finger arrangement – this seems to be a slightly clumsy way of showing the trigger finger, which means the arm only really makes sense if the hand is indeed gripping a trigger. 

The common sprues have already been discussed in earlier reviews, but are very nicely produced. The specific sprue for this product contains no extra items such as weapons – just the usual body parts and bases. Everything is nicely detailed, and there is no flash etc., while the parts go together well although all need gluing – this is nothing like the Zvezda sets where they fit together firmly using pegs and holes. If you are looking for some highly flexible kit figures for the battles in Normandy then this may well fit the bill nicely, but to us the inevitable compromises of having a multi-part kit arrangement result in a poorer figure, and certainly take a lot longer to put together. If nothing else then this and the others are a great source of kit and weapons, but as a source of usable soldiers we remain to be convinced. 

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2304