Gary Hunt Miniatures

54mm Air Vice-Marshal Sir Keith Park (Battle of Britain) figure

World War 2 Range   Product # WW2skp2

Product Article by Dave Johnson on Dec 6 2010

 

Product # WW2skp2 (http://www.garyhuntminiatures.com/_ww2.html#) from Gary Hunt Miniatures (http://www.garyhuntminiatures.com)

History of Sir Keith Park -
Born in Thames, New Zealand in 1892 the son of a mining geologist, Keith Rodney Park fought at Gallipoli and the Somme in the First World War, before joining the RAF. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Park was commanding the RAF squadrons that defended the South East of England, which bore the brunt of the Battle of Britain. Later, in the Second World War he became Air Vice-Marshal of the RAF. The Germans gave him the moniker "The Defender of London" and Lord Tedder, Marshal of the RAF, declared "If ever any one man won the battle of Britain, he did. I don’t believe it is recognised how much this one man, with his leadership, his calm judgement and his skill, did to save not only this country, but the world”. British military history of this century has been enriched with the names of great fighting men from New Zealand, of all ranks and in every branch of New Zealand’s Military. Keith Park's name is one of those that has been carved into that history.

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The Figure from Gary Hunt Miniatures–
Most of the scale modelling world wouldn’t have heard of Gary Hunt Miniatures before. Gary Hunt Miniatures is a side project for its creator Gary Hunt, who is a sculptor at Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand. Gary has worked on many block buster films like Avatar, District 9, The Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong and Lord of the Rings just to give you a few names. Gary Hunt Miniatures range features Historical, Fantasy and Apocalyptic Sci-fi figure in 54 and 28mm.

The Air Vice-Marshal, Sir Keith Park (Malta, 1942) figure is a 4 piece figure casted in White metal. The figure comes with circler base to mount the figure onto if the modeler wishes too and the option of two heads. The figure has been sculpted in a standing pose wearing a flight/prestige. The lifelike resemblance of Sir Keith Park is fantastic and has been captured in this small scale. Gary should know this very well as he worked on the statue of Keith Park for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London. As mention before, the figure has two options of heads one with a flying cap and the other being his officers cap. The packaging of this kit is exceptional, with the parts, which are bagged, and packed in-between foam inserts inside the box . 

The figure is currently available from Gary’s website (http://www.garyhuntminiatures.com) for USD$24 plus shipping. Gary’s Sir Keith Figures is an excellent addition to the ever growing range of 32nd figures. Once painted up it will look fantastic standing next to a Hurricane in Parks markings. 

I would like to thank Gary for providing the samples for review. 

Dave Johnson

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Photos and text © by Dave Johnson