Photographer Figures - from AK Interactive

Product Review:

While on first inspection the figure and camera sprues seem totally first rate and this appears to be a totally top quality item. I do however have one question or problem with the set: Why two WWII Photogs and then (from what I can tell) one Vietnam era photographer on one modern (Ukrainian/Russian?) photog???

The two modern photographers are almost indistinguishable from one another. I can only judge (maybe) by the size and construction of the cameras that they hold.

Further I would challenge that both WWII US and German photographers often worked in pairs with one doing the still photographic work while the other shot movie film. So why not two GIs; still and movie cameras and likewise two Kriegsricthcters doing film and still???

More to come:

4 Likes

I wish they would have separated out the different eras. One set w/the WWII photographers and maybe a couple guys being photographed and the same for the two modern ones. I like the modern guys but have no use for the WWII ones.

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Gino I feel exactly the reverse; so I had already thought that perhaps sometime shortly down the road those two modern photographers might be winging their way on to you via US Mail!

Also I think a second such figure set is in my future, so I can build the other WWII photographers I think are currently missing from this set, along with a B&H 35mm movie camera on a tripod.


Food for Thought: If your GI photog is supposedly posed anywhere near a forward combat area you might want to snip off that big mirrored flash gun from the graflex. However if he is posed anywhere near Eisenhower, Bradley or Monte in a rear area then the flash gun is a perfectly correct detail! (Otherwise you can always leave it laying on the seat in the Jeep.)

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PM inbound.

Joe Karr -167th Signal Photo Company
JDK with Jeep


Joe Karr Sr. and Joe Karr Jr. - Lowell, Indiana 2017

Joe Sr. walked into our encampment and announced “I did what you guys reenact!” And thus began the lesson.


Edward Norbluth - 165th Signal Photo Company
EdwardNorbuth165-18-9-44 .


Walter “Skippy” Halloran - 165th Signal Photographic Company

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Halloran Typing Photo Captions & in Jeep with Speed Graphic

Halloran with Water Cooled 50cal. . . . . and Graduation Photo

Near St. Vith . . . . . later Weiner, Germany (in warmer and more peaceful times)

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Have you seen this set?

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Interesting combination of M43 pattern field cap and (I assume) a 1936 pattern jacket with the dark green collar and waffenfarbe plus grey trousers on the German figure. A side cap (or helmet) would have been more common with those.

Agree totally that in WW2 these guys would be part of a team.

Personally I could do without the canvas leggings on the GI.

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Well speaking from personal experience the canvas leggings (gathers) offer much more field protection (and higher up) than do the hi-topped boots.

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Enemy Photographers:


Photo above: ~ From the Personal Collection of Mike Koenig ~ All Rights Reserve
(I possess the original print but someone must have scanned it before me or they have the original negative because I have since, sadly, seen this image published elsewhere)


abz Heer KB_Crop


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Early war with both Russian and German Cameras

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Russian Photographer:


B&H Eymo 16mm Movie Camera

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For a second there, I thought the last pic showed a camera with a really long lens assembly, then I looked closer. :confounded:

I had seen the British Correspondent set but was tempted to buy it only for the US made cameras and the typewriter.

35mm and 16mm B&H movie cameras with 300’ auxiliary long roll film magazines. The long roll mags could be removed and the cameras easily returned to their standard internal 50’ reel capacity for field and hand held use.

Cam1a

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Yours truly as well as some other photographers from our 165th SPC Reenactor Unit:

Xmas2002 GI Xmas

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This figure set is also missing most/all the various large Vulcanoid Cases required to transport and protect this equipment.

In the Halloran typewriter photo seen above, that is his Vulcanoid case for his Graflex 4x5 sitting on the Jeep fender in the foreground.

Here is my wartime salvaged, '43 dated, PH-104 Graflex Vulcanoid Carry Case, not Halloran’s (I wish) but one just like it.

When found only the shoulder strap was missing. I was just in the nick of time to save it from being gutted and turned into a tool case. When I explained to the fellow just what it was that he had there, I offered just about any price for it and he graciously gave it to me for the same modest/most fair price he had paid for it.


p.s. The term “Vulcanoid” indicates cases made from heavy oiled card stock. Stamped and formed using a heat and steam process and then riveted together with corner reinforcements, metal hinges, locks and handles.

As seen above.


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And for those who might wish to super detail their model cameras:

Seen here is a post-war Air Force Speed Graphic. These cameras were manufactured by Graflex, Folmer-Graflex and then Singer up through the late sixties, early seventies with only slight modifications to the later models and with great parts interchangeability from early pre-war models right up though the final days of production.


Somewhat unusual in that it has an Olive Drab leatherette covered body with an all-black frame and lens board.

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Seen here with snap-on battery powered Flash Unit.
(And no George that IS NOT a light saber!)
The first Star Wars Lightsabre was made from a Graflex flash handle/battery holder.

Even in the 70s and 80’s I would use my 4x5 Graflex when I did not care to lug the much bigger and heavier 4x5 view camera out onto the factory floor or into the field. I even packed it in my luggage (it folds up so compactly) to take to Convention Trade Shows to record our company exhibit booths there.

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I’m not a fan of the look of the more modern cameras. I think I’ll 3D scan my camera and some lenses. Maybe some of my film cameras too.

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Michael G. the first thing you usually ask me for is basic dimensions for a part I want and I usually disappoint you - but NOT this time!

p.s. This first photo shows the camera fully unfolded and in proper shooting position.



A really great wartime Speed Graphic is something that has literally been begging to be done correctly in 1/35th scale and 3D printed. I have all the reference you might require! As well as the cameras! And again the design did not fundamentally change from 1938 thru end of production!




Here is AP Photographer Joe Rosenthal on Iwo with his “spare” Graflex. He broke his primary and had to run back down to the beach to get his spare which is why he missed the first small flag raising shot. It was already up by the time he got back. Fortunately for him and for us, a Beach Commander thought a much larger flag was required and sent one up, just in time for Rosenthal to capture the even for all time on film!

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Awesome! I’ll send a pm.

A “Photographers Campaign” was something I proposed for a 2023 build campaign.

Photographers photographing something. Has to be a figure of a photographer with a camera from vintage to Sci-Fi and has to have the camera aimed at photographing something so this is a vignette or diorama scene. Can be camera, smartphone, video camera, TV camera, drone, or laptop as the photographing device, but has to have the photographer figure included.

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