T is for Two - More Machine Gunners

I meant to have a series of these posts off the back of a bunch of fleaBay and show purchases last autumn, but circumstances since have knocked that plan on the head for now, they'll all come out of the woodwork eventually one way or another, but for now I do have this pair.

The Atlantic Russian Maxim-type MG was quite a piece of work for those raised on Airfix's little WWI and 8th Army MG's, and the large scale one is exactly the same; the one reduced from the other - the master model likely being bigger still. However, in both scales it is ridiculously over-sizes and comes-in about the same as a 1:35 6lb'r might be! It didn't matter much to a kid, but must be frustrating for wargamers wanting MG's for Atlantic-sourced units?

In the shenanigans I went through getting these lots, hinted at in the previous post, the gunner and gun ended-up in two different auctions, one of which went invisible for a while, but somehow I managed to get both pieces back together in the end!

 

The sum of its parts; it's probably the decision to go with a clip/pop-together assembly model which led to the over-enlarging of everything, certainly with the 1:72/HO version, as the hand-grip would be unfindable at a realistic scale, but that doesn't excuse the problem with the size in the 1:32nd range, beyond the fact that the operator needs to remain in scale with the rest, whilst still reaching the grip-handles?

 

 

This might be American, but is probably French in origin, and depicting a Brit' in Mk.I helmet rather than a Yank in a 'Brodie' version. And it might be chalkware or some other composition, but is I suspect Blank de Meudon, a hard plaster or chalk mixed with clay, also used for mould-making - particularly in the pre-production phases. Painting is simpler than some French chalkware though, so a basic penny-toy?

 

Also; while he might actually be a rifleman, I think he's trying to depict an Owen-gunner, so maybe a First World War figure?