The officer in the greatcoat is Field Marshal Walter Model, the man Hitler trusted to save hopeless situations. Nicknamed "the Führer's Fireman," Model was a driven, abrasive troubleshooter — no aristocrat like the old Prussian generals but a fervent Nazi loyalist, repeatedly rushed to shore up collapsing fronts in the East and, from August 1944, in the West. He commanded Army Group B in the Battle of the Bulge, and like every senior general involved he thought Hitler's real objective — a drive to Antwerp — impossible with the fuel and forces Germany had left; he argued for a more modest "small solution," and was overruled. The offensive failed. When his army was trapped in the Ruhr in April 1945, Model, facing war-crimes charges and refusing to surrender, walked into a wood and shot himself.

The three-figure set is a command conference in the snow: Model in his field-grey greatcoat, a senior Panzer commander in tank jacket with binoculars, and an infantry officer in a camouflage smock, heads together over the plan in the offensive's opening days. It commands the German side of the Bulge — the Waffen-SS MG34 Team who would carry it out and the SS spearhead of Joachim Peiper — set against the American general who did most to break it, Patton. As the command centrepiece of a Bulge diorama, three officers over a map put the whole battle's decisions in one small group.

Model: BBG120 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 3 piece set