Zvezda aren’t the best known of 1/35 scale plastic kit manufacturers but they have quite a few interesting subjects in their line-up and this kit of four German snipers is one of them.
This comes in a small open ended box on two light grey sprues and contains two snipers and two spotters as well as a few sniping accessories. The mouldings are quite good though the detail is a little soft with the faces in particular lacking in clear definition and looking a little bland. A little bit of time with a sharp blade and a small file is needed to really sharpen up the detail. There is however almost no flash and the mould seams are very light.
The prone sniper comes with neck flaps for the back of his helmet and is armed with a scoped Kar98K rifle. His personal equipment consists of a canteen, ammo pouches, pistol holster, entrenching tool, and scope case. His helmet has a moulded on camo cover and rather than being solid is hollow inside with interior detail in the form of a helmet liner. He comes with a camo fan, a semi-circular fan shaped shield which can be folded up and offers the sniper something to hide behind.
His spotter is armed with an MP40 sub-machine gun and holds a pair of binoculas. His personal equipment consists of two MP40 mag pouches ( neither has the cleaning kit pouch which would make them late war, canvas ones ),entrenching tool, gas mask container, breadbag and canteen. His parka hood is moulded as a separate part, his helmet also has the interior detail and has very nicely moulded netting.
The kneeling sniper is also armed with a scoped Kar98K rifle and his personal equipment consists of ammo pouches, a mess tin, gas mask container and canteen. His parka hood is also moulded as a separate part, his helmet comes with the straps used to hold foliage and it also has the internal liner moulded inside.
His spotter is also armed with an MP40 SMG and his personal equipment consists of ammo pouches, a gas mask container and a canteen. He holds a light weight field periscope and wears a helmet with a camo cover which, like the others, has the liner detail.
They all wear short boots and ankle gaiters which are quite well moulded though they have no cleat or tread detail. The scoped Kar 98K rifles look good and appear to be accurate when compared to period photos.
Overall I think this kit is worth the effort to sharpen up the detail and with AM resin heads they would turn out very nice. Even as they are they are quite a nice set and the addition of things like the camo fan and the periscope are nice touches, as are the liners in the helmets. They do still compare well against the Dragon German Sniper set having a similar level of detail so shouldn’t be overlooked based just on that. Sometimes I believe we have been spoilt of late and have come to expect a much higher level of detail in all kits. Compared to older Tamiya kits this one is still well ahead.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge images.
I do like this kit do you have it in stock ?cheers
Dean for a bloody great site