It seems to me that lately there has been a lot more kits coming out that serve the builder with a strong interest in the war in Russia between 1941 and 1945. Or perhaps there are just more kits from the Eastern European manufacturers, who have a long history of kits from that part of the war, making it into broader distribution. Either way it is interesting to see more and more of this sorts of kits around.
This set from the Ukranian manufacturer ICM is a very simple set that contains a single pale grey sprue that holds the three figures which depict a soldier reporting to an officer while a third figure is digging with a shovel. The mould quality and level of detail is about on a par with current Tamiya figure sets, with no flashing and only minor mould seams to clean up. The faces are very good and some of the detail shows some very nice touches.
The officer wears an polushubok winter coat and gets the choice of two types of headgear, the traditional ushanka or an M27 Budyonovka, the later being moulded in two parts. Unusually he is moulded in two hollow parts which allows his coat to have full undercut detail. He wears a holstered sidearm and a mapcase and comes with an envelope that can be placed in his hand.
The reporting soldier is moulded almost as one piece with just his boots and right arm being separate pieces. He wears the telogreika padded jacket, vatnei sharovari trousers, an unfolded ushanka and gets a satchel and two ammo pouches.
The digging soldier is shown holding a cigarette in one hand but you will need to add your own. One nice touch is that he gets a separate glove to suspend from the one worn on his other hand. He wears a winter parka and an arab style headscarf wrapped around his head and neck. He also gets the only other weapon, a M1938 Mossin Nagant Carbine.
The instructions are a single sheet of paper ( which is more than adequate ) with a painting guide for use with Humbrol paints is included on the reverse. A second painting guide for use with Model Master paints is printed on the reverse of the box.
Overall a nice little set which although it is relatively simple has some good detail and is a well priced kit.
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