The number of russian infantry figure sets is slowly growing with more and more becoming available, with some of the newer ones being particulalry nice. This kit is from Russian manufacturer Zvezda, not their newest, but neither is it their oldest.
It comes in a small open ended box on two light grey sprues, and consists of four figures intended to be used dismounting from a tank, though they can be used in most any scenario. The quality of the mouldings is reasonably good, though with a small amount flash, and the usual mould seams that come on every injection moulded plastic kit. The sprues come unbagged, loose in the box which seems to be a cost cutting feature adopted by many of the lower priced kits, but can result in broken or loose parts.
The sharpness of the detail is about on a par with the older Dragon kits, being adequate but a little soft and lacking in definition in some areas, particularly around the lower edges of the tunic skirts, with the hands also in need of sharpening up. Also like the older Dragon kits the faces are a bit lacking in sharpness and the folds and creases in the clothing a bit heavy and bulky.
The overcoat skirts are moulded as two separate pieces so you get full undercut detail which looks very good. Likewise the poncho worn by one figure is moulded as a separate piece as well. Two of the figures get large knapsacks worn on their backs, but other than that personal eqipment is limited to four canteens, two PPsH 41 drum magazine pouches and a triple mag pouch for normal box mags for the PPsH 41, which could use a bit of sharpening up around the cover flap.
The weapons included are two PPsH 41 sub machine guns with separate drum magazines, a third PPsH 41 with a box magazine mouded in place, and a Degtyarev DP light machine gun with the large tray magazine. The Degtyarev needs a little cleaning up and also comes with a separate bipod that is a little to wide spread, so the legs will need to be brought in closer together
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 once cleaned up as mainly as they just need sharpening up of the softness of the moulds, which can be done with a healthy application of good old fashioned modelling skill. Compared to older Tamiya kits this one still comes out ahead.
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