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Tamiya were amongst the first manufacturers to bring us 1/35 scale figures back in the 70s, and some of those moulds, and others of similar age, are still around, which means that these days they are showing their age and don’t really compare well alongside some of the more recent figure kits on offer from other manufacturers. But Tamiya’s newer figure sets have improved greatly on quality compared to those earlier kits. This set is one of those newer ones and the improvement in quality over time is very noticeable, in fact side by side with an older set you can easily see the full thirty years of moulding evolution between them.

This set comes in the typical Tamiya small open ended box, on two sprues moulded in a greenish grey and are the usual Tamiya quality of finish, no flash, minimal mould seams, and clear sharp detail. Averaging 50mm tall these scale out at 175cmtall or 5’9″. This is a big improvement as one of Tamiya’s earlier “shortcomings” with their figures was that they were too short. These are no giants but they’rean  improvement. Some of the clothing folds and creases is a little understated which seems to be a persistant problem with Tamiya’s figures where they get the main folds but miss any of the smaller folds, falls and creases which they manage to capture in the artwork but not in the plastic.

In this set you get five and two third figures including one female figure, the two thirds being one figure who has nothing below the knees. All are dressed in russian tanker uniforms, two in the M1943 Gymnastiorka tunic and trousers, two in tanker’s coveralls, one in a long leather jacket and one in a shorter leather jacket. All wear the high leather boots. Four of them have the russian tanker’s helmet moulded on while the female figure and the last male figure are both bareheaded and come with separate helmets that are moulded flat to be held in the hand or suspended from the waist belt. The face detail is sharp if somewhat uninspired and they also seem a little small and narrow, but the female face does at least look female, even if not as clearly so as the one on the boxart.

One of the helmeted heads seems a little undersized and the hair on the female figure and bareheaded male figure seems a little light, both being straight and swept back, and interupted by a mould seam that runs ear to ear across the top of the head. Though like woodgraining hair detail is often a difficult area to get perfect. The female figure does however come with a separate plaited pony tail which is a nice touch and is well done.

No personal equipment is included other than six holsters for the Tokarev TT33 pistol, three of which are the earlier leather type with the other three being the later synthetic type.

As is the norm with pretty much all figure sets these days the assembly instructions and painting guide are printed in colour on the reverse of the box and in traditional Tamiya fashion the sides of the box include coloured illustrations of some of the equipment and potential rank insignia.

If you’re in the hunt for a set of Russian tank crew figures who have that “sitting around killing time” look then this is a good set despite the few wee niggles over some of the finer detail as it is still streets ahead of the older Tamiya figures. The addition of the female figure to provide a focal point is also a nice touch.

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If you asked me in the morning to make a list of the ten top things I’d like to do that day I’m pretty sure nowhere on that list would be “Bail out of a burning T-34 in the middle of history’s biggest ever tank battle”. What this kit does for me is to bring home the reality that many men did just that, not just at Kursk but anywhere that a tank saw action.

This comes in the usual Masterbox open ended box on a single dark yellow sprue containing the four figures. The mouldings are pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Masterbox, good detail with a little clean-up of light flash and minor mould seams, and minor filling and sanding required to eliminate the join lines when assembled.

The uniform details are very good, being sharp and clear with good looking folds and creases. The faces have individual looks  and I particularly like the expresion on the figure with the PPsH 41. The hands are all nicely moulded and the tanker helmets come with separate parts for the side flaps which allows them hang with a natural look.

No personal equipment is provided other than a pistol holster for the Tokarev pistol that one figure holds. Also included is a PPsH 41 sub-machine gun for one figure.

Assembly and painting instructions are provided on the reverse of the box giving the paint numbers for Vallejo, Tamiya, Lifecolour, Humbrol and Agama paints.

This is a very good set of figures that acheives well the sense of urgency and tension that you would expect to see in a tank crew abandoning their vehicle in battle. The moulding and the detail is very good and the poses just really help this set to take any diorama of a Russian tank from being just a tank sitting there to really telling a story. 

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