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Built Review
135
Soviet Officers at Field Briefing

by: Vinnie Branigan [ TEACHER ]

introduction
Miniart from the Ukraine have been slowly making a solid reputation for producing good quality, low-priced figure and armour kits, particularly in 1/35th scale. Their range, although small, includes a good mix of realistically posed figures, mostly Russian.


the figures
The set comprises five figures, all produced in Miniarts, soft, light grey styrene, and fully contained on two sprues. The back of the end opening box has full colour illustrations for construction purposes, and inside the box there is a small paper insert containing a parts map, since the parts on the sprues are not numbered.

The figures are realistically posed and well sculpted, not particularly dynamic, but very useful indeed for a wide variety of diorama scenes. Four of the figures are wearing completely different uniforms, increasing the value of the set, although 4 of the five figures included have shoulder boards, which would limit them to post January 1943, as would the tunics that three of the figures are wearing.

Figure one is wearing a black leather double-breasted, three-quarter length coat, holding his padded leather tankers helmet in his right hand, left hand in jacket pocket, and is also wearing khaki breeches and boots. The second figure is posed checking his wristwatch, and wears again, the khaki breeches, but this time has an M43 type tunic, belt, pistol holster on the right and map case on the left. He's wearing a peaked officer's cap. The third figure is posed standing, consulting a large map. The map is provided as an injected plastic part, but you'll have to paint it or source a decal of a map! He's wearing the M43 type tunic again, and also again, has a map case suspended on his left side. This figure is wearing the soft side cap or Pilotka.

The fourth figure is wearing the one-piece black or dark grey overall common to tank crews, and is standing with his right hand in pocket. This figure wears the padded tank helmet. The last figure is again standing, a map in one hand, pointing somewhere off to his left with his other hand. The map is again produced as an injected part, and this figure wears the padded helmet again, has another map case, and is wearing the M43 type tunic, with the five exposed buttons.

The detail on all five of the figures is a little soft, but matches up well when parts are assembled. No filler was required, although to be honest, the heads will need to be replaced with after market items to be convincing.


in conclusion
Although as I write this I don't know the price of this set, I have no reason to believe it won't be priced as competitively as the rest of their range, and as such it represents extremely good value for money. Yes, the heads need replacing, but most modellers will do this with any injected figure set, so it shouldn't represent any hardship, and I do like these figures! Highly recommended!

SUMMARY
A set of five figures in useful poses, that represent very good value for money, I'm convinced these figures will find their way into a lot of dioramas over the coming year or so.
  SOFT MOULDING:70%
  FIVE FIGURES:88%
  POSES:90%
Percentage Rating
83%
  Scale: 1:35
  Mfg. ID: 35027
  Suggested Retail: Unknown
  Related Link: Miniart
  PUBLISHED: Nov 03, 2006
  NATIONALITY: Russia
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 87.97%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 85.88%

Our Thanks to MiniArt!
This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. If you would like your kit, book, or product reviewed, please contact us.

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About Vinnie Branigan (Teacher)
FROM: ENGLAND - NORTH WEST, UNITED KINGDOM

Copyright ©2021 text by Vinnie Branigan [ TEACHER ]. All rights reserved.



Comments

Vinnie- It,s nice to see MiniArt bring out another Soviet tank crew kit for us Soviet AFV builders. I have the Soviet Tank Crew, Winter 1943-45 kit. The MiniArt kits are not bad for the money. Here in the U.S. the kits run about $7.00 each. MiniArt also has a kit " Soviet Tank Crew At Work", which seems like an interesting kit. There isn,t much out there in the way of Soviet Tank Crew kits, so when a new kit hits the model market, we have to grab it !!! Rob- Mig-17
NOV 03, 2006 - 03:20 PM
Vinnie, I have had my eye on this kit for a while, thanks for the review. One question though how do the figures hold up scale wise to say Hornet? I am planning a dio using this kit and at least one Hornet figure will it work?
NOV 21, 2006 - 03:10 AM
   
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