Jan Etal puts together Zvezda''s small-scale Soviet Naval Infantry.

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Thanks!

Thanks, useful review! good to see some of the braille offerings reviewed.

Tom thanks for the very detailed review(as always)The NCO Primed up really well, wish you had lightly dry brushed the ammo belts on the MG 'er(Food for thought). Great review Thanks again Ta Geraint

@James - Thanks for commenting and glad you found the review informative.

@Geraint - I've only returned to the hobby a bit over two plus years ago and this was my first attempt at doing figures, let alone trying to paint them. ;-) I relied heavily on my local IPMS club's resident Soviet expert for colour information. As I wrote in the review, I am at best a very novice figure painter. I felt that a touch of colour would add to the ability of others to determine the kit's potential. As for the ammo belts, I felt that I wasn't up to the task. There are a few other aspects that should be touched up and I will try to do them and post pictures in the future.

Thanks for the comments,
Jan

Any 1/35 scale figures from Zvezda always seem chunky and they look like a blind man carved them with a dull razor knife. The artwork looks dynamic but the products usually fall way short, right into the rubbish bin as my British boon companions always say. I'll pass until I see great improvement.
Ironmike

Very true for some of the older sets, but their latest kits have been really nice. In my opinion, they're better than some of DML's sets. Take a look at the Medic set, or their Soviet Mountaineers especially.

(Great review, by the way!)

Admitedly they look better than most soft plastic 1/72 figs, but they come nowhere close to the too few DML figs of the same scale.

@Biggles2 - I really don't think that these figures were ever meant to compete with the quality of the Dragon 1/72 offerings but they are in many ways quite superior to the majority of Italeri, Airfix and Revell figures. Hopefully we might see Zvezda in the future release sets that might rival the DML or Prieser and are more specific to the more serious modeller and not to wargaming.

Cheers,
Jan

I know the scale of 35 was very nice. 72 scale is more beautiful than it. Well done Zvezda..!

Very interesting review. You did quite a nice job on painting these little guys even to the point they are. The skin tones looks very interesting, what colours did you use for it? However, the one image of the advancing rifleman (5th picture from the last) seems to have a green spot on his one boot.

Regards,
AJ

Hi Jan,

Super review! Welcome back to figure painting. I'm almost afraid to try again without my Optivisor.




Well put. Have to keep things in perspective.

I have a set of 1/72 Afrika Korps by Heller; they are soft plastic yet the detail is amazing. I grew up with 1/72 - 1/76 soft, and hard, plastic figures by Airfix, Hasegawa, Fujimi, UPC, etc., and those are what I compare today's figures to. As such, today's figures by Pegasus Hobby and these by Zvezda are amazing to me. Just look at the fine detail for the bayonets; the facial detail is good, too.



Ironmike, I concur about their early 1/35 figures, which I haven't bought any in 15 years. These figures are 1/72 and they look very improved to me.

@JPTRR




Thanks for taking the time to comment, Frederick. I'm sure that as a fellow contributor you know how important that is to a reviewer.

As for the welcome back, I don't know if I ever was a serious figure painter. I firmly believe that given the proper frame of mind, one should take an opportunity to try non destructive things out of our comfort zone. As for the scale and vision abilities, I've always worn corrective lenses so I view any vision aid as a tool. That being said, during any kind of build I have no qualms about using a 5X Optivisor and taking pictures with macro filters on my camera (2X - 10X). ;-) Take a picture, find a flaw, fix same!




The figures that I mentioned are just those that I have had exposure to and were more readily available in my area. I have some 1/72 Dragon and Preiser figures but have been too intimidated to attempt them. As this was a review and the colouring was fairly basic I threw caution to the wind and decided to see what I could do. They didn't turn out the best by any stretch but the exercise did bolster my confidence.

I was most delighted with these Zvezda figures, not just their ease of assembly but also how crisp the detail was. For the scale, the weapons they carry are truly impressive. The relief on things such as canteens, satchels and faces made painting them much easier than I had anticipated. When time permits, I'll see if I can't take my figure finishing a bit further the next time.

Cheers,
Jan