Introduction

Before Jim left for the frozen wastelands back in New England (at least that is how winter sounds to someone from sunny California!) he dropped a couple of Rado Miniature figures in my lap for a quick build review. Like many of the best laid plans this one didn’t work out quite as planned with a good six months in between receipt of the figures and this review. My apologies to any readers and to Rado Miniatures for the delay, the fault is all mine.

So, what we have here are the first two figures (35001, SS-Pz Regiment 12 and 35002, SS-Pz. Gren. Regt. 25, both from the Normandy Campaign in the summer of 1944) released by Rado Miniatures who has quickly become a recognized name in the resin business. Rado is the brainchild of Radek Pituch from Poland, but rather than me telling his story allow me to use the old copy and paste to allow Radek to tell it in his own words from his website.

“Rado Miniatures was established by Radek Pituch in 2017 as a result of Radek’s modelling activity over the last couple of years. The main scope of interest of the brand so far is producing high quality 1/35th scale military miniatures, mainly WW2 related. It is planned to expand the subjects to other eras. I invite you to visit the shop and follow our brands development. Rado means quality.

Build Review

The two figures in question came in separate packaging although the pair can be purchased together as reference #35003 which would save you a couple of dollars on the price. The packaging is the clear plastic box with a card showing the built up and painted examples. Both examples were molded in the light grey resin with no blemishes and needing only a quick swipe with a sanding stick to clean up the minimal seam lines.

The grenadier figure comes with two head sculpts; one with helmet and cloth camo cover and the other has the M34 Feldmutze service cap which appears to be the same sculpt as the head of the other figure. The arms are cast attached while the kar98 rifle is molded with the hand that holds it attached; nice move Radek as this is always tricky to fit in a convincing way. The bayonet and frog as well as the water bottle are separate sculpts as well but the figure has nice impressions where both fit quite convincingly. I had no real problem putting this guy together although the fit of the rifle hand into the sleeve was a bit tricky, but I used some gel type CA that gave a bit of play time to get it looking just right.

The other figure comes with separated arms, the single head sculpt and a very delicate MP-40 with stock and lower portion of the sling attached which is separately packaged in its own small poly bag. The fit of the arms is easy as one rests on the ammo pouches and the other connects to the MP-40 sling. I really like the look of this figure as he has something of a puffed out chest signifying what is perhaps just a bit of a feeling of self-importance.

Painting and Finishing

You can see with the photos that I have one figure finished and the second well on his way but felt like this was enough to give something of an informed opinion, besides which no one is paying me for my figure painting skills…wait, no one is paying any of us for this labour of love!

The painting went pretty much as you would expect. The grenadier’s camouflage pattern technique was borrowed, poorly I might add, from the superb Mr. Black’s WWII Special Volume 2 which features the work and step by step tutorials of Man Jin Kim. (well-worth picking up!) . It might have been a bit easier to paint before attaching the hand and weapon but I always have a tough time doing that without glue marks and such. The sling on the Kar98 was added with a bit of lead foil (not included). I’m pretty jazzed about the small base; I made it completely out of XPS blue foam and a couple of marbles for the top of the columns that I found floating around on the ground in the parking lot of the LHS (another good reason to support YOUR local hobby shop!!). The cobblestone pattern was created using the very cool new acrylic embossing rolling pin from Green Stuff World, something else I should do a review of! The tanker turned infantryman has his base coats finished and will eventually have the M44 pea pattern camouflaged on the panzer wrap jacket but the trousers will be in German field gray.

Final Thoughts

These are a couple of really nice figures from one of the new kids on the block, Rado Miniatures, which can enhance any vignette or diorama or even stand on their own. The packaging is nice, allowing you to see what you are getting and the sculpting is first rate. No real fit issues although I will mention again the fit of the hand/weapon combo was a bit tricky to get just right. The extra head in the one figure is also a nice bonus as is the lower portion of the sling already attached to the MP-40. It’s a great time to be modelling as superb products like these just keep popping up from around the world for everyone to enjoy.