Introduction

During World War II, elite combat infantry of the Red Army was Recon units called Soviet Scouts or Razvedchiki. They had important roles on the battlefield like investigating and gathering information about enemy’s defences, finding hidden routes closer to the enemy and lead troops forward to open the battle with a surprise assault.
Comprised of the finest troops, each rifle regiment had a company of scouts attached while each division had a battalion of such troops. The soldiers of the scout platoon were usually picked for their field craft and fighting ability. Officially scout platoons were 52 men strong at the start of the war on the Eastern Front, but the difficulty in finding suitable candidates and the desperate shortage of soldiers meant that the platoon quickly drooped in strength until the official complement was just over twenty scouts. The detailed organisation of these units was unclear, and was probably very different between units depending on circumstances. It appears that a full strength scout platoon had two squads of nine scouts in its most common form.

RDM35021 Behind Enemy Lines - Soviet Razvedchiki,1941-45 is a two figure kit in 1/35 scale and cast in resin with Soviet soldiers on walk with typical clothing and weapons of Scouts. The figures of the kit are sold as single figures too; RDM-35019 and RDM-35020.

Review

Kit comes in a sqaure shaped clear acetate box labeled with a color photo of the figures painted by Toshihiro Sano in front and a warning sticker on the back. Both figures and small parts of each figure are inserted into seperate zip-lock bags and small parts are double secured with small cardboards with Rado logo.

Figures are sculpted in 1/35 scale by Radek Pituch and cast very clean in medium gray resin with sharp details. Casting blocks are marked in kit numbers to make assembly easier. No mistakes, deformations or visible seamlines on the figures. No need for a cleanwork, just remove casting blocks, prime and paint.

RDM35019 Soviet Razvedchik with MP40

Sculpted on a walking pose with a MP40 at hand; figure comes in 6 parts;

Body with arms ; He wears a Amoeba pattern camo one-piece overall with large hood and knee length high boots. Folds and wrinkles of clothing, buttons and neck string, open buckle belt and canvas type MP40 triple magazine pouch are well defined. Support on the right arm should be removed.

Head with Ssh40 Steel helmet. Facial features, helmet strap and rivets are nicely sculpted.

Russian F1 Hand Grenade - 2 pieces

Aluminium Canteen in canvas cover

MP40 Schmeisser submachine gun. Hands are cast on the weapon.

RDM35019 Soviet Razvedchik with PPSh 41

Posed to walk with his weapon on right armpit; figure comes in 7 parts;

Body with arms ; Different than the first figure, he wears a Amoeba pattern camo Two-piece suit, officer type leather belt with star buckle and ankle high short boots. Details of the parka and trousers, large hood,buttons and neck string and German hand stick grenade on the belt are well defined. Stock of the PPSh-41 - Papasha, magazine fed submachine gun carried on right armpit is cast on this body part.

Head with steel helmet

Right hand

Water bottle in canvas cover

Front part of PPSH-41 with barrel and 71 round drum magazine

Drum magazine pouch for PPSh-41

conclusion

Nice figure set with two figures in similar but not the same poses and clothing. Both are posed to walk but show different and compatible postures. Both wear Amoeba pattern with big brown blobs on a pale green background but different types of clothing.The detail of Scouts usually use captured German weapons is also shown on the figures.
They fit well to be displayed on the same scene for a WW II Soviet diorama.