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!