Introduction

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on the 10th of November 1919 in the Altai Territory in Southern Russia. In 1938 he was conscripted for service in the Red Army, eventually becoming a T34 tank commander in the 24th Tank Regiment. In October 1941 he was wounded in combat and was placed on sick leave for six months. During this time he began to design rifles which never took off but did get him noticed for his talent, and finally resulted in the AK47 assault rifle which eventually became the standard weapon of the Soviet Army.

Contents

• 2 x AK-74
  
• 2 x AK-74 latest model
  
• 2 x AK-74 with BG-15 launcher
  
• 2 x AKS-74
  
• 2 x AKS-74 with dual magazine
  
• 2 x AKS-74 with silencer and PSO-1 sight
  
• 2 x AKS-74u
  
• 2 x AKR-74
  
• 2 x RKm 62-76t
  
• 2 x AIMS
  
• 2 x AIM carbine
  
• 2 x RPK-74
  
• 2 x AMD-65
  
• 2 x AMP-69
  
• 2 x PKM
  
• 2 x M-85
  
• 2 x M 82 bullpup
  
• 2 x WIEGER STG 941
  
• 2 x M 76
  
• 2 x M 70
  
• 2 x SVD Dragunov
  
• 2 x Type 68
  
• 4 x hands holding trigger
  
• 4 x short magazine
  
• 4 x long magazine
  
• 4 x telescopic sight

Review

There are four light grey sprues of two identical lay outs, with each weapon and any components for that weapon all in their own segment of the sprue. Also included within this set are four hands which can be placed on your figures, in order that the weapons within this set can be shown realistically held. You also get two types of magazine for the rifles times four, and 4 telescopic sites which can be added to the rifles if so desired.

The pictures really tell you all you need to know about this product as regards quality and detail. There are some mould seams that will need cleaning up, and some minimal flash on some items. The level of detail is fair but it is neither soft nor crisp, all of the weapons also have solid barrels which will need to be drilled out (not an easy task but it is worth carrying it out).

Conclusion

This product goes some way to answering the need of modellers for hand held weapons that are not always the norm. You will often see threads requesting information of this or that weapon and where can I get one for my diorama or model, and this product supplies a good selection at a reasonable cost. The only negative I can think of is the fact the barrels have not been hollowed out, but we can only hope that DML will eventually release sets of Gen 2 quality weapons.