Introduction

Stalingrad is a fairly new name to me when it comes to a resin figure manufacturer; however they have built up a reasonable catalogue of figures in that time. The figures in the range are predominately Russian or German World War II combatants with a smattering of civilian figures in 1/35th scale, the poses of these figures vary between at resting/sleeping, prisoners, or under fire with the one exception to this being a very nice Russian mortar team in action.

Contents

This offering from Stalingrad consists of two Russian figures sitting on an IS 2 tank barrel, of which the barrel is supplied in the set. The packaging consists of a cardstock box with a large zip lock bag inside, this bag contains one of the figures and the tank barrel plus a further two zip lock bags. One of these further bags contains the second figure with the other containing the arms, cups, and muzzle brake.

Review

This particular set has been designed as a stand-alone vignette, but you could of course use the figures in other ways with some work, or pose them on the barrel of an IS 2 tank model. The figures are described on the box as red army tankers but this is only true for one of the figures, unless there is something I am unaware of.

One of the figures is a Russian tank crew member with no obvious signs to indicate he is the commander of the tank. The uniform all appears to be correct for a Summer two piece tankers uniform with the correct summer helmet. It is worth mentioning that Russian tanker uniforms varied greatly and so it is difficult, if not impossible, to say what is and is not accurate for any given time and location.

The tank troops were issued with standard Soviet Army uniform and then had a combination of one or two piece coveralls worn over/instead of that. The uniform tended to be cloth and was usually black/dark grey in colour but could also be blue or khaki in colour. In Winter the tank troops could be wearing a Telogreika in black or khaki despite the fact that they were supposed to be issued a long heavy padded Winter jacket which was rarely issued due to the costs of the item.

The tank commander could be identified by the fact that he was usually the only member of the crew displaying any badges, and also usually had a leather strap running from the belt across the body and over the right shoulder. The tank commander could also be wearing a black leather jacket and breaches. It is worth remembering that the re-enforcement triangle of the breaches was usually present on all cloth items

Returning to the review the figure is made up of only three parts being the torso with head attached and two separate arms. Moulding is of a high standard with the hands being the only area where flash is present worth mentioning. There is a small air bubble in the crotch area of this figure which should not be difficult to correct. The torso of the figure exhibits some nice undercut detail with a very well defined belt, the arms have excellent hand detail but could have done with the undercuts around the wrist being better defined.

The connection points on the body of both of the figure are going to need some work. While the connection points on the boots will be easy to deal with there is also a large semi circular post connected to the buttocks area meaning there is no detail there at all. The back of the legs where they are shown sitting on the barrel has a large indented area which I feel is over pronounced and this will make showing the figures sitting on a log or such more difficult, which is unfortunate as I feel this would be a much more natural setting.

The second figure again has excellent moulded detail present with the only flash present being on the hands which is very light. The figure is depicted wearing a Pilotka and Summer Soviet Army uniform which while not beyond the realms of possibility for a tanker, I do believe it would be very unusual. The figure as mentioned previously does suffer the problem of no detail on the buttocks area and the recess at the rear of the legs.

The gun barrel supplied looks straight with the muzzle brake being the only part with any flash on it. The cups supplied are recessed on the inside which was an unexpected bonus with the set.

Conclusion

While my preference would have been for these figures to be sitting on the side of a tank or log on the ground I cannot hold that against the product. The mouldings are of a very high standard as is attention to detail with the hands and faces being of a good quality. The only place the product can be knocked is for the pouring stem that attaches to the buttocks of both figures.

Reference used:
Men At Arms 216 “The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945” ISBN 9780850459395