Introduction

Arkebuza Model Art is a model company from Ukraine, best known for their excellent rendition of Barracuda Camouflage Net, which is so far the most realistic Barracuda netting in 1/35 scale. After producing number of printed accessories in the same scale, the company ventured into resin figure business, hiring talented Pavel Sapotsky to sculpt their first releases: a pair of modern British soldiers serving in current conflicts.

This is a review of Modern British Soldier #1, Afghanistan 2010 (AR35025).

Review

The figure kit arrived safely packed in a hard plastic box, additionally secured within several layers of bubble-wrap. The kit box features an extremely professional box art image: it displays not only the assembled figure in three different views (front, back and side) but shows all the kit pieces separately as well. The box art also lists the company, scale, item ID and figure sculptor... it is definitely one of the most informative box art images I have seen so far.

The resin pieces are packed inside zip-lock bags. This figure consists of 7 parts and a simple resin base:

- full body with head and legs,
- right arm,
- left arm,
- weapon and weapon accessories (4x).

Closer inspection reveals excellent casting of the parts. Molded in grey resin, the parts are clean of any casting imperfections: no air bubbles or annoying seam lines to clean. Absolutely wonderful. The weapon and weapon accessories are delicate pieces of resin so take care when cleaning them from their carrier block.

As with all figures sculpted by Pavel Sapotsky, the fit of the parts is extremely good and I had no problems building this figure. Both arms feature protrusions which help in positioning them correctly to the torso. The right hand, cast with the weapon thus ensuring the tight grip, fits perfectly to the right arm. If all the pieces have been positioned well, the weapon should sit firmly in the figure's left hand. With such a great fit of the pieces, there is no need for any additional putty work... a big plus in my book.

The figure represents a British soldier patrolling the Afghanistan countryside. The figure wears the Combat Soldier 95 trousers and Under Body-Armor Combat Shirt (UBACS). Over the uniform, the figure wears Osprey Mk2 modular body armor system. The Osprey Mk2 consists of a front and rear soft armor panel, and features PALS webbing which allows modular attachment of pouches and accessories. This figure sports a light loadout which is cast directly on the Osprey armor; two ammo pouches and a small GPS/radio pouch on the front, a bayonet tucked behind the ammo pouches, and two utility pouches on each body armor vest side. On his head, the figure wears a Mk6 helmet.
The figure is armed with L85A2, an upgraded variant of the SA80 bullpup assault rifle family. The L85A2 supplied with this figure features a forward picatinny rail system, ACOG scope, forward Grippod and Laser Light Module 01 (LLM01).

The sculptor did an amazing job on this figure. The anatomy of the figure is perfect and the facial details are nicely defined. The walking pose is really well balanced. As far as my references show, all the details on the uniform and body armor are accurate and sculpted to the highest standard, with the complex shape of the helmet wonderfully executed in scale. The weapon is supplied with number of extra accessories and builds into a real gem.

Conclusion

This is the first figure from Arkebuza Model Art and I must say I’m very impressed by their effort. It’s not just the sculptor made an absolutely wonderful figure, but also the box art, resin cast and fit of the pieces… everything about this figure kit feels very professional.

For me, the best thing about this kit is a choice of the subject. There are not many modern Brits on the market, so this is definitely a very welcomed addition. If you are thinking of adding a “human touch” to your British Land Rovers or AFVs deployed to Afghanistan, look no further… this is in my opinion the best modern British figure in 1/35 scale on the market today.

My thanks to Andrij from Arkebuza Model Art for this review sample.