Alpine Miniatures – the benchmark in 1/35 ( and sometimes
1/16th) figure making have come up with something different this
months – for those bemoaning the lack of any figures except German WWII
soldiers to add to their excellent Italian AFV crew last month this
month Alpine brings us two new Soviet scout figures – let’s have a look at
them…
Scale: 1/35
Pieces: 6 each (including two
heads apiece)
Grey Resin
Ages: 14 and over
Alpine Miniatures Distributors: Link
This month the 35129 WW2 Russian Scout Set
Both of these figures comes in a re-sealable plastic bag of
which inside each of them are two head choices each which Alpine pioneered and
other have since followed. There are six parts to each of these soldiers which
are sculpted by master sculptor Alexander Zelenkov. Alexander has a knack for
making original and distinct looking faces as we will see later - Let’s go
through them separately and look at their dynamics as a single – then a twin
set of figures.
35127 WW2 Russian Scout #1 is a single soldier which is standing holding some field glasses and pointing while talking to his companion(s) You would think he is the senior of the two soldiers in rank on offer from Alpine this month i think for two reasons – he is doing the delegating and the second reason – which i think is flimsy but i am thinking this is right - is that he is the smaller of the two (not by much) and i think a little more intelligent looking. (His companion is fractionally bigger and is looking on intently) Now for me to garnish this is a big step – but it’s a credit to the sculptor who is able to create that nuance with his soldier’s facial figures. There are two heads here to choose from, both with the same almost plump – cheeked face but both with different headgear on.
The first head choice is donning a standard soviet issue Model
1940 steel helmet complete with the studs around the outside of it – it looks
realistic enough and not too flared – the second head choice wears a battered
looking Model 1935 forage cap or “Pilotka” on the side of his head. These are
two stark contrasts of headgear but quite typical for a soviet scout – with the
smaller “Pilotka” headgear the head can look a little small but that is only as
the warm clothing worn on the body is quite large on his torso
On the torso the scout wears a typical “amoeba” camouflaged overalls
that soviet scouts and snipers often wore on their missions which were more of
concealment than outright tactical offensive nature. This one piece overall
type had a hood which covered the face and a veil inside the hood (which of
course you cannot see as it is down.) You can clearly see all of the button
holes in the right places on the front of this uniform.
To break up the one piece the scout is wearing a typical
two-holed belt and on that belt there is some German ammo pouches for MP-40
magazines he is carrying as well as on the right hand side a pouch which looks
to me like a grenade pouch - The Scout holds in his hands a pair of Zomz 6x magnification
binoculars (though he does not have a case for them) and underslung is his
captured 9 mm MP-40 machine pistol (nicely done with all necessary details and
scale thickness) which comes on a casting block with the binoculars The
binoculars are attached to a hand – at which we will speak of now.
The arms for this figure are inside the baggy camouflage suit,
they are attached to a separate casting block by the elbows – now you have to
be careful removing them BUT you will not secure the arms at the wrong angle
for the figure as is easily happens when you have to hollow out the joint at
the armpits when the casting block is attached there. The whole removal took 5
minutes of careful attention for both arms. The right arm attaches quite easily
to the binoculars the soldier holds in his hand and underneath the arm as shown
in the picture below there is a notch that the MP-40 sits into very neatly -
the arms and this notch are signs of excellent engineering and I appreciate
things like this in a kit – I always know I am getting this from Alpine and
again I am not disappointed.
The soldier is capped off by some officer’s high boots with
the baggy overalls tucked inside them. The one piece overall on this soldier isn’t
overdone and to me looks right – have a look at the constructed figure with the
two different heads and you will see the bagginess to great effect – very well
done!
35128 WW2 Russian Scout #2 is obviously the junior soldier of the two – he has more softer features of a slightly younger man and is a little but not too much larger than the other scout – he looks to me like a farm boy – but maybe that is my imagination talking!!
35128 WW2 Russian Scout #2 is obviously the junior soldier of the two – he has more softer features of a slightly younger man and is a little but not too much larger than the other scout – he looks to me like a farm boy – but maybe that is my imagination talking!!
Again this figure is splendidly sculpted and the grey soft
resin is easy to work – I have to add there were no imperfections of bubbles in
either soldier I have – again this soldier has a choice of two heads – ill go
thru all of the scout’s details from the head down.
The first head choice is again a standard soviet issue M1940 steel helmet which I really like the look of on this figure – the second being the same as the first soldier in that it is a M1935 “Pilotka” This soldier looks better I think with the large helmet but it is great to have the choice of both of these isn’t it??
The Torso of this solder is adorned with a two piece “Amoeba”
or cloud smock with baggy drawstring pants. You can see these drawstrings
around the waist, wrists the drawstring around the pants and at the ankles of
the figure holding the clothing tight and its some impressive fine sculpting
work here to show this level of detail.
The whole two-piece sits a little
differently to the first figures outfit – where the first figure looks a lot
like the overalls are held up by the shoulders and tucked in by the belt of the
soldier this figure’s two piece sits low on the soldier and looks baggy in the lower
half of the pants and smock (if you are understanding what I mean) they are
wearing similar garb but the good work here by the sculptor Alexander Zelenkov
is that he has portrayed what they are wearing differently as they would be in
real life – basically he got the physics of the baggy clothing just right.
The smock
and pants really are the whole detail on this soldier – the only other item of
clothing on the torso is the lace up boot on the soldier’s feet which look
great under the dry brush – nice detail there.
Again this soldier has his two arms on a separate casting
block and again they are joined to that block from the elbows – some minutes of
careful removal and you have two arms with the perfect angle to be attached to
the smock covered body – these arms are easy to align and fit perfectly around the
large drummed 7, 62 mm PPSh-41 SMG that the soldier is carrying. I did think
that it would be a test of your alignment skills and the sculpting
quality/engineering of the kit – but again its spot on.
The right hand is attached to the PPSh small machine gun and
you must glue it together before you attach the right arm to the torso. You can
see by the pictures the drawstrings of the soldier’s smock clearly in these
shots – nice and baggy I think this looks great.
All in all as a set these soldier sit together really well –
the slightly smaller officer directing the gaze of his subordinate in the right
direction. There is great depth here in the soldier’s uniforms with the high
collars of their uniforms underneath showing. The body language of the two is
quite good as you can see from these pictures.
All in all another great set form alpine – I like the choice
of one or both figures – the interesting differences in the very similar clothing,
the choice of alternative ( but both great) headgear and the differences of
weapons and equipment. I wouldn't mind a binocular and spare PPSh ammo pouches
but that is just nit-picking – no more excuses for all of the people out there
who want an alternative to “another German set” Alpine has done quite a few
this year – and all as good as this so if that is what you are after, and if
you want in the future – time to put your money where your mouth is – this set
are worth the $20- odd that they sell for – and more!
Adam Norenberg
Thanks to alpine for
letting me build your figure sets -
There is a gallery of
the painted figure by master painter Calvin Tan below..
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35129 WW2 Russian Scout Set (2 Figures) | |
The pictures show the 2 figures, each with 2 different heads.
Sculpted by Alexander Zelenkov/ Boxart Painted by Calvin Tan | |
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© Alpine Miniatures
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35127 WW2 Russian Scout #1 | |
The pictures show the figure with 2 different heads.
Sculpted by Alexander Zelenkov / Boxart Painted by Calvin Tan | |
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© Alpine Miniatures
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35128 WW2 Russian Scout #2 | |
The pictures show the figure with 2 different heads.
Sculpted by Alexander Zelenkov / Boxart Painted by Calvin Tan | |
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© Alpine Miniatures
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