Review: Verlinden’s “#2780 Homeland Defense Vignette”

Want to model a dramatic scene in the closing months of Germany in 35^th scale? Need a dead Russian scout and some street debris? Need a ruined building and cobblestone street to set the scene? Well look no further than Verlinden’s latest “#2780 Homeland Defense Vignette” – and today we put it together in a review..

#2780 Homeland Defense Vignette

Verlinden Productions

1:35 Scale

29 parts of cream resin

$31.46 (on sale right now) from Verlinden directly

In a thin box this new vignette came to me with a plastic Zip-loc bag full of cream resin parts. The resin is quite thick at some parts like the base and thin at others like the faces and the weapons that are in the kit. There are only two bubbles in the resin and that was underneath the base so no harm no foul there!

In a few ways this is very similar to Verlinden’s other larger diorama release of a German street corner  - whereas that was just a large flat base with the street corner this is a much more interesting proposition.

Verlinden used very similar soldiers to these in this vignette

This all cream resin vignette from Verlinden features three soldiers included into the mix. There are two SS men in typical late war camouflage gear and a soviet scout in his typical “onesie” overalls.

There is also a plethora of personal gear for these soldiers which you can include or leave off with no penalty. All of this is included with a large chunk of resin base.

The base is strewn with debris of a 44 gallon drum, an ammo crate, half of a broken statue and some broken war as well as a German mess tin. The resin is skilfully carved out to leave a thicker edge on the top of the base with a thinner edge facing the “audience” 

There is a very well sculpted thin brick section to this wall. Not much taller than the men itself when erected the brick are nicely carved and you need only place them on the base resin part and you are ready to go.

Here it is all put together..

 

Next we get onto the people that populate this vignette – three figures including two Germans and a Soviet scout – let’s get onto the dead scout before things deteriorate… 

This Soviet scout is seen lying flat on the ground. He is seen with arms on the ground completely strewn aside. He comes with a PPsh-41 machine gun that has fallen from his lifeless hands.

The flat underside after casting block removal - this puts him flush on the deck

He comes with a large casting block which needs to be removed before you can place him in situ. As well as this there is an arm strewn to the side as he has fallen down to hit the deck. On the front of his “amoeba” patterned overalls he carries simply one drum container for his machine gun. His head and neck are turned and really hanging long out of his collar – almost bordering on being too long but you can see what the sculptor is looking for – of a dead man tossed aside to the ground.

There are two SS men here – and I have to say I was impressed by both of them. The officer wears his crusher peaked cap with a camouflaged smock over his tunic. Visible quite clearly are his collar patches with his rank as well as his eagle on the  cap he wears.

The officer is gesturing back to his companion to “halten” as he peers around the corner – luger at the ready. What I was really impressed by was the way he fits together. The arms just slipped in and on this and his companion there are slight folds of resin that lock the arms in the correct position. The facial features and the wrinkling of the fabric on the clothing are top notch as well.

The third figure in this vignette (getting crowded in here) is a regular soldier of the SS – he is wearing the soft peaked M43 hat and a camouflaged smock over his tunic and overall pants. The slits for adding local camouflage twigs and branches into his uniform are visible as is the German eagle on the side of his hat as he looks to where his comrade is crouched.

Again his arms lock in very nicely to the figure and wrinkle over any gaps this figure fits very well but I did need some trimming around the waist for an airtight fit.

What fixes any gap is the soldier’s equipment that fits right onto this belt. He carries a gas mask filter, spare ammo for the rifle he carries, a mess tin and a flask. This can be left on or off depending on your tastes as there are no gaps for these bits to lock onto. This makes them a little delicate to secure but as long as they are hardened the figure is pretty resilient.

 These two soldiers fit into the diorama pretty well and the dead Russian is a nice addition to the scene.

Well these are actually pretty nice – the figures fit together very nicely and the vignette base is just enough for the three of them to inhabit.

Cheap (currently on sale on their website), easy to get to the painting stage and a dramatic scene make this a good vignette and hats off to Verlinden for making these all fit together so well.

Adam Norenberg

You can get this kit right now from Verlinden directly – thanks to them for this kit to build and review