For The Motherland!

With a busy work schedule looming I was determined to get some more painting done before I sample the delights of Athens, Montpellier and Ipswich over the next few weeks...

Following a couple of comments on the blog about the Plastic Soldier 28mm Russians I decided to paint a few up. Whilst there are nineteen different figures in the box I have only painted up ten so far.

I'll get the negatives out of the way first...

i) Opening the box they look rather soft on the detail front. the slightly shiny grey plastic is to blame as they paint up ok (not Bolt Action white metal standard I agree, but they are more than acceptable).

ii) The box says there are 6 junior offices/NCO's, 45 riflemen/smg's and 6 lmgs with loaders - there aren't. There are only 36 rifle/smg as nine figures (three lmg loaders and six others are unarmed - okay three of these have holstered pistols but that would mean nine officers...). It would have been nice for some separate weapons to be included on the sprue to convert these figures.

iii) Some figures had small pits and holes in the small of the back that needed filling.

iv) The soldier throwing the grenade is pants and to my mind not worth painting (his right arm looks far too short).

v) I'm no expert on Soviet webbing but rather a lot seem to be sporting the 1940 period meshok rucksack and webbing.

Ok, so that's what is wrong with them but I don't really care...

Converting plastics is not beyond me, I might even fit out some with captured German weapons. I'm used to filling metal figures so this was no chore and took minutes. The grenade thrower will probably become a casualty and I'm nowhere near anal enough to worry about rucksack webbing on a toy soldier which is painted in a slightly lighter khaki than then khaki blouse its on especially when viewed from three foot above. Above all they are excellent value at around 32p a figure.

For speed I block painted and dipped the figures in Army Painter Strong Tone. I think they've come out well enough, dipping certainly shows the detail that cannot be seen very well on the unpainted plastic.

Overall, whilst they are not perfect, they are to my mind more than acceptable and a quick, cheap and effective way of quickly getting a Soviet horde on the tabletop. All I need now is the support weapons pack to be released pdq to help thwart the fascist invader...