Alpine Miniatures Soviet AFV crew 1944/45

Alpine Miniatures
 Kit: 35119 - Russian AFV Crew

Kit no: 35119

Scale: 1/35

Pieces: Resin -
5 each (including two heads apiece)

Ages: 14 and over

Alpine Miniatures Distributors: Link

35119 Russian AFV Crew 44/45 

From Alpine Miniatures in the U.S. comes a set of two Soviet AFV crewmen in 1/35th scale, these troopers are available in both in single form in packs numbers 35117 and 35119, but here we will look at the combined pack of the two AFV crew who are sold here as a set.

 

Both figures do share certain similarities, they are constructed of resin, have separate arms and sometimes hands, and both are sculpted by master sculptor Taesung Harmms. Both figures also have two heads each, which is the Alpine Miniatures trademark, and not to spoil the ending here – but both are very nice indeed!

 

I will look at them singularly in detail and show you the soldiers constructed. First, kit 35117:

 

 

ALP 35117 Russian AFV Crew 44/45 #1 (1/35)

 This AFV crewman is seen here on Alpine's website painted by the excellent artist Man-Jin Kim, who makes it quite easy to work out what the soldier is wearing and highlights the crispness of sculpture by Mr. Harmms. This kit comes in six parts in resin that is as always really easy to cut and to shape, not that I had to do much shaping as in construction I was really impressed by the engineering of both of these soldiers. The arms fit in really nicely and any joints seem to have fitted straight into the seams of clothing. Have a look here at the torso to show the excellent detail afforded.

 

 

This soldier is seen with two heads, both the same faces in different headgear. Your choice of either the padded soviet tanker's helmet, or the officer's style cap are here. Both of these heads come with a casting block that is easy to remove and poses no roadblocks to the construction. The tank helmet can be in brown leather or Black/grey canvas. And the officer's cap was very flat in either a grey colour for the early war and khaki for later war version.

 

 

Casting blocks hold together the two arms and the pistol here as well, both arms are without full hands as they are designed to slip straight into the pockets of the tanker. These do so very easily and really gave me a kick that they fit so well. This is one of those things you really get a small smile on your face as a modeler. (And probably one that others who aren't into the hobby don't understand.)

 

 

The tanker is wearing a short leather tanker's jacket of a type I haven't seen often before, and underneath the soldier's tunic and a double holed tankers/officers belt 32-43. This often had a strap on it as well which would be obscured by the short tanker's jacket in this case. The jacket actually looks better from the back – Taesung has sculpted a billowing back section of the jacket which looks great and would come up very lifelike under come careful painting.

  From different pespectives and with the two head choices:

 

The holster for the pistol which is supplied as a separate part is identifiable as either for a Korovine or a Tokarev TT33 pistol by the small square bulge in the lower side. I like that this is separate as an option as well as the fact it can be added at a slight angle to show depth on the figure. I would say the Pistol holster would be for a Korovine as often the TT pistol was suspended from the belt by two leather straps not seen here. (But sometimes not – so use your imagination here)

 

The overalls on this crewman are the (padded at the rear) and seen nicely creases but not too baggy or "britch like". These come complete with shin high leather boots the soldiers often tucked their pants into.

 

ALP 35118 Russian AFV Crew 44/45 #2 (1/35)

The second soldier in this set of two is sold individually as set ALP 35118, and I will go through his appearance and construction briefly.

 

 

This soldier like no.1 in this set is seen with his hands low (no dramatically pointing here) twisting and looking to his left. He is supplied with two heads to choose from, one being the padded leather/canvas tanker's helmet and the other being the side peaked pilotka garrison cap with goggles on his forehead. These two heads round up a very nice choice for these tankers head choices, you can have pretty much any choice you want. Both of the figures faces are very nicely and finely sculpted and nostrils and facial figures are easily recognizable.

 

 

This tanker's torso again like its companion figure is in what I think is a coverall with padded knees and "rear" sections, this detail will come out very nice under dry brushing, he is also wearing knee high boots with the overalls tucked into them. Again we have the short jacket here on show which is buttoned up with a large button at the waist of the trooper.

 

 

This soldier is seen with his hands at his side and fingers just poking out of his sleeves. You can see the insides of his jacket sleeves where there is a button there at his cuffs, all in all a very nice piece of sculpting.

 

 

Both of the figures stand easily and look realistic, have really nice faces and head choices, are both slightly different looking in very similar clothing, and really with all of the choices out there for Russian AFV crews put their hand up to be noticed from the crowd.

 

To tell you the truth for me the most refreshing part of this kit was the sheer ease of construction and lack of worry about cleaning up for just as long as you are gluing it together. Some super glue and some accelerator ( as I am impatient and am not getting any younger) and the kit pops together from opening to completion in under ten minutes – I don't know of any injection moulded and hardly any other resin kits so well engineered and easy to construct.


Here are some pictures of the kit with different heads from different angles ..
 

 

You can get these tankers at Alpine Miniatures Distributors Here

Thanks to alpine for letting me build your figure sets

 

Adam Norenberg