The Modelling News: BRR! We missed out on Sotchi but our gold medal winner is a German from Hungary? We review Pathos Miniature's latest

Pathos Miniatures from Sunny Greece - We have kept an eye on the new company’s releases and January saw the release of this figure – titled “Budapest 1945 SS Totenkopf Division” this bust features one of the hardest soldiers of the German Reich in some of the harshest conditions – let’s see what Pathos came up with in our review…

“Budapest 1945 SS Totenkopf Division”

1/12th scale

4 parts of (very) dark grey resin

Includes 2 base decorative parts

Detailed reference photo guide

Sculpted by Christos Apostolopoulos

European Countries 38 euros + 4 euros

Non-European countries 38 euros + 6 euros

All direct from Pathos at This link

On opening the box...

We recently looked at “Big Red” – the 1/12th bustof Hellboy from Pathos and found it an uncomplicated but nicely detailed and realistic bust figure of the cartoon and now movie character. We liked it and so though that you might want to see more of Pathos’ work – hence today’s review of the new bust of this German SS soldier in the cold of Budapest in 1945

This bust is a product of digital 3D sculpt – meaning it was conceived on a computer screen but still the master was sculpted by human hands. IT seems a new generation of sculptors who are savvy with “computerbobs” are taking matters into their own digital hands nowadays, I see a time pretty soon when everyone follows “Live Resin’s” lead and goes 3D sculpt – but the merits of 3D printing are a discussion for another time.

Back to the present – or the past as it is – this soldier is of the Third SS Panzer division which was situated in the surrounds of Budapest in 1945. This was a particularly harsh winter and the soldiers of the German armed forces were better prepared for a winter war from their experiences on the eastern front. They begged borrowed stole and made their own clothing to suit the conditions – and this soldier is warm from head to toe – well as far down as a bust will let you see anyway.

Times like this i wish i had a "Photo Archive"...

Notes of how to paint and where this clothing and weapons the soldier used come in a handy little booklet which is the first thing to pop out of the small attractive black box this figure came in. Wrapped in bubble wrap the resin parts and this booklet were safe and sound on opening them up.

The ten page booklet “Photo Archive” is a really helpful guide not often given with this type of kit. The pages include many pictures of not only all over clothing and weapons but close up details like the toggles on the jacket and Nazi insignia on the furry “Ushanka” hat. This is a great guide I hope other companies might follow.

The resin:

A very dark grey or black resin is used for this bust. IT makes a change from resin too light to photograph but its almost getting too dark – hopefully you can see some of the qualities in these photos.

There are a few bubbles on this kit underneath this bust but none I saw anywhere else until I looked at the photos of extreme close up detail – there was the smallest resin bubble on the nose of our man! So small I didn’t notice and it probably will not be the case on your bust – just bad luck!

The head was played with several times until just the right expression of weather-beaten expression and battle worn expression was achieved. Which I suppose is the bonus of having a computer model to make your master from.

His Russian style “Ushanka” padded fur hat is shown typically wrinkled on top and floppy on the long “ears” which curl into his neck joint. I suppose it is better for the customer and a little easier to not have a head to secure to the torso – it makes the “building” phase pretty quick! I like the tie coming from the ushanka hat to secure it round the neck.

The other part of the torso is in fact the lower torso – from the nipples up he is covered in padded warm jacket here. The overlapping thick coat covers his chest like a double breast suit and is fastened by a nicely detailed little wooden toggle at his neck which holds it all closed. The seams on his arms are thick and weighty as they would have to be to secure such a thick jacket. The reference pictures hint at the width and thickness of this jacket and the sculpting represents it very well.

The sculpt of the Russian made but highly prized PPHS-41 “Pappasha” stamped metal and wooden stocked large drum machine gun is very nicely sculpted in three parts here. The gun itself, the round-drum magazine and the neck strap.

There is some flash or extra resin to be removed from under the gun as well as a careful removal of resin around the trigger. The resin strap fits into the groove in the stock on the butt-end and the second horizontal hole on the muzzle jacket. It conforms to the but as it would look like in life. You just have to paint the difference between metal and cloth strap.

You can see by these comparison pictures how there has been some good study and sculpting of this gun to match the original.

I also like it that you do not have to heat or shape this resin strap – it is done for you and it fits this SS soldier perfectly. There is also a cleft left in the jacket of the man on the front chest for the gun to secure more lifelike to the body. Very nice.

I would be remiss to not include the “decoupage” in this review. There is an Iron cross or ribbon to be used as a decoration for the base of this sculpt. Nice inclusions if not on this sculpt you could use the other one on another sculpt. This is a pretty handy thing to have. There is no upright to this sculpt so you might have to cut and secure it before you put him all together.

And here he is all together – a solid bust with plenty of detail that is very simple to get to the painting stage.

So that is it. The figure builds easily without too much fooling around twisting rein straps, he is detailed and the booklet is a very nice inclusion. The muzzle on the PPsh needs drilling out a little and there is some seam work to be done on the gun but nothing major. The sculptor Christos Apostolopoulos has done a great job and I like this bust.