True to “Life” Sang on Lee’s new bust re-create's history of a history re-created and re-viewed..

Sang Eon Lee’s company Life Miniatures” has just been lifting the bar further and further and it looks like their latest release has raise the emotional bar higher with his own story to tell. We have the kit built up and the picture that inspired the sculpt in today's review

Review:
Life Miniatures
'On the edge of No Man's Land'
WWII Young Red Army Infantryman
July 1943, Battle of Kursk

LM-B011

1/10^th scale 

Resin bust including 16 parts + copper wire for necklace
Sculpted and Painted by Sang-Eon Lee

Sang Eon Lee has made quite a name for himself in hi company “Life Miniatures” Specializing in busts in 1/9^th or 1/0^th scale he takes a figure – sometimes well-known from history and sometimes anonymous. This – the subject of the latest sculpt in resin is the latter.

This Soviet infantryman kisses the cross he holds so dear in his hands, waiting with his comrades for the start of the Germans to attack in the battle of Kursk in 1943. The Soviets knew what day and time the attack was to be held – and waited patiently for the German onslaught....

...Actually it is a staged photo for a competition – the photo is NOT from the war years but it is posed to represent this moment never the less..

This resin bust is called “'On the edge of No Man's Land' - WW2 Young Red Army Infantryman: July 1943, Battle of Kursk” is sculpted and painted by Sang Eon Lee. The bust is made from sixteen parts of grey resin and included is some copper pliable wire to make the leather necklace strap.

Here is how he comes in a well padded presentable black box..

And the individual parts for you to examine the contents

The resin:

On hand is sixteen parts in sweet smelling resin sculpted and cast by Sang Eon Lee. There were no bubbles on the surface anywhere on my figure and the casting tabs are not too hard to remove. Actually i thought this kit would take a lot longer to build with other recent Life miniatures busts in mind and the complexity their quality demands. This figure however just went together one part after another really easily.

The figure has one head choice with the soviet 1940 pattern helmet. This is identical to the 1939 helmets thought he lining and so rivets changed a little. I like the overall shape replicated here.

A nice square block on the flat head and the helmet in recess make the helmet a secure and correctly aligned fit. 

The head is seen here in one part of grey resin - it's a wonder we did not see another headgear choice as it would be easy to do here. You can see his chinstrap around his lower jaw that joins straight to two straps which sit inside the inner recesses of the helmet. Most of all you can notice the subtle sculpting detail around the hair and eyebrows. The lips and  the eyes.

The head slips straight into the neck joint neatly. The torso wears a very wrinkly Russian summer weight tunic. The cloth is lined and folded under the straps of his machine gun and the canvas bag/rucksack the soldier has on his back. The seams of the joints in the shirt have stitching represented here and there are one or two splits in the worn fabric around the neck and shoulders which give the whole tunic a beaten feel which i can associate with the Russian troopers of the time. these guys were hard men and the conditions even harder.

The top of the canvas bag is there the knotted top section merely glues into the whole locator.

 Notice the very nicely represented canvass swag over the shoulder overlapping the haversack straps - it gives a lot of depth to the torso.

You can see here the torso and arm joins snugly and at the right angle with the help of two locating lugs.

The wrinkles of the tunic are readily apparent on the arms of this figure - just look at it - it is lovely texture with folding and weighted cloth and sagging around the button holes. You can see the hand with wrinkles and the necklace strap between the fingers and veins on the hand. Wow!

 You can see here the inside of the arm and the hand. The cross necklace is seen here. It sits right off the fingers like it is a seperate part and it would look great painted. The lower part of the hands is slightly hollowed out so you can fit the (wire) leather necklace strap inside it tightly.

He also carries a partial PPsh-41 sub machine gun. A smart choice by Life Miniatures is moulding the cooling jacket of the gun in two halves so it is a hollow appearance. Another fine bit of detail well noted by many people I bet.

The sight for the end of the barrel covers any slight seam line - i have quickly glued mine together for the review and i think with a bit of work you could get this gun barrel straightened a little better and seamless - i simply dont have the time for finesse here but I'm sure anyone buying this does have a few more minutes to spare on it.

 And the original full weapon as you can see here not a bad replication at all!

Other parts of this kit look confusing at first but looking at the box art soon clued me in. From left to right are:
Pole to mount the figure on (recess in torso)
2x chinstraps which fit straight onto the head (- there is a cloth pattern on these)
PPSh-41 strap
black wire for necklace strap.
top of "swag" bag
Long gun barrel to fit inside PpSh-41 cooling jacket.

OK so all of those little bits just seem to fit in without problems - some superglue and all was together -  here he is all put together - it took about a lazy half an hour to do if that.

 

 

 

SO that's all she wrote on that - The figure is easier to put together and it has some really subtle detail to it. The necklace and gesture captures a poingnat moment between the soldier and his god before battle.

It should attract a lot of fans - i am a fan that is for sure. Another great release from Life Miniatures - they keep doing it don't they?

Adam Norenberg

You can get this sculpt from Life Miniature’s Distributors Worldwide.

Here he is painted by Sang Eon Lee – truly a master in miniature figure painting. The colours in the skin, the helmet and uniform wear are really amazing to see in this scale.