Build review: Stalingrad's Russian Old Woman hits the road..

Stalingrad from Russia has a great name for themselves in the 1/35^th scale figure model market – every figure they do seem to have a very individual style and look. This new “Big Set” of singular figures drives that home as we look at one of these Russian refugees in today’s figure review...

Review:

Russian old woman XX century

Russian refugees set 1941-45
S-3076
4 parts in grey resin

Available through Stalingrad's Distributors worldwide.

The owner of Stalingrad Miniatures, Mr Alexander Zelenkov is a dab hand at sculpting, we always like to show off his work on this site and a quick search will show you any number of good articles previewing and reviewing his figure sculpts. Indeed the best of these seem to be the figures that capture the faces from the east - the Russian men and women that were captured amongst the havoc of the "great Patriotic War" of  1941-1945.

The "Russian refugees set 1941-45" is a set of ten figures that is is sold separately – but it is even more impressive when viewed as a collective (pardon the pun) – these civilians are on their way away from the fighting – hopefully they might find a way to your modelling bench? Let’s look at one of them  put together – and the pictures that inspired her in our review…

Scenes from the road - Refugees of the Great Patriotic War"...

This old woman or "Bubushka" in Russian - is made up of four parts of light grey resin. She is attached to the casting blocks which need to be removed before you can make her up - one of these casting blocks is a pretty big one on her back but this one is an easy removal. There is a nasty one we will look at later but these parts are bubble free on their surfaces and the sculpting is very nicely done as usual from Stalingrad. 

The picture before and this one are two that inspired this set showing this woman at an intersection with a lot of other nervous refugees.

This old grandmother is a very nice addition to this scene. The wrinkles on her face are seen easily in this sculpt. The haggard woman is seen carrying a cloth bag and her head is hooded as she walks down the long road.

You can see the large resin casting block that you will have to remove from her headscarf which otherwise falls over her wrinkled face in lifelike folds. You can see her skirt is swaying with the motion of her walking as well. her simple blouse is seen with a buttoned front and if you look closely you can see a little of a seam you need to remove running down her back. This and the casting scar on the head do clean up nicely though so there is no concern here.

Attached to another pouring block is the bag the woman is carrying as well as her two arms. You will notice that just like the skirt the material on the sweater is wrinkling and flowing with the motion of the woman walking. The fingers and hands are rather well detailed as well and  a little clean up here is all that is needed.

When putting your babushka together you need to take real care when separating the straps of the bag on the arm of the figure. These attach to the bag that she is carrying and they are a real bugger to get off the carrier resin that encase them. This is a real fine part of work on the sculptor and a potential problem for the modeller. You can however just cut these off and ass your own from tin foil if you desire.

Here she is put together to show you what she looks like unpainted..

..And here she is painted up from the Stalingrad website showing you what can be done with such a sculpt.

Finally here she is in the centre with the rest of the "Big Set" from Stalingrad - with her other companions we did not get to see in this review.

Well like most of Stalingrad's figure i have built up i like this one. The face is just so wrinkled and detailed and the feeling of movement is conveyed very well. The straps on the bags need a very delicate pruning but after you remove these it is plain sailing and you are left with a very authentic looking figure who's humanity is seen pouring out of the sculptor's hands.

Another great piece from Stalingrad.

Adam Norenberg

You can see more of the kits in Stalingrad’s range at their website where you will also find their distributors around the world at www.stalingrad.diorama.ru

This set comes with 10 figures in all - and we thought that we would show you the others in the set we did not review - but they are built up and painted so you can still gauge their quality pretty well...

Russian refugees (3 figures),

1941-45

S-3071

This babushka is seen walking with her two infants out of harm’s way as you can see in these pictures which inspired the sculpt by Alexander Zelenkov

This set of three figures is in the one box. It comprises one woman and two children in great resin. The children are wrapped up warmly with beanies and warm thick coats on. They look like they have been through the wringer. 

Russian refugee woman,

1941-45

S-3072

This woman is seen walking down the road with a floral dress, everything she owns on her back wrapped up and a mesh pack of belongings in her arms with no shoes on – marching of all things! This picture inspired this sculpt of her here.. 

Seen here almost the same as the sculpt. Her large flat bare feet are a feature funny enough. You don’t normally see figures with bare feet in this scale or genre. She must have been a hardworking and poor woman.

Russian refugee man,

1941-45

S-3073

This man can be seen in the far right of the picture. This group of old men and children seem to be laughing along with the Germans? Anyway he is seen here just like the figure – his thick beard and rolled up blanket over his shoulder should be noted. 

Here he is as a figure – he is carrying the large wrapped up bundle of his possessions whilst – yes- his large beard is a feature of this sculpt. He is seen head down walking down the road with the rest of his companions. Noted as well is his large baggy shirt and very large bulge in the rear of his sack on his back.

Russian refugee woman,

1941-45

S-3074

This woman is seen here in a long coat with a pack on her back. DO you notice she has the straps on her back tied together so she can carry her makeshift sack a little easier?

In the figure she is captured in almost the same cadence. Carrying the large kettle for Chia she has a miserable facial expression as she walks to wherever she can get away from the front.

Russian refugee Children, 

1941-45

S-3075

Wow! When I was young I had a very close relation to my siblings. This set really does remind me of how it is to be in desperate straits at a bad time and relying on other children or your brothers and sisters to help. These pictures really do tell the story of the inspiration of these pictures.

Three figures of these children are sold together in this set. All seen with bare feet (though the boy is seen carrying his shoes) the two girls are walking with their heads down and following him down the long road. The older sister looks just like her older contemporaries in this set. These are three very evocative figures and I am sure they will spark people’s interests.

Russian refugees, Big Set 1941-45

1941-45

S-3070

This Big Set of ten figures can be bought for a price saving all in one set and they can be used I suppose together or separately. They really do suit each other and the scene with all of these sad looking faces would be really forlorn.

These figures are all available now (singularly or as a big set) - You can see where you can pick yours up from on the web-site www.stalingrad.diorama.ru