A brand new set of soldiers fighting in the "Endkampf" of Berlin in 1945 from Rado Miniatures...
"The battle for the capital of the Reich continues, masses of seasoned Soviet troops invade the city. The Berlin Garrison is getting ready to fight back. Among the units defending the city are, among others 9th Parachute Division. The unit was created in the fall of 1944, reached combat readiness in early 1945 and gained its first combat training near Szczecin. The approaches to Berlin are strongly defended in the Zeelow hills east of the city and only after fierce defence and under heavy artillery fire, the German soldiers had to succumb and retreat west to the city."
"Jäger, 9. FJ Division, Berlin 1945"
From Rado Miniatures
1 resin figurine
1/35th scale
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Boxart by Rea Hyun Kim.
Price: €14
The 9th Division was formed in December 1944 under the command of General Bruno Bräuer with many Luftwaffe personnel transferred to combat duties for which they had no experience; it was thus a parachute division in name only, paratrooper training having ceased in mid-1944. In the Battle of the Seelow Heights, the 9th Division was positioned between Seelow and Neuhardenberg, they received the full force of the first day's artillery bombardment by Marshal Georgi Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front on 16 April. By 19 April, the remnants of the 9th Division along with what remained of the rest of the LVI Panzer Corps were within the Berlin U-Bahn outer defensive ring. During the attempted breakout on the night of 1/2 May, a small group of the 9th Division stormed the tower of Spandau Rathaus (Town Hall) from which Soviet machine-gunners were decimating Germans attempting to break out of Berlin over the Havel using the Charlottenbrücke ('Charlotten Bridge'). By the end of 2 May, the 9th Parachute Division had ceased to exist.
The unpainted, unassembled parts of this figure
The figurine shows Sagittarius (Jäger), airborne troops, from the 9th Fallschirmjäger Division at the time of the Battle for Berlin in May 1945. He is armed with a Mauser 98k and wz. 24. One of the less typical features of this soldier is to equip with high marching boots in place of typically tied parachutists (the situation observed on the photos from the period 1944-45, when the parachutists actually fought as ordinary infantry and they didn't need the typical parachuting equipment).
Here is a picture of a similarly dressed Paratrooper with the high boots.
"Obergefreiter, Pz.Div. Müncheberg, Berlin 1945"
From Rado Miniatures
1 resin figurine
1/35th scale
Kit no # 35030
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Boxart by Rea Hyun Kim.
Price: €14
Panzer-Division Müncheberg began forming on 8 March 1945 in Müncheberg, Germany. After serving near Müncheberg (where the unit received its name) and on the Küstrin Corridor East of Berlin. The division was pushed back into the north-eastern sector of Berlin, north of the River Spree. By this stage, the division retained roughly a dozen tanks and about thirty half-tracks. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide. The Müncheberg, 18th Panzergrenadier Division along with a few Tiger IIs from SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 103 were engaged in heavy fighting near the Westkreuz and Halensee train stations and on the Kurfurstendamm. By 1 May the division had been pushed back to the Tiergarten and was fighting to defend the Zoo Flak Tower, the shelter of thousands of civilians. The Müncheberg's last operating panzer, a Tiger 1, was abandoned on the Unter den Linden straße a hundred metres from the Brandenburg Gate. The division, together with the remnants of 18th Panzergrenadier, attempted to escape Berlin to the west, to surrender to the Americans. On 3 May the divisions had reached a crossing over the Havel River in Spandau, under fire by the Red Army. Those who made it across the bridge found that they were surrounded by the Soviet forces; on the same day, the division ceased to exist.
The unpainted, unassembled parts of this figure.
These two images are of modern-day re-enactors that the sculptor used to better visualize the uniform and equipment of this soldier of the Müncheberg Division.
Of course, the inclusion of the StG 44 is a gimme, including the unusual shaped "Egg" grenades from late WWII
The Obergefreiter figure has an optional StG 45 (m) included in the set - but what is the difference to the StG 44? The StG 45(M) was intended to replace the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle, because the latter was rather expensive and time-consuming to produce. Compared to the StG44's cost of 70 Reichsmarks, the StG45(M)'s calculated cost was 45 Reichsmarks. Parts for only 30 complete rifles were produced before the war ended. The StG 45(M) had an elevated iron sights line over the bore axis in part to optimize the maximum point-blank range of the compared to full-power rifle cartridges modest external ballistic performance of the 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge, ergonomics and recoil management.
"ENDKAMPF, Berlin 1945"
From Rado Miniatures
2 resin figurine set
1/35th scale
Kit no # 35030
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Boxart by Rea Hyun Kim.
Price: €26
Product Link on the Rado Miniatures Website
Here are the two figures made up but unpainted so you can see what they look like untouched and how their body language corresponds to each other in this scene.
These two new figures are sold as a set or singularly and can be purchased directly or from the distributors of Rado Miniatures...
From Rado Miniatures
2 resin figurine set
1/35th scale
Kit no # 35030
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Boxart by Rea Hyun Kim.
Price: €26
Product Link on the Rado Miniatures Website
This is the new figure set release from Rado Miniatures for January 2020. Both of the figures inside are of course sculpted by Radek Pituch and the boxart is this time courtesy of maestro Rea Hyun Kim.
Here are the two figures made up but unpainted so you can see what they look like untouched and how their body language corresponds to each other in this scene.
Here they are, both together in a scene that one might be able to be placed straight into your late WWII diorama. Both of the soldiers painted up by the very talented Rea Hyun Kim.
