Sunday, June 12

Preview: Rado Miniatures Photo-etch & Panzerknackers - new releases in 1/35th scale for June 2022

Rado Miniatures has two new figures that help make up a four figure set (we will explain promise) of SS Men on a mission to liberate Budapest - Included in June's releases are some essential photo-etch stencils for your German vehicles. See what we know about the mission, the figures & photo-Etch in our preview...
Preview: Rado Miniatures Photo-etch & Panzerknackers - new releases in 1/35th scale for June 2022

The Subject: Operation Konrad: The Three Relief Attempts of Budapest by the IV SS Panzer Korps
On Christmas Eve 1944, the men of the IV SS-Panzerkorps were preparing to celebrate the occasion as best they could. Taking advantage of the pause in the fighting around Warsaw, they looked forward to partaking in that most German of holidays, including the finest Christmas dinner their field kitchens could still prepare in this fifth year of the war. This was not to be, for that very evening, the corps commander, SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille, received a telephone call notifying him that the 35,000 men of his corps would begin boarding express trains the following day that would take them from the relative quiet of the Vistula Front to the front lines in Hungary, hundreds of kilometres away.

SS-Panzergrenadiers of IV. SS-Pz.Korps during the operations ro 
Their mission was to relieve Budapest. Thus would begin the final round in the saga of the IV SS-Panzerkorps. In Hungary, it would play a key role in the three attempts to raise the siege of that fateful city. Threatened as much by their high command as by the forces of the Soviet Union, Gille and his troops overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their attempts to rescue the city's garrison, only to have their final attack called off at the last minute. At that moment, they were only a few kilometres away from the objective towards which they had striven for nearly a month. After the relief attempt's failure sealed the fate of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians and Germans, the only course of action remaining was to dig in and protect the Hungarian oilfields as long as possible.

SS-Panzergrenadier-Division “Totenkopf” moves out in bleak weather during Operation Konrad II, Hungary 1945.

The sets:
Rado Miniatures have prepared several new releases for June - Three of these are new Photo-etched sets for AFVs enthusiasts and four are new figure sets that you can use in the Ardennes, Orderfront, during battles in Hungary or Alsace or anywhere else in the restless times of the winter of 1944/1945.

W-SS Pz.Grenadier w/Kar98k & PzF. 60/100, 1944/45
Set No #RDM35048 
1/35th scale
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Artwork by Toshihiro Sano
1 figure cast in grey resin
Price: €16
The first of our "Panzerknackers" comes unassembled and unpainted in the box as standard. He is number #RDM35048 "W-SS Panzergrenadier w/Panzerfaust, 1944/45" - a late war anti-tanker whose Panzerfaust looms large.
The shutze is seen here looking on in a neutral pose. The sculpture is crafted by Radek Pituch while the artist in this case is Toshihiro Sano. The figure comes in a box unassembled and unpainted of course.
The rear fo the soldier is given some depth with the gear that hangs from his combat harness, the bread bag, the intrenching tool and bayonet in their leather cover are shown here. The mess tin and the loops in the soldier's camouflage smock add detail also. 
You can see his constant companion, the Kar.98 bolt-action rifle held to his port as he looks on to the scene in the distance.


W-SS Pz.Grenadier w/StG44 & PzF. 60/100, 1944/45
Set No #RDM35049 
1/35th scale
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Artwork by Toshihiro Sano
1 figure cast in grey resin
Price: €16
The new set number #RDM35049, "W-SS Panzergrenadier w/Panzerfaust and Sturmgewehr 44" features an SS soldier wearing the late war SS anorak that gives you the option to paint in either plain green or in Italian Telo Mimetico camouflage scheme. He carries a Panzerfaust on his shoulder, up to no good no doubt!
His right arm traces through the strap on his Sturmgewehr 44 automatic rifle, and he has plenty of ammo strapped to his torso's webbing in the cloth pouches they used towards the end of the war. Two stick grenades are tucked into his belt.
The gear on his belt includes a Mauser pistol in a leather holster, the bayonet hanging from his belt in its pouch, the water flask. You will notice the thick trousers over his boots, the ribbed jumper poking out of his sleeve and the woolen parka's hood down on his back a re highlights of this sculpture.


W-SS Panzerfausts team, 1944/45 (two figures)
Set No #RDM35050 
1/35th scale
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Artwork by Toshihiro Sano
1 figure cast in grey resin
Price: €30
These two high quality resin figures also come unassembled and unpainted as a set of two figures in one for a slightly cheaper cover price than to buy them as singles if that is your desire. They look like they could well be from the same time, unit and theatre of war, but each has slightly different clothing and ways of wearing them and their equipment they are carrying.


Breakthrough on the Danube, Budapest relief attempts, Konrad I-III, Hungary 1945
(Four figures in one set)
1/35th scale
Sculpted by Radek Pituch
Artwork by Toshihiro Sano
1 figure cast in grey resin
Price: €59
Here are the large set of "Panzerknackers" together. Four high quality resin figures that again come unassembled and unpainted. The two figures #RDM35012 and set RDM35050 (both the 2021 new tooling editions) that we looked at a while ago. Along with these two figures, they make this four figure "Big Set".


Operation Zitadelle AFV Markings
RDM35PE10
Price €10
Photo-etched fret of 40x60mm size that gives the modeller stencils for temporary vehicle markings for Operation Zitadelle, Kursk 1943.

The set of course, comes with instructions on how to apply the stencils


Heer Divisional Markings for AFV's
RDM35PE11
Photo-etched fret of 40x60mm size that gives the modeller stencils for the armoured units of the Heer. Set complimentary to out PE09, W-SS Divisional Markings for AFVs.

The set of course, comes with instructions on how to apply the stencils 


Heer & SS Schwere Panzer Battalion Markings
RDM35PE12
Photo-etched fret of 40x60mm size that gives the modeller stencils for the Heer and SS Tiger I and Tiger II tanks battalions stencils for markings. 

The set of course, comes with instructions on how to apply the stencils  
These items are available now in Rado Miniatures shop and soon in modeling shops near you.