The Box art is just that... art... so I can forgive them showing models that aren't included, such as the Maxim and PPSh officer.
Now to the Sprues.
Russian Infantry
Quite a few duplicates here, abet with a change of hat for each:
S1 & R1 are the same pose, but have the weapon separate. One has to have the Spagin and the other the Rifle.
tPSC missed a trick in not offering multiples of both.
S2 is pretty cool, the head is separate for casting reasons, I can see using him as a junior officer
S3 & S4 both two part models with the arms and gun separate
R2 & R3 two part again, each with a join at the waist, so at least you can twist them to look different
R4 has a separate rifle for casting reasons
S5 & S6 in the awful "disco dance with a grenade" pose
R5 & R6, and R7 & R8, are twins, but in fairly standard poses.
S7 & S8 & S9 & S10 are all the same kneeling position, I suppose there are only so many ways you can kneel.
The obvious Officer, pointing and shouting, has a separate shouty arm. This will get repetitive once you have all 5 commanders in the same pose. Again PSC missed a trick; alternate left arms with a Spagin or Tokarev to liven things up.
The Female (M) in the group is a fair addition.
The soviets allowed women to serve in frontline infantry units as medics, snipers, radio operators and machine gunners, all tasks that would keep them just behind the cutting edge of a fire fight.
This model seems to be a medic, directly correlating to the medics in the German box set.
Tokarev man 1&2 seem to be junior officers, but there are too many in the same pose for my liking.
The 2 Degtyaryov gunners each with their own loader are fairly good, the firing pair both have separate heads, and the walking gunner has a separate arm with the gun on.
45mm Anti-Tank Gun
The 45mm Anti tank guns, this time with 4 sprues in the box. I have some problems with the box art now that we have photographs of actual models.
It's obvious that they used a larger scale model for the photo, possibly their 28mm (1/50ish) box. The loose shells are a clear give away as they aren't in this set.
I can forgive that on the aesthetic grounds, but the fact that the photo has also been reversed annoys me.
The crew is fairly good with one more model than necessary for Flames of War, so I can add one to a command/spotter group or to the heavy mortar teams
The gun here is assembled with the later long barrelled 45mm, at the front are the early short 45mm and the 76mm infantry gun. It is nice to have the extra options.
The to ammo crates, one open, one closed, are another good addition.
ZIS 2/3 Gun
I don't think they've even changed the shell size, not that I'd notice the difference much at this scale.
Rather lazy mister PSC.
The guns are rather good, again select the gun you want to build, but this time the wheels (and shell boxes) are specific to the version. A nice bit of historical detail that I didn't know.
Infantry Heavy Weapons
A lot of multi part models for the heavy weapons, as is to be expected.
Not sure I'll use the 50mm light mortar as it only appears in a few lists, it would have been better to have a moving maxim in it's place.
The PTDRs are in exactly the same poses as the Degtyaryov gunners (D1, D2 and L1) from the Infantry box
The second Anti-tank rifleman (PTDR2) has no loader, but I'll probably use some of the Degtyaryov loaders (L2) for the task.
Of the new guys I like Gunner 6 and his twin, but not Gunners 7 who is about to throw his binoculars at someone.
Conclusions
I'm rather good at poking holes in the choices PCS have made, but on the whole I like these models for a number of reasons;1: The detail is Crisp and Sharp; no pudgy hands or swollen gun barrels here.
2: It's plastic; no worries about chipping paint, bent guns and brittle super glue.
3: It's ridiculously cheap compared to the competition
4: While I've complained about the repeat models, how many different poses do you actually get in a Flames of War infantry set.
~ Bob
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