Kit Review: Miniart 1/35 Scale Kit No. 35185; Soviet Heavy Artillery Crew;
247 parts in grey styrene; retail price US$18.99Advantages: five very useful figures with a lot of kit included, choice of
76mm, 122mm, or 152mm ammunition provides flexibilityDisadvantages: very little of note
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for WWII Soviet "Redlegs"
Miniart continues to provide very interesting sets of figures which are we ll time to accompany many of the new kits from not only their company but f rom others as well. This nice little set takes a set of older figures (tank ers from set No. 35037, Soviet Self-Propelled Gun Crew) and by adding a lot of extra parts changed them over into a towed artillery crew. While it cla ims to be "heavy artillery" they provide three types of ammunition: 76mm, 1
22mm and 152mm. Therefore they can be used to serve just about any common S oviet WWII artillery weapons.Each figure comes with eight basic parts (head, torso, arms, hands and leg s) with the long skirts in two parts for the figures in greatcoats. While t he uniforms are of the later war period (late 1942 onward) the early war he lmets are also provided in the kit.
While the figures all originally came with tanker's helmets (as an SP crew ) the new options include several types of fur caps with the flaps either u p or down and ten additional heads to change the personalities of the figur es.
The figures have a wide variety of weapons, including two regular Moisin r ifles, two Moisin carbines, and two more rifles with sniper scopes. Four ba yonets are provided for the weapons plus cartridge pouches. Five different types of grenades are included from the old fashioned F-1 style (Mills Bomb ) to "potato masher" types, plus a revolver or a TT pistol. Two flare pisto ls are included, one loaded and one being loaded.
Eight rounds of 76mm are provided as they came on the SP gun sprue, but th e kit also includes two full crates of both 122mm and 152mm rounds. Each cr ate comes with packing, a propellant casing, and a choice of one of two pro jectiles (either HE-FRAG or HE for the 122mm and HE-FRAG or Concrete Penetr ating for the 152mm).
Overall this is a great little set and can be used with any of the Soviet artillery pieces in those calibers.
Cookie Sewell