ARM: Review- DML 1/35 scale Soviet Infantry Winter 1941

Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 scale ?39-?45 Series No. 6744; S oviet Infantry Winter 1941; 114 parts in grey styrene; pre-order price US$1

Advantages: nice new mold kit of Soviet infantry in greatcoats, nice new ge neric Soviet weapons

Disadvantages: so-so box art and painting directions

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: for all early war Red Army fans

When winter arrived in 1941 the Germans were ill prepared for it, whereas the Russians had a variety of useful clothing for their troops to permit th em to fight under the conditions of ?Father Frost?. This new set provid es four Red Army soldiers advancing into combat: an infantryman in a semi-p rone position with DP magazine carrier; a DP machine gunner advancing with weapon at the ready; his loader carrying extra magazines kneeling beside hi m; and an officer apparently checking a compass. The three enlisted men are in greatcoats with standard wartime helmets, and the officer is wearing th e sheepskin winter hat and officer?s short coat. All have tall felt boots .

Each figure has six basic parts ? head, torso, arms and legs ? as well as two to four supplemental parts for the skirts of the greatcoats and she epskin coat. Accessories for each individual include canteens, bread bags, and ammunition pouches.

The generic weapons include two Moisin-Nagant Model 1891 rifles with separ ate bolt assemblies and six clips for each one. The neat litle DP machine g un comes with separate bipod legs and hinge and drum magazine. The PPS subm achine guns come with only one folding stock between them and the PPSh subm achine gun has two drum magazines. The two rifles, DP and PPSh all have hol low bores via slide molding.

The artwork is in the less than impressive partially Photoshopped style DM L seems to use more and more on their figure sets, and as a result tends to let the set down as it is not the best source to use for finishing or asse mbly of the figures. Some of the DML figure sets with separate skirt parts have been fussy to assemble, and here there is no mercy for the less experi enced modeler.

Overall, however, this is a very nice set and should prove popular with BT and other early war Soviet tank fans.

Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review kit.

Cookie Sewell