Kit Review: Master Box 1/35 Scale Eastern Front Series Kit No. MB3523; Kit No. 2 Soviet Infantry in Action 1941-1942; 60 parts in khaki colored styrene; price about US $14.50
Advantages: very well chosen and sculpted "in action" poses; extra heads provide flexibility
Disadvantages: somewhat expensive for styrene figures
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for all Soviet GPW fans
I have heard a lot of good things about the Ukrainian company Master Box but this is the first chance I've had to pick up a set of their figures and have to say up front I am impressed.
This set - one of three they produce in their "Eastern Front" series (the others are a set of German infantry and one with two Germans and two Soviets in a pitched hand-to-hand battle) - provides four figures in the early war uniforms and various combinations of kit. One figure comes with leg wraps and shoes and the other three with boots; also, four "flat top" heads (the norm for nearly all manufacturers when oversized headgear like helmets is called for) are provided along with two heads with "pilotka" sidecaps.
Breakdown is the normal "six piece" figure assembly - legs, arms, torso and head. Sculpting is very good and all six heads in the box show good definition and emotion.
The figures are well armed with two Moisin M1891 rifles with fixed bayonets, two PPSh submachine guns, and one DT machine gun. Each figure also comes with a canteen, bread bag, and entrenching tool.
All figures are in the early war "rankless" informs without epaulettes and with color tabs. The officer is standing with a PPSh, one solider is charging with bayonette, one is firing the DT machine gun, and the fourth one appears to have just been wounded.
Overall this is a nice set, better done than the comparable but older Zvezda sets covering the same time frame in the Great Patriotic War, and closer to the DML figure standard than many others.
Cookie Sewell