AM,
They're pretty good and worth a try. Here's a review I posted some
time ago about one of their sets.
Cookie Sewell
* * *Kit Review: Miniart 1/35 Scale Kit No. 35017; Soviet Tank
Crew at Work; 37 parts in grey styrene; price about US$9
Advantages: nice, modern set of figures in casual poses “doing
something” around a tank
Disadvantages: “Not German”
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for all Soviet armor dioramists
For too many years the wealth of figures and figure sets produced
have been too closely focused on only WWII German subjects, which has
been very frustrating to the rest of the armor and figure community.
When the stray American, Russian or (heaven forbid!) Commonwealth set
came out, modelers would fall on it like a pack of hungry piranhas no
matter how good – or bad – it was.
Happily many of the newer manufacturers have seen this and now the
Chinese and Eastern European ones are filling the void, and with
good, high quality figures too. Miniart has begun with a pretty good
track record on figures, and now Soviet WWII modelers have been able
to get some decent figures to compliment the growing number of WWII
Soviet armored vehicles offered.
This set provides five Soviet tankers performing maintenance. Three
of the figures are posed as it operating a bore brush for the main
armament (which was usually carried in sections inside the longest of
the stowage bins – “ZIP” in Russian for spares, tools and accessories
– on the fenders of nearly all combat vehicles. One bareheaded figure
is posing with a rag in hand and the commander is standing in a
relaxed position with his hands set to drape over an open hatch.
The one thing that I have noticed about the new Miniart figures is
that their facial sculpting yields to no one. The five heads in this
set are the equal of many of the after-market resin ones offered and
can be shown to have individual expressions and even ethnicity – one
tanker hear looks to be a Tadzhik (central Asian) with a shaven head
and it shows. The same goes for the other four.
Anyone with a good set of tank blueprints may want to have the man
with the rag working on cleaning out the tank’s air cleaners, which
needed constant maintenance with a good cleaning by the crew every 3-4
hours (until 1951 when UVZ finally created a working design that
solved that problem.)
Finishing is provided similar to DML boxing with an assembly diagram
and color directions on the back of the box. Interior directions
provide a handy sketch of where the parts for each figure are located
on the sprue.
Overall, this is a great set and one that any diorama modeler would
be able to find good use for with a T-34 or IS tank or other 1943 and
later armored vehicle.