The Plastic Soldier Company Limited 1/72nd Scale Russian Infantry Heavy Weapons

Well the latest release in 1/72nd Scale from The Plastic Soldier Company Limited (PSC) arrived at Kingsleypark Manor this week.

The box contains, in line with the other sets released so far, 3 sprues

The 42 pieces on each sprue allow you to build 13 figures, 2 maxims, a 82mm Mortar and a 50mm Mortar and a wee instruction sheet is provided showing how some of the models fit together. Unlike the other Infantry sets, however, there are no spare heads provided.

Once off the sprue and glued together they look like this

No flash to speak off, although you will need the craft knife to scrape away the mould lines present on most of the figures, but they easily scrape away, leaving the figures pretty clean.

When I first built the figures up I was once again, a bit concerned with the size of the figures compared with the other figures in the range. Readers of this blog will recall my disappointment at the size difference between the Late War British Infantry figures and their German Counterparts (see the post here) so

The figure on the left is from the Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform Set, the figure on the left is from the Heavy Weapons set.

Again, the figure on the left is from the Infantry set and the figure on the right from the Heavy Weapons set. Comparing a figure with a figure from the German Infantry set -

A wee bit bulkier but height wise they seem pretty compatible, coming in at approximately 22mm from foot to eye

The set contains one officer, holding binoculars in right hand (and presumably shouting "Shoot that German!")

An 82mm mortar and 3 crew

The mortar is fairly basic, but then again so was the original

The 50mm Mortar has 2 crew

Again, seems fairly faithful to the original

Then there are 2 Maxims with crew. One crew are depicted pulling their gun

An interesting pose (although that right wheel looks a bit gammie - blame my gluing though not the model). NB: EDIT - Check out this picture of the Revell WWII Soviet Infantry set from the Plastic Soldier Review webpage.

The other crew are in firing pose -

I do recall seeing a post somewhere on the TMP Message Boards (although I can't remember where!!) pointing out that the picture on the box shows the Loader of the Maxim on the wrong side -

However, as can be seen from the models the Loader is a separate model and can be positioned on the right hand side, so presumably the picture on the box is just an error. No ammo box for the Maxim though, so you may have to scratch build one or use your imagination.

There are also 2 Anti Tank Rifle (PTRS) figures -, one in the firing position with a Loader

The other carrying his rifle

Detail on the figures is generally good although it has to be said that none of the figures are particularly laden with gear. Other than the officer figure and the kneeling figure of the 82mm Mortar team, none of the figures carry any sort of sidearm, though some of the figures do sport ammo pouches on their waist belts.

With the figures in the set, you get enough Heavy Weapons to kit out 3 Rifle Battalions using the Rapid Fire rules (as per the Second Supplement giving the Eastern Front Unit Organisations, although I understand this is now out of print). So unless you were planning to build a rather large Russian force you would probably only ever need to buy one of these sets.

The set retails at £11 plus P & P direct from PSC (although note they do charge a 50 pence charge for a "low order fee") and no doubt other Wargames outlets will stock the figures as well.

So all in all a tidy set, a useful addition to the Russian Infantry set already released. Also coming soon from PSC for the Russians in 1/72nd scale is their 45mm Anti Tank and for the Germans, the Panzer IV, SdKfz 251/Ausf C and D Halftracks and Heavy Weapons Set (plus a number of kits in 15mm scale as well)  so the company have definitely got a full head of steam going now with their release schedule and that can only be a good thing for anyone interested in gaming WW2.

Acknowledgements to Gun Pictures.Net, and Inert-Ord.Net, for the pictures used above.