"Plastic or Metal WW2 Russians in 1/72?" Topic

I'm looking for the nicest* WW2 Russians in 1/72 plastic or metal. By 1/72 I mean that scale-wise they should play well with Airfix models.

Which company do you recommend?

*nice = crisp sculpts, non-ludicrous poses, proportions close to Airfix

airfix are more close to 1/76

For Russians in metal in 20mm/1:72 scale go with Elhiem. They're the best I've ever seen. Up against Airfix plastics they won't work well.

Pegasus has a couple of nice sets. I like the Italieri ones as well.

I only know about plastics; I would strongly advise waiting until Zvezda release their full-size WW2 Russian packs, because Zvezda unusally do excellent work.

Other than that, the Pegasus Russians are good, but not as good as their Soviet Naval Infantry, and all are wearing caps instead of helmets.

The Revell Russians suffer from some excess plastic in hard-to-reach areas, and have a number of poses I would not class as non-ludicrous.

The old Esci Russians (now under the Italeri label) are still quite nice, with chunkier weapons than Revell but better moulding. There are some annoying poses -- bloke with horse, female radio operator, chap waving hands above head and man squatting in utterly impossible firing pose -- but it is probably worth getting a few boxes for variety and because you get three Maksim MMGs per box. The 82mm mortars could really do with a replacement bipod, but, again, waiting might be a good idea, as Pegasus have been planning a Russian mortar set for some time now.

There are also the Revell Siberians and some Italeri Russians in winter kit. The Plastic Soldier Review will give you a pretty good idea of what everything looks like. I don't know why Caesar haven't done any Russians yet, but at the rate they are pushing out new sets, there's always hope.

All the best,

John.

John are the ESCI the hard plastic ones or soft ?

caesar miniatures…

Thanks, that's really helpful!

John are the ESCI the hard plastic ones or soft ?

Ah, this depends on the values of "hard" and "soft".

The ESCI box I was referring to was the soft plastic box. As re-issued by Italeri, these now use a much harder kind of soft plastic (if that makes sense -- they are still not the cementable polystyrene that construction kits are made of).

There was also a hard plastic (cementable polystyrene) ESCI set made, which has never AFAIK been re-issued, called "Red Guards" or some such thing. The weapons were not as chunky as the soft plastic set, and some of the figures wore caps. I didn't mention them because I doubt they are at all easy to find these days, but there were some really nice figures in the set -- the standing and running PPSh men and the kneeling SVT man looked very much like the 1/32 scale Airfix pieces.

Does that make sense?

All the best,

John.

I have the Italeri Russians and they are very good. However, I have had the usual paint flaking probs but these have been largely negated by proper priming!

Elheim's Russians, like pretty much all their output are fantastic!

I'm thinking that the plastic soldier companys new T34 would be a great be if it looks as good in 1/72 as it did in 15mm then woohoo…..its hard plastic too

A slightly different question:

Say I have an Elhiem WWII Russian platoon, or an AB WWII German platoon. Which if any plastics might work as their opponents?

And are there any plastics that could fill holes in the metals force? E.g., do the plastic Russian Navals work at all well with the metal Infantry?

Makes sense John, had the 'hard' set back in the 70s

For NKVD and airborne troops check out TQD. Warmodelling also do late war Russians that complement Elhiem's. For early war (i.e. no shoulder boards and early helmets) try Battlefield and SHQ.

I just got a bunch of Plastic Soldier Company's German Inf & Russian Inf. I saw a comparison shot with AB somewhere and they were perfectly compatible.

link

The Germans are exactly what I have been waiting for. This company is killer!

If you are here in the States, we have all of the Elhiem WWII Red Army Russians in stock at the moment. We just received a restock order a little over a week ago. Please feel free to email if you have any questions.

In addition you might also look into Milicast resin figures and vehicle kits (we haev early and late war SU-76s in stock) or Platoon 20. I especially like the tank riders from ERM (Platoon 20).

Thanks Duane
syrhobbswargames.com
duane@syrhobbswargames.com

Don't forget the FAA Russians, if they ever become available again and the SHQ guy's are pretty good as well

I notice no one mentioned Preiser, 1/72nd scale,as figures these are the nicest Red Army I have ever come across.They can be difficult to get and you have to make sure you don't get their 1/86th range. The 1/72nd range starts with a 72. Their tank riders are really better than any metal ones which are usally to big. They come with seperate heads arms and sometimes bodies, also back packs and bags. They are hard plastic, are much superior to the Plastic Soldier range.
I got the ESCI hard plastic years ago to replace my Airfix, but I lost the box I had them all in. I have recently found a few boxes, thanks to the internet.

I had already built my Soviet forces with the Italeri winter set and the Esci, but my favourite plastic Russian set is probably the Revell set, with very realistic poses. But they are a bit on the lanky side and because of the poses, have some awkward bits of access plastic. Their Siberian set has some good figures in winter dress and a nice mortar team. But the Plastic Soldier set is probably the most solid choice with no weird poses – another set that came along too late!

For winter dress, Reiver.

FAA are available:
faaminiatures.com