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39 figures
The period covered by this set, 1939 to 1942, saw some of the darkest days of the Red Army. It includes the shameful invasion and annexation of Poland in alliance with Nazi Germany, where resistance was light, the conflict with Japan at Khalkhin Gol, where armour played an important part but again faced little armoured opposition, and the invasion of Finland, a shambolic expedition that revealed many of the weaknesses of the Red Army (although the campaign was unsuitable for widespread use of armour). The period ends with the Germany invasion, when millions of Red Army soldiers were killed or captured, and the apparently massive amounts of Soviet armour were shown to be of little value due to obsolescence, mechanical frailty and poor tactical understanding. Lessons would be learned for later, but enormous numbers of tanks and vehicles were lost during these difficult years and many crews sacrificed due to failings in the leadership.
Orion have already made two sets of Soviet tank crew for the later war years, so this one completes the picture with its coverage of the early years. Our first thought when we looked at these figures was that they are really nicely sculpted, but really badly let down by the mould. The sculpting is excellent, with plenty of fine detail all beautifully proportioned. Clothing looks very realistic, kit is nicely detailed and the faces are good too. General anatomy is excellent, and none of the poses look at all flat - happily there are none of those very awkward running poses that scarred the earlier sets. Sadly the great sculpting is really spoiled by the very bad mould, because as you can see there is a huge amount of flash all over the place. It isn’t everywhere, and perhaps not all copies of the set suffer this badly, but there is plenty to annoy anyone wishing to make the best of these figures by painting them.
Given the usual constraints on possible poses for tank crews which we have discussed many times before, we loved the choices made for this set. The selection includes men apparently in combat but out of their vehicle, with revolver in hand, men working on maintaining their vehicle, and others in more generic poses. All of them met with our approval, although we particularly liked the everyday domesticity of the man handling the kettle. Several previous Soviet figures have been made holding two flags, which are for traffic control, but in this set the men with flags is clearly signalling with them as very few Soviet vehicles had radios at this date.
Another strong point of this set is the variety of costume and attention to detail. There is a pleasingly rich variety of clothing, including the normal overalls with large thigh pocket, tunics, field shirts, leather jackets and winter coats. Several of the men wear the obvious M33 padded tanker’s helmet (some in the winter pattern), but as you would expect at this time there are also a couple of men still wearing the old pointed Shlem as well as some peaked caps. The costume ranges from cold weather to hot as the set includes men wearing the warm Ushanka fur hat and others wearing the soft brimmed panama hat, which was only issued in hot regions. Where appropriate the figures wear good deep gauntlets, and everywhere the clothing is entirely appropriate and correctly done.
Were it not for the ugly flash this would be a terrific set, and perhaps future pressings will be able to eliminate the flash problem. The poses are excellent, as is the sculpting, and accuracy is perfect. Most importantly, these figures would look amazing arrayed around one or more tanks, where you could put together a convincing scene of relaxation or preparation behind the lines. There really is not much more you could ask for from a set of tank crewmen, and in our view this is the best tank crew set Orion have yet done.
Armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army began to be formed on a larger scale in the late 1920s and 1930s. Especially in the 1930s they developed dynamically. This was reflected both in the organizational structure and in the equipment. On the first of these planes, the formation of mechanized corps began in 1932, the structure of which evolved until the outbreak of World War II. As for the equipment - new types of tanks were introduced, such as the BT-5, BT-7, T-26 and the T-28 multi-turret tank. Very successful tanks also introduced into the line shortly before the start of the war with the Third Reich - of course, we are talking about the KW-1 and T-34. However, despite the fact that at the time of the German aggression, the Soviet armored forces had a quantitative advantage over the aggressor, they suffered huge losses in men and equipment in the first period of the war. They can be explained by the shortcomings of a well-trained officer cadre (the aftermath of the Stalinist purges of the 1930s), worse individual training of Soviet tankers compared to their German opponents, or inferior tactics used by the crews of Soviet tanks. Also, the doctrine of their use was not as consistent and well-grounded in training as in the German army. We can also add to this the rather poor ergonomics of Soviet vehicles or the shortage of short and long-range radio stations in armored forces. With time, however, these errors began to be more or less successfully corrected. For example - from the spring of 1942, armored armies began to be formed, which were to perform primarily offensive tasks and which constituted a slightly more ergonomic structure than the previous mechanized corps. However, it seems reasonable to say that until the end of the war, the Red Army emphasized the quantitative advantage rather than the qualitative advantage over the enemy, although it introduced such successful tanks as the T-34/85 or IS-2 into service during the warfare. This is clearly visible, for example, during the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.
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