Kozak Miniatures was founded by Eugenio Chernov, a Ukrainian sculptor, a couple of years ago. Back then it was called Kozak Mini Art Studios. It operates entirely digitally, meaning that its sculptures are digital blueprints that come to life via 3D printing. It does not have its own retail outlet, but rather licenses its designs to different vendors which take care of the printing and all the other commercial and logistics aspects. I first ran into them at the Speira site and since then I have encountered Kozak's designs at WW23D.com and Toy Soldier Central. They have a Facebook page where they showcase their work and they also have links to a couple other outfits that take care of selling and printing their figures. Kozak is quite prolific and its range is fairly large at this point. Given that I am writing about them, they certainly offer WW2 figures, but they also offer quite a few Napoleonics, French Colonials, Pirates, Native Americans, Samurais, Ninjas, Modern Ukranian, SWAT Teams, and more. Some of them come with artillery pieces, horses, camels, vehicles, rafts, etc. And because they are 3D printed they can be scaled up or down to different sizes and can be printed with different variations of head gear. Many of the figures can be purchased individually, but recently some vendors have started to offer them as sets. I personally prefer this latter option because I find it hard to keep track of what figures I have already purchased if I buy them individually given the rate at which new designs are being offered. Below is a sampling of some of the designs that they offer in the WW2 range, along with where I have purchased them.
Kozak Miniatures British Long Range Desert Group by WW23D
For me, this was the most interesting set at WW23D because I did not have any other figures representing this service branch. As you can tell these guys look rugged from spending a lot of time in the desert in long range patrols. They are dressed accordingly with short trousers, turbans and have not had a shave in a while. The range of weapons represented is good, although with strong preference for submachine guns. The sculpting is OK in the sense that there's not a lot of fine detail, and also the poses are standing a bit too straight for my taste. Nonetheless, given that this is the first set of British desert scouts that I incorporate into my army, I am quite happy with them.
Kozak Miniatures British Long Range Desert Group Jeep by WW23D
Aside from the foot soldiers, this vendor also offers a couple of vehicles to enable them to go on their missions deep behind enemy lines. One of them is this jeep. It is also 3D printed and comes with a driver and a copilot operating a dual machine gun. You also get a couple of guys that you can throw in the back. Note in this picture also that one of them is wearing a beret. That's because this maker also prints these figures with different head gear. I ordered them with turbans, but the owner was nice enough to throw in a few extras and this is one of the additional guys I got.
Kozak Miniatures British Long Range Desert Group Truck by WW23D - Part I
This truck is a bit larger and can fit 4 or 5 guys in the back in addition to the driver and copilot. The copilot is operating a dual machine gun. The man standing in the back is also handling a dual MG, so these guys are well armed with a 360 degree field of fire, and they can also shoot upwards to defend against strafing planes! The vehicle appears to be a Chevy 30CWT 1 1/2 ton truck and it is reasonable well built for a 3D printed vehicle. What I like the most is that it does not have the layering pattern that some 3D printers create.
Kozak Miniatures British Long Range Desert Group Truck by WW23D - Part II
This is the same Chevy truck from a different angle. Note that despite this being an American-made truck, the driver is sitting on the right side of the cabin, as is the case in Britain. Not that it would matter much while driving off road in the North African desert, but I suppose when they were back at base, driving among other fellow country men, it was safer to keep to the familiar norms.
Kozak Miniatures British Commandos by WW23D
Here are a few more guys to complement the Airfix and Matchbox commandos. I have the same commentary about their stance (a bit too straight) as I have about all the figures from this manufacturer, so I am not going to dwell on it, but at least there are three kneeling guys and one of the men -second from left- does seem to have some nice forward momentum. The squad comes with a good mix of light infantry weapons, including a sniper rifle, adequate for their clandestine missions and of course, they are wearing the distinctive commando cap.
Kozak Miniatures British Paratroops by WW23D - Part I
These men look ready to join their comrades in Arnhem. There are nine of them so I decided to split them into two groups for the pictures so that you can see them better. From this first group, my favorite one is the one on the left, kneeling on one leg and leaning forward while firing his sub MG. The one on the right reminds me of the pose from one of the Conte British paras. And the other 3 just seem to be walking on patrol on their way to liberate some Dutch town before the Germans counter attack and turn on the heat on them.
Kozak Miniatures British Paratroops by WW23D - Part II
These guys are a bit more adequate for a battle scene. The two guys in the middle are very similar to each other, except that they have the opposite foot forward and one of them is flexing his back knee a bit. The other difference is the type of sub MG. One of them has a sten gun with the magazine on the side, while the other one doesn't. The guy on the left is a pretty standard pose, and the one on the right reminds me of a pose I have seen in another set, but I can't quite place him. Let me know in the comments if he also rings a bell.
Kozak Miniatures British Paratroops Set 2 by Speira
This is their second set of British Paras. I did not get the first one because they are very similar to the 3D printed guys I already bought from WW23D.com. But even this set does have a couple duplicates relative to the one from WW23D. Given the amount of 3D printed figures I've decided that I will have to be a bit selective in terms of which ones I get. Anyhow, I got set 2 because of its special weapons. The heavy MG and the Piat can always come in handy for an airborne unit which is usually light in heavier weapons. The other 5 guys are OK. I also liked that I could order them wearing helmets instead of berets (you can also order them with those). In terms of detail, I like that you can even see mustaches on a couple of guys. It probably helps that I also ordered them in Big 1/32 scale.
Kozak Miniatures German Afrika Korps by WW23D
The British SAS guys need an opponent, so here we have the German Afrika Korps, although compared to the number of poses that came with the SAS set, these guys are going to face a tough fight. The most distinctive feature of these guys is that they are all wearing googles on their helmets. Their poses are not too exciting, except for the guy on the left, who is displaying a bit more action. Good thing that we have other manufacturers to fill in the ranks and give us more diversity of poses.
Kozak Miniatures German Paratroops by WW23D
I like this set a bit more than the others in terms of the sculpting and the level of action in the poses. Even the guys who are standing -except for the one on the middle- are all leaning in some direction. The pose I like the most in this set is the one on the left, who is advancing while firing his sub MG. These guys will blend well with the Airfix, Mars, and Pegasus German paras. The only thing to criticize is that the 3D printing sometimes crates a few defects, like the edge on one of the helmets is a bit uneven. I suppose we will attribute that to battle damage.
Kozak Miniatures Soviet Scouts by WW23D
This is a service branch not often represented so I was glad to see them as I do need more poses to complement the Bassevich and Plastic Platoon scouts. As you can see, they are wearing their distinctive cammo smock that I will be painting with the amoeba pattern. I also like that they gave us a pose who is sneaking in with a knife on his hand to take out an opponent undetected and preserve the surprise factor of the mission. One thing I didn't like however is a more visible manufacturing flaw on the leg of the man who is kneeling and looking through his binoculars. I may plant a bush in front of it to make it less obvious.
Kozak Miniatures Soviet Naval Infantry by WW23D
What attracted me the most about these Soviet Naval infantry guys is the fact that they are wearing helmets. Most of the other figures I have representing this service branch are wearing sailor caps. I actually prefer that look, but I like that these guys will create some variety in my ranks. Ready for defending Sevastopol or as reinforcements for Stalingrad.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops by WW23D
The uniforms on these guys are probably the most detailed across all the sets I got from this vendor. They did a good job with all the pockets, the equipment straps, the bandages on the helmets, etc. The only detail missing is that on the faces, but that is true for all their sets. They will go quite well with the Airfix guys. My only wish is that they hadn't made the two poses on the left so similar to each other. With only six figures in the set, it would be good to try something different.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops TS Central - Part I
A nice set of 14 US paras to expand my ranks even if 5 of them seem to be repeated from the previous set. The scale is pretty much spot on 1/32 so they will complement the previous set and the Airfix guys quite well. In addition to the figures, you also get a couple of steel obstacles (aka Czech Hedgehogs) and a sandbag position to protect your guys. The detail on the poses is crisp and the uniforms have a good amount of gear. My only wish is that the poses were a bit more dynamic. I still feel that most of the poses are too vertical even though they are firing, allegedly under enemy fire, but they are either standing or walking. I suspect that this is a design choice because the figures are not guaranteed to be printed with a base, so this makes it easier to stand them, but I would prefer that they impose a base on their figures and allow them to be more fluid in their movements. Of the seven guys in this first picture, the kneeling guy is my favorite, precisely because he is not standing. The prone guy is second.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops TS Central - Part II
These guys are a bit better. Most of them are marching and their stance seems adequate for it. The guy on the far left who is about to throw a grenade is the exception. He seems too relaxed to be holding something about to blow up in his hand. But at least we have one guy running in this batch. That's progress. As far as the material in which they are printed, I found it pretty good. Better than some of the other more brittle resins. Speaking of breaking, an unfortunate thing that happened is that the sandbags appear to have been broken and glued back together. That left a white line of glue residue. Of course, that is something to do with the vendor and not Kozak and once I paint them it won't be noticeable.
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army by TS Central - Part I
Here we have an 18-figure set of B8A guys. In terms of poses, this is really generous. I might be wrong, but I don't recall another set as big as this one since the Conte GIs were released about 20 years back. Anyhow, when it comes to 3D printing, given the volume of figures available, I am realizing that I may not be able to pursue completeness anymore. However I do want to have at least one set of 3D printed figures for each service branch and I still had that gap for the B8A. BTW, I really like that they have packaged all these figures as a set because it is pretty hard to track and buy them individually. In terms of these first 6 guys, not much to comment other than getting two poses of what's essentially the same officer figure just with different head gear seems like a missed opportunity to have crafted some better pose, but with an 18-figure set I guess they can afford that luxury.
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army TS Central - Part II
In terms of the actual figures, I find them just OK. As I've pointed out with other Kozak figures, I find the posing of these guys a bit too stiff. I would prefer to see more bending of the knees, hunching of the back, ducking to avoid flying debris, or running faster to find cover. These guys lack a sense of urgency, even the ones who are 'running'. Out of the first two pics, I think the Bickers machine gunner is probably my favorite. Perhaps because he is the one who requires the least intensity to appear to be doing his job well. I do have to say that the variety of weapons is welcome. Having said that, it would have been nice to issue a weapon to the grenade man on the left, perhaps slung across his back? Else he's going to need a lot more grenades!
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army TS Central - Part III
This is where the set gets better. The kneeling guys and the prone guys are definitely much better than their standing counter parts. One of the prone guys is firing a Bren gun and the other one seems to be firing a Boys anti tank rifle, aka 'elephant gun', which is a nice choice of weapon. The two kneeling guys in the middle look very similar, but they have different webbing/pouches, and one has a scope on his rifle so that he can snipe better at those DAK guys. One interesting bit is that the bases are not designed by Kozak, but rather provided by the vendor. In this case, they issue circular bases, and if you pay attention you will notice that some of them have a larger diameter than others. You get to glue them yourself, so I allocated the larger ones to the kneeling guys.
Kozak Miniatures British Support Troops by Speira - Part I
A good set to have to enhance the Airfix British Support Troops, or to use instead of them if you don't like to mix scales, as I got these in Big 1/32. I particularly like the flamethrower guy with its round fuel tank. I don't know if I have seen this pose before among British troops. An interesting detail about the MG figures is that one you add the base to the ammo handler, his hands no longer line up with the ammo belt (not visible in the picture). And if you place the ammo box on top of the base, then the ammo belt no longer lines up with the MG. I suppose one way to fix this is to add a base to the MG figure.
The rest of the set includes a mortar team with a spotter as well as a prone sniper. In terms of the detail, I like that some of the helmets have webbing and some don't, but I still feel that the uniforms are very 'clean'. They have a few folds, but they still appear too smooth for my taste. One more thing to note about 3D printed figures is that sometimes they design the weapons to be a bit thicker to account for the brittleness of the resin used for printing. You can see that here with the mortar. That would be a heavy one to carry!
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