German Paratroops in Action

Berlin, April '45. The end is near. The 9th Fallschirmjaeger division has been gradually pushed back into the city by the Soviet Army and is now engaged in urban warfare. This division was raised shortly before the end of the war and was made up primarily of surplus Luftwaffe personnel. They recieved very little training on infantry tacticts and therefore suffered disproportionately high losses. By the time the battle of Berlin is over it will have ceased to exist. In the images below we see a platoon of paratroopers defending a corner house which has miraculously avoided major damage from the months of allied bombardment and the intense weeks of Soviet artillery shelling.

This is where the paratroopers have decided to make their stand. As a corner house, it is able to control an important street intersection in the city.

The paratroopers stand ready, having fortified the house as much as it's possible under the circumstances.

A prone man with a MG-42 is keeping the advancing Soviet troops at a safe distance.

The balconies offer a good field of fire, but don't offer much protection.

A PAK-40 has been positioned inside the house and is exacting a heavy toll on the armored vehicles trying to move through the intersection.

The attic also offers prime observation and firing positions.

The back of the building, facing a courtyard is also being properly defended.

Many of the paratroopers are armed with semi-automatic weapons, which provide them with a good rate of fire, but work best when the enemy is at close range, so these men are holding their fire for the time being.

The commander, positioned in a corner window in the upper floors, signals the rest of his troops to open fire on the closing Soviet troops.

All hands rush to their battle stations.

Those men with carbines are making every shot count.

The attack is coming from both streets leading up to the intersection. Fortunately, the corner windows offer a 270 degree field of fire and the men shift their aim to wherever the need is greater.

The Soviet attackers greatly outnumber the defenders and the Soviet, sensing that the final victory is within reach, attack fiercely. Soon they are within grenade-throwing range.

From the ground floor to the attic, every paratrooper is trying to do his best. They know that this time the fight is to the end.

For the now, the grenades...

...and the automatic weapons are keeping the enemy from reaching the house.

But the enemy has the house surrounded by now. The toopers rush from window to window in a desperate struggle to keep them away from the building.

By now, the MG-42 on the ground floor has been knocked out. The second and last MG is firing non-stop.

The observer in the attic is calling for mortar fire on the courtyard within a few yards of the house. The risk of a shell landing short is well understood, but there are no other options.

The men are starting to run low on ammo, and some are firing their last rounds.

The German men also feel that the end is near and a sense of rage takes over. All they want is to take a few more of the enemy with them.

But despite their best efforts, the casualties start to mount.

The first Soviet troops have reached the house and vicious hand-to-hand combat ensues.

Some Soviet men have managed to gain access to the building through the back door and are already reaching the second floor.

A paratrooper drops a few more grenades into the courtyard from one of the upper floors.

But the Soviet men are already spreading through the rest of the house and it is now only a matter of time until the clear the entire building. The fate of these paratroopers is sealed.

Here's a post of the German Fallschirmjaeger in more detail.

Soviet Infantry - Part II

In this post I would like to show you a few more Soviet / Russian Infantry figures that I have discovered since I painted the Soviet Company. In all there are over 50 new poses which will be a nice addition to the Soviet Army once I get to paint them. Unfortunately it's going to be a while before that as there's a long queue ahead of them, but we'll get there at some point. Anyhow, first I'd like to show you the Soviet Infantry from Supreme Playsets. These we released only last year. They are recasts of the 1/72 Italeri Soviet Infantry. There is an important point though. While Italeri also released a Soviet Infantry set in 1/32, that set only contains 8 figures, whereas the Supreme Playsets Set contains 12. If you want to try to identify which 4 are the new ones, do so before reading the rest of the post.

 Supreme Playsets Soviet Infantry - Part I

I've already painted the Italeri Soviet Infantry set, so the only two guys that I'll be painting are the first and the third guys from the left. The one on the very left is carrying an anti-tank rifle (not sure if it is a PTRS or a PTRD), which is actually a nice and unique figure/weapon across all the Soviet Infantry sets that I have seen. He's great at taking on lightly-to-medium-armored German vehicles.

Supreme Playsets Soviet Infantry - Part II

As you can see, Supreme Playsets released these figures in two color schemes. The green base color that you see is actually the color of the plastic, and only the face is really painted. The rest of the figure just has some brown patches throughout the body. So, other than the eyes, which actually look fairly decent, the rest of the paint job is rather poor. The same is true for the brown figures in the first picture above. The two new poses that I have yet to paint (or paint over) are the first and the fourth guys from the right.

DGN Soviet Infantry - Part I

These guys all seem to be originals as far as I can tell. They are a fairly decent set in terms of detail and proportions. Some of the poses are a bit 'funny' though. For instance, the guy on the left is aiming too low. I suppose he could be placed in the upper floor of a building. The other guys in this first picture are OK. In fact, I quite like the two on the right. 

DGN Soviet Infantry - Part II

My favorite guy here is the officer. Very nicely sculpted and good body language. The grenade thrower's arm is posed at a funny angle, but other than that, these four guys make a nice batch.

DGN Soviet Infantry - Part III

These are my least favorite poses. I don't really like how they are standing. The best part is that they are all carrying sub mgs, but I don't think they would manage to survive a charge across no-man's land standing that way. 

Atlantic Soviet Infantry - Part I

The other Soviet figures that I discovered come courtesy of Atlantic. Atlantic was in production mainly during the 70's and '80s so some of these figures are more interesting from the collector's standpoint and less so because of their sculpting which is sometimes a bit stiff. Having said that, the Maxim machine gun is a pretty unique figure/weapon, and that by itself makes the set special. Here is a previous post on the Maxim Machine Gun. 

Atlantic Soviet Infantry - Part II

The second guy from the right is a good example of what I mean when I say that their sculpting is sometimes a bit awkward. The rest of the figures are fairly decent and will blend well with the rest of the painted guys once they have some color on them.  

Charbens Soviet Infantry

Charben was in production during the 60s and 70s, but these figures look like recent casts. These guys are actually Cossacks. A couple of the poses are a bit odd, like the guy standing with his legs apart or the guy throwing the grenade. My favorite ones are the machine gun and the third guy from the right.

Cherilea Soviet Infantry

These guys are 60mm figures, but close enough in size to pass for some tall Slavic guys. They are also wearing a Cossack outfit which is good to augment their number in my Soviet Army. The set comes with a flamethrower guy, a mortar, and a bazooka, which are welcome heavy weapons.

Cherilea Soviet Infantry - Vintage

Here are some of the original figures. Some of the factory paint is faded, but there is enough left to see that the pants were painted grey, while the shirt appears to have been left in the original plastic color. Not the most accurate, but I guess it made them lively and attractive. 

The last 6 poses that I will be painting are the ones from Italeri Soviet Anti Tank Gun Crew which I showcased in a previous post. They are all very nicely done. Unfortunately, what makes them so good -that they are really made for the anti-tank gun- is also what makes them hard to reuse in scenes without an anti-tank gun. For instance, a guy with field glasses might have been usable in a different context, but hey, I'm still really happy with the set. And BTW, if you're paying attention you might have realized that there are 7 figures in this picture. The guy on the far left does not belong to this crew. In fact, he is a German guy who sneaked into the picture by mistake when I was grabbing the figures from their box. 

21st Century Toys Soviet Infantry

These guys come painted out of the factory. They are in fact a nice set. The sculpting is good, the poses are good and the paint job is also very good. The uniform colors don't match my painted figures that well, but I still find them a nice addition to the unit.

Crescent Soviet Infantry

This set was a real find as it is not easy to come by. To my knowledge there are only 5 poses. The pose on the right is rather original. As you can see they came factory painted.  The level of detail on the sculpting is fairly decent, except for the faces which are a bit dull. All in all, a nice set to have in the collection.

Progress Soviet Infantry - Part I

These figures are closer to 60mm in size. The detail is actually rather shallow, as if they were clones of clones. I don't think that's the case though because the proportions are still fine, so I think they were simply sculpted this way. As far as the rest of the sculpting goes, the figures are well posed and in decent action stances.

Progress Soviet Infantry - Part II

The flag bearer is a rather unique figure.  He could be getting ready to climb the Reichstag building in Berlin. I am assuming the man on the right is wounded, otherwise his pose would be a bit lame. The other two are average poses.

Progress Soviet Infantry - Part III

The last guy in the set. I had actually run into this figure at a bin of figures in a soldier show a couple of years back, but since I had not been able to find the rest of the set or identify the manufacturer I had not posted him. Now he can be displayed with the rest of his gang.

Engineer Bassevich early war Soviet Infantry - Part I

These are early war Soviet Infantry figures. Apparently they are made in Russia. I find myself a bit ambivalent about these figures. On the one hand, the poses are nicely done, with a good degree of action and they have a lot of nice detail. For instance, the expressions on the faces of these figures are among the best I've seen. The casting however is not so great. The figures come with a lot of flash. Part of it looks like marks left over in the clay during the sculpting, the rest is probably from the mold. Also, the plastic that they are made of is very light. I tend to like figures better when they have a bit more weight. And then there is the price... not only are they very expensive relative to the average new production toy soldier, but you also end up paying a hefty shipping cost. At the end of the day each of them comes to about 5 dollars a piece, which not even many vintage figures fetch. So are they really worth it? We'll have to see how they paint up.

Engineer Bassevich early war Soviet Infantry - Part II

The rest of the poses. I could have done without the two guys standing in the middle, and taken two more action poses. BTW, notice the diversity in the uniforms and headgear at this early stage of the war. Also, you can't tell very well in these pictures, but these are some of the few Soviet figures made with a full backpack. You can see that better in the previous picture.

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Infantry - Part I

This other set is a theoretically an Infantry set, but it is actually a big mix of things. These guys for instance represent a couple of high ranking officers, and two regular army guys. The officer with the big coat must be some kind of big shot who is probably standing way behind the front lines. 

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Infantry - Part II

These other guys are the crew of a tank and the guy on the right looks like a downed airman firing off a signal gun, perhaps hoping to be rescued before the enemy gets to him. Certainly not the average poses in an infantry set, however they will come handy in some unique scenes, not to mention that the nice level of detail will also make them look quite good when painted. 

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Infantry - Part III

The last three poses in the set represent an artillery crew. Here I am showing them manning the Italeri ZiS 3 76mm Anti-Tank Gun, however that gun comes with its own crew, so now I am thinking that perhaps I will use them to man a captured German PAK of which I have several who are still lacking a crew. 

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Partisans - Part I

A unique set by Engineer Bassevich. The depiction of these partisans strikes a nice balance between showing them as civilians and soldiers. For example, the guys above might have just joined the partisan unit and are still wearing some of their original clothes and their weaponry is lacking automatic firing. 

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Partisans - Part II

These guys however are more rugged and is likely that they are regular army troops who got left behind the enemy lines and joined the partisans, giving them some badly needed training and leadership. As far as the quality of the figures go, I am quite pleased with this set. They don't have any flashing, and the plastic used to make them feels more dense, making them feel a bit more robust. The level of detail in the sculpting as you can see, is really great.

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Partisans - Part III

These guys are probably a mix of civilians and ex-soldiers, but have been in the Partisan ranks long enough to have more sophisticated clothes and equipment. A very interesting touch is the kid in the middle, holding a captured German sub-machine gun. I actually saw a picture of such a kid, dressed very much the same way, which was surely the inspiration for the pose.

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Infantry - Battle of Berlin Part I

Another nice set from Engineer Bassevich to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the capture of Berlin. A set with a nice level of detail and a generous number of poses (12!). Notable among them is the figure representing the man who raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The figures are well proportioned, although a bit bulkier than those from other manufacturers, and the poses show a nice level of action, and are adequate for urban fighting. Speaking of comparisons with other manufacturers, I do like Engineer Bassevich's plastic better. It is harder and therefore the tips of weapons do not get bent. 

Engineer Bassevich Soviet Infantry - Battle of Berlin Part II

 The other poses also represent some of the other service branches, with a couple of tank men fighting outside their vehicles and what appears to be an airman fighting on the ground with his side arm. Another thing I like about this set is that there are no figures standing guard as in many of EB's prior sets. Again, the level of detail on the figures is really good, and the manufacturing process did not leave any flashing. A very nice set, worthy of the event it commemorates.  

Click here to take a look at WWII Toy Soldiers by Country

Click here to take a look at WWII Vehicles by Country

Click here to check out move Soviet Troops

Click here to see the Soviet Infantry in action.

Click here to see more Soviet Infantry figures.

Click here to see a post about the Maxim MG.