Panzer stop!
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I haven't built Soviet figures for about a year so it was a nice change.
Tamiya figures are not that good. To begin with combination of anti-tank rifle and Maxim MG doesn't quite fit together. While such combinations did exist for scale modeller it's basically two sets. So I decided to do just that, split it into two groups and combine anti-tank rifle team with figures from Dragon set and build MG team separately for different vignette. The figures are from different periods, Dragon figures are early as seen by leg wraps on one soldier and collar patches on both carrying PTRD while other three have later shoulder boards. But I figured it's a small detail and it's possible collar patches were still used even when nominally replaced. Originally soldiers carrying PTRD are supposed to carry PTRS AT rifle but I replaced it to give entire scene more uniformity.
Moving on the moulding has some serious seam lines, though plastic is soft enough for this to be easily removed. Also fits leave a lot to be desired, specially when it comes to arm/torso joint. Curiously enough the best fit is on rifle gunner where it would be most problematic as arms have to be set just right. It can be fixed but it's still something that shouldn't be on 2009 vintage kit, even Tamiya. Otherwise figures are nice, decent detail, realistic amount of equipment.
Dragon figures are even worse. Massive seam lines, including on detailed parts so extra care needs to be taken when dealing with it. Very bad fits across the board, every single joint required work. On top of that parts are needlessly broken down, for example legs on PTRD rifle are in two pieces instead of simpler one V shaped piece, luckily Tamiya set had extra one so I used that one. Since riflemen are carrying AT rifle in their arms it requires a lot of aligning, never Dragon's strong suit, and even hands gripping it have issues. Which again require work in terms of drilling, cutting away parts of hand and rearranging it later etc. Without a doubt one of the worst figures set I've build and there isn't even "it's an old kit" or "from notoriously bad company" excuse. It's just sloppy work. I also opted not to put blanket roll on one soldier, simply couldn't make it fit. Overall I did what I could. Figures are not great but I think they turned out decent enough, given their problems.
Building is nothing special but for simple building it really doesn't need to be. I always have a bit of a problem painting such houses as I'm never sure which colours to use. Then I pick one ad realize it's not that good. I opted for something green, which is….. OK, I suppose. Standard weathering was used and some random scatter and bits and pieces for rubble and debris and roof was added.
Overall I'm quite happy with how it turned out, given all the issue kits have.
