Naturally the history of the Wehrmacht’s struggle with the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945 is in many ways dominated by the winters, which did so much to frustrate German plans in the early part of the campaign. This set depicts the infantry as they fight wearing their standard greatcoat, which proved inadequate in the severe Russian winter, so that in later years a variety of better clothing was made available. This, along with the long boots all the men wear, makes these figures a better fit for the early part of the campaign, and as such are accurately done, along with all the necessary items of assault packs that they carry.

The quality of sculpting and lack of flash are as per the usual high standard, and as usual there is some assembly for each man. We found some of the parts a bit difficult to press home, but the final fit is very firm and well-engineered. The standing and kneeling figures have been provided with their own bases (but not the prone man), but for some reason these are very large (much larger than those shown on the back of the box), which seems unnecessary. Of course as a game piece the main intent is to show these five figures together as seen here, which is a very artificial grouping, but individually all the poses are good and benefit from the multi-part approach.

Winter sets have become very fashionable lately, and this set reflects none of the immense suffering that these troops had to endure during those terrible months, but that is as expected and it does provide some accurate, well designed and useful poses.