Orion 1:72 Soviet Tank Crew 1943 - 1945

A closer look at the "Soviet tankmen and crew 1943 - 1945" by the Ukrainian manufacturer Orion. They are the newest addition to my growing collection. I read some time ago that they would appear on the market in the near future and now they are availabe.

I think they are a must-have for me (arrgh, more Soviets to paint), and when I found them at the bay on Monday I bought a set of them.

Today the set arrived, therefore let's take a closer look at them:

The box contains three sprues with total 39 figures in 13 different poses. There is almost no flash on the figures and no moulding lines except for on the bases. Three of the minis have no base attached.

The sculpting is very good and the theme is great, before these came out the only other Soviet tank crew figures that were available, were the LW/Evolution set (PSR review) and the Soviet Tank Crew figures of Preiser (On the way review).

There are two poses in this set that I do not like so much, it are the running mini in the first row (the man in the middle), he does not look natural. Second is the third figure in the second row. Why does he hold his gun to the side like a gangsterrapper?

All of the figures wear the standard tank crew helmet and most of them wear overalls, only three of them wear trousers and jackets. As you see on the picture above I splitted these figures into three different groups:

Maintenance poses:
A guy in running pose (could be combat,too), man with a big crowbar, a man running with a canister, and a guy with a wrench.

Combat poses:
A binocularist, a kneeling fig that fires his pistol, another kneeling fig with pistol, two crew men armed with PPsH, and a crewman with a pistol.

Parade/victory poses:
A fig leaning against something, a fig in parade pose for the tank hatch, and a mini that is waving a bunch of flowers.

The last picture shows some of the Orion figs compared with the tank crew minis by LW/Evolution. The LW figures are nice but in an ugly color, that you hardly see the details. For a closer look on the detail of the LW minis, check out the PSR link in the text above, they got their minis in black plastic where you can see some more.

Orion did a fine job with these set. There are only a few Soviet tank crew figure sets on the marketThese minis are a welcome addition to our hobby. They will look great when they get painted. But even the LW minis will look good when they get a good paintjob. But not in the next weeks, it's summer and I don't paint anything because in my hobbyroom it is alltime almost 30 degrees (Celsius).
However I have still a lot of fresh stuff lie arround that I will do some more small reviews for you. A little lookout for the next post, I will write some lines about the new 28mm figures of British manufacture Mantic.

Update:
I messed this up while reformatting, sorry to say, but I can not find the pictures from this post. This are the best pictures I have, but you can visit Plastic Soldier review to get a close look at the minis.