Introduction:
With the increasing number of 1/35 scale Russian vehicles on the modeling market, there is an unmet need for modern Russian Army figures. Live Resin realized the opportunity and recently shifted their focus from producing modern US figures to releasing high-quality miniatures depicting Russian Army troops. This review deals with Russian Army Machine Gunner with PKM, Set 21 (LRM 35068), while the reviews of many other Live Resin products on Armorama can be found here: link 1 and here link 2.
Review:
The figure kit is packed in a hard cardboard box featuring CAD images of the figure from different angles.
Opening the box, I found a zip-lock bag with resin parts. The bag is additionally protected using a layer of bubble wrap.
The pieces are cast in grey resin and, as expected from Live Resin, the quality of the cast in excellent. There are no evident seam lines, air-bubbles or any other imperfections whatsoever. The details are well defined and impressively delivered in resin. Check out the tiny cigarette in the figure’s mouth… Wow!
The casting blocks are large, but with minimal contact points to the pieces, so removing and cleaning the parts is a very straightforward job. I used side cutters, sharp blade and some sandpaper in the process. I suggest being extra careful while cleaning the machine gun and the bipod… these are very delicate pieces, which do not tolerate manhandling.
Assembling the figure did not present a problem. All the main figure pieces fit really well and are easy to align due to the protrusions and indentations in corresponding parts. The gaps between the pieces are minimal, but I did use some Magic Sculp putty to make things perfect. The equipment pieces were fixed using box art photo as a reference. Again, some patience is needed with the machine gun, especially fitting it into the figure’s hand. I tried trimming a bit of the carrying handle to make it thinner, but it snapped off and fell prey to the carpet monster. I made a replacement handle from a piece of round styrene… not the best solution, but I hope to redo it once I come to painting the figure.
The assembled figure looks fantastic. The pose looks nice and well balanced, the field uniform and the heavy equipment setup add to the realism of the miniature, as well as a tiny cigarette in its mouth. Along with some of the other Live Resin 1/35 scale offerings, this figure could provide a focal point to any modern day Russian Army vignette.
Conclusion:
What’s not to like with this figure kit? Russian Army Machine Gunner with PKM, Set21 (LRM 35068) is perfectly cast in resin and full of nicely defined details. It is not too complex to assemble, save the issue of fitting the machine gun to the figure’s hand. Altogether, it is a very impressive figure, with a well balanced pose and a look of a hardened army veteran.
Highly recommended.
Thank you to Live Resin for this review sample.Live Resin products are available at:
