For any modeler, but especially ship modelers, it is hard to achieve a realistic effect when gun barrels are out of round, warped or fail to have the right taper and shape; which is often the case with styrene injected or resin barrels. With smaller caliber guns and in smaller scales the barrels are often too fragile to handle. For these reasons turned metal barrels are an attractive alternative. Master Models continues to release well-priced brass barrels for the discriminating ship modeler.

Short History:

Due to the nature of the war with Germany the Soviet Navy took a back seat during the Great Patriotic War (WWII). However, one of the areas they were able to contribute greatly was with personnel.

During Naval Infantry’s early battles in 1941 and 1942 they showed high morale by their sheer willingness to accept high casualties during the desperate fighting for their own naval bases. Their stubborn tenacity unnerved the Germans, leading them to be nicknamed the ‘Black Death’ by their German foes because of this and their black uniforms.

The kit:

6 figures of the famous Soviet Unit "Black Death"

ZVEZDA has put out a nice looking kit, lots of details and equipment. All the parts come on 2 trees, with an instruction sheet that has nice painting directions.

Quickboost just keeps adding to their great line of quality resin aircraft accessories. The latest addition is for the Academy P-38 Lightning. It is up to their usual standards; molded in off-white resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block because of a nice perforation. It only took me a couple of light passes with my saw blade to make them fall away instead of launching into the air becoming snacks for the carpet monster. Another plus is that the gun muzzles are bored out which would be a real pain if you tried to do it on the kit part.