Engineer Bassevich Soviet Soldiers and Crimean War
Engineer Bassevich is a Russian company producing an excellent range of exemely well sculpted figures. Some of the boxes are marketed as 'limited production' but why? I don't think the figures are going to be one day worth hundreds of dollar, although, I suppose if you wait around for fifty or so years they might appreciate in value, if people are still collecting toy soldiers in any numbers. SOme interesting sets I did not get include ancient Hebrews and Cuban insurgents.
I am not a huge fan of WW2 figures as I think it has been 'done to death' but these figures are so unusual that I had to have them .I bought the Soviet soldiers mainly because half of them were female and I appreciate female figures, if you know what I mean! These figures include a female sniper, traffic director and a medic.
I did some under-cutting on the rifle butt for this figure.
Special delivery! I had to do some careful flash cutting on the face.
Again, some flash cutting was done on the captured submachine gun.
The Crimean War Russians are wonderful figures. It is good to see someone do the spiked helmet too as Armies in Plastic did only the flat cap. However, as only two figures in the set have it it would take a lot of sets and a lot of money to make a regiment. (Look to the Pinnoy blog to see some Hat conversions). I don't think I would be buying twenty sets to get the one private with helmet. I liked the idea of the bare chested gunner, although he might not do for a Winter scenario! The officer with telescope will end up commanding either an army or an artillery battery in my 'Crussian' army. The priest is very evocative and I can imagine him urging on the troops to defend mother Russia and, incidentally, Orthodox Christianity. The priest could be used for a range of periods and probably even medieval as churches aren't known for changing their clothing fashions too often.I am figuring the colour scheme might be black clothing with purple and gold vestments. Does anyone out there have a suggestion for the priest's clothing colours?
By the time postage is added the figures are costing me around five dollars each which disqualifies them from being used to make up an army. However, they will look great inter-mixed with my Armies in Plastic figures.
I am not a huge fan of WW2 figures as I think it has been 'done to death' but these figures are so unusual that I had to have them .I bought the Soviet soldiers mainly because half of them were female and I appreciate female figures, if you know what I mean! These figures include a female sniper, traffic director and a medic.
The Crimean War Russians are wonderful figures. It is good to see someone do the spiked helmet too as Armies in Plastic did only the flat cap. However, as only two figures in the set have it it would take a lot of sets and a lot of money to make a regiment. (Look to the Pinnoy blog to see some Hat conversions). I don't think I would be buying twenty sets to get the one private with helmet. I liked the idea of the bare chested gunner, although he might not do for a Winter scenario! The officer with telescope will end up commanding either an army or an artillery battery in my 'Crussian' army. The priest is very evocative and I can imagine him urging on the troops to defend mother Russia and, incidentally, Orthodox Christianity. The priest could be used for a range of periods and probably even medieval as churches aren't known for changing their clothing fashions too often.I am figuring the colour scheme might be black clothing with purple and gold vestments. Does anyone out there have a suggestion for the priest's clothing colours?
By the time postage is added the figures are costing me around five dollars each which disqualifies them from being used to make up an army. However, they will look great inter-mixed with my Armies in Plastic figures.
You confirm my own conclusion - 'nice but pricey.' They cost about the same here - around £2.50. But I do have a box of the Cubans on order....
ReplyDelete'limited production' but why? Hi James, the big problem with producing figures in plastic is the huge cost of producing the moulds, usually in steel these days or in brass back in the 1960's. To get around this, smaller companies like Replicants (and I suspect Bassevich) cast their moulds in resin, which is much cheaper but the downside is that the process destroys the master figure and the moulds deteriorate much faster so you can only expect to make 1,000 pieces before it is worn out. In terms of normal plastic production a run of 1,000 pieces is minsicule, hence "limited production"
ReplyDeleteAll the best, Brian (and a Happy New Year!)
Wow you've got them already. Could you post pictures with them side by side with other WW2 manufacturers? I find them really nice sculpts and I just want to see how they fit with the other manufacturers, particularly TSSD Russians, which for me are one of the best sculpts.
ReplyDeleteI'll do so , probably next week.
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