Long before the outbreak of World War II, the threat of air power was widely appreciated. Incidents such as that at Guernica had shown what concentrated bombing could achieve, and defence against air raid for both civilian and military targets was an important part of the armoury of the Red Army.

This piece from the impressively large range of Soviet war weapons in the Zvezda Art of Tactic line features the 37mm 61-K anti-aircraft gun, a weapon used throughout the Second World War and produced in huge numbers. Here the kit is as excellent as are all Zvezda kits, with the option of being free-standing or placed on the large base, as shown, but of course our interest is in the two crew figures that accompany it. They are almost identical - just the position of their hands, to match the different controls they are handling, differentiate them. Both men have separate arms and a separate right leg, so there is a fair amount of assembly, but as always everything goes together really well with no need to glue anywhere. As can be seen, the figures come with the seat as part of them, so the modeller can either install these, to have the gun manned, or the empty seats we used in our example. The men wear normal Soviet uniform and helmets, and naturally have no items of kit. The sculpting is OK but because both the bodies are moulded side-on there is little detail on the front of the tunic and in the faces. The fact that the seat is an integral part of the figure might limit these seated figures in terms of uses elsewhere, but the ability to position the arms at any angle, not just as we have done, makes these quite useful little models and worth knowing about for populating some larger pieces of Soviet artillery, or perhaps as drivers too.