The 120-HM 38 was one of the largest of the mortars in use by the Red Army during World War II. It was an excellent weapon, and impressed the Germans enough to manufacture a copy as well as reuse many captured examples. The size and weight made it less mobile than medium mortars, but it was often used in more static positions such as defending sieges at Leningrad or Moscow, and also as standard infantry support. The model in this set is a very nicely done and entirely accurate representation of this mortar, complete with bipod and circular base plate.

The crew are the usual four poses we find in this range, and are particularly notable because they are interacting with the weapon really well. Primarily all the parts are intended to be mounted on a single game base as shown here, from which it can be seen that the fist figure in our picture is about to load a bomb into the tube, while the second is using the sight. The third figure is ready to pass more ammunition, and the fourth is the commander, using his field telephone (presumably to co-ordinate with a forward observer). All the poses are great, and look good gathered round the mortar as shown. However, although the kit includes a separate base plate should you wish to use the mortar without the large game base, the first two poses have no such base, and the others only have one so they can be next to the ammunition box and telephone.

All the men wear standard Red Army uniform, and have gas mask carriers, water bottles and rifle ammunition pouches. The commander has a map case, and is armed with a pistol. The rest of the men have rifles, which are supplied separately for stacking nearby perhaps. As you would expect, everything here is beautifully done, and is accurate too. The men all need some assembly, but this is the usual tight Zvezda engineering so no glue required, and of course the mortar also needs some construction. Everything fits well and there is no flash. Although this is an expensive way to obtain such a mortar when the Pegasus version is much larger and also very good, it remains a great little product .