DShK

One of the largest gaps in my collection has been WWII Soviet AA protection. With the release of the Orion Soviet DShK AA MG and crew set from Orion in 1/72nd scale plastic I figured my worries were over. Not hardly. This is the basic set, three of these groups of figures and the gun. It is difficult to assemble and rather fragile. It should have been done in hard plastic, not soft or at least in glueable soft plastic.

The set only includes three guns and 15 crewmen, not a very good value considering it costs as much as a regular set. It should have included at least four guns and 20 figures in my opinion.

The box art is impressive and shows essentially what you get. AA guns and some additional guys firing at the sky.

The only instructions you get is this rather vague exploded view on the back of the box. The set does not fit together well and I had to base mine on a sheet of styrene. I used both CA glue and epoxy glue to put it together. The figure firing the gun does not fit well with the gun and the legs, ammo can and machine gun and trigger don't snap together at all. They need to be glued but this very soft plastic does not take glue well. There is also flash on some of the figures. I am glad I only need 12 of these guns, so I purchased four sets. The plastic color is good, it goes well with the Revell Soviet sets. The crewmen are fine, a loader and a gunner and pointer for each gun. The two men with submachine guns firing into the air are nice poses and in my view represent other ammo bearers that are perhaps throwing up a little extra lead.

The base I used is large enough for the gunner, and the loader and pointer to stand on. I glued the gunner on the base and to the gun for greater strength as this builds up as a fragile piece. I drilled large holes in the base for the legs and slathered them with glue.

Flying monkeys are the natural capitalist enemies of the Soviet people.