Clauido's review of Italeri's Russian KnightsPhoto's and Text by Claudio Berni ITALERI No 6023 Silver bendable plastic, 40 foot + 2 mounted figures. A beautiful surprise out of catalogue, in a word this is just a great set! Packed and distributed by ITALERI, the parts are actually made in Russia by ZVEZDA (according to the box) and this is positively reflected in the level of realism and historical accuracy of the set. Definitely in line with the level of quality of the other ITALERI figures, nice poses, good detail and clean moulds, but for me the best thing about this set is the historical accuracy and versatility. These figures are perfectly reconstructed Russian medieval knights, accurate to the point that they could be used in a museum display, yet as such they can easily mix with any Nordic army of the time (Norman, Vikings, Danish...) and greatly increase the range of this period figures available in 1:72. If you like Fantasy these are also the best Lord of The Rings troops type I have ever seen! There are only 2 mounted knights in the set unfortunately (2 different horse + 2 different riders' poses, one with lance and one command figure with mace and mantle over scale armor) which is probably the only limit of this box, (like their REVELL Norman counterpart with which they blend perfectly anyway). The rest of the set consist of 7 archers (2 with scale armor), 15 infantry in 7 different combat pose armed with sword, axe or mace, 15 spearmen in 3 different pose (5 throwing, 5 kneeling and 5 standing) and 3 command figures: a standard bearer, a knight blowing in the horn and one with the sword risen, all three wearing a long mantle over the scale armor (all infantry wear scale or padded armor). The spear's are separate, there are 11 very long (practically pikes) and 5 shorter ones, all of which unfortunately are a little bit warped. All figures except the mounted captain and the knight with the horn have a stud that fits in a hole in the middle of the shield. There are 13 kite-shaped, 15 round and 12 classic shield shapes, all well proportioned and with the straps detailed on the back. The good thing here is that is extremely easy to cut off the stud from a figure if you don't want to fit the shield on all of them (like the archers for example). Some figures even have two studs positioned at 90 degrees, so you can choose which one chop off and mount the shield either on the front or on the side! Another great addition to a growing range in the medieval period anyway, with the only drawback of the lack of mounted, and very few foot figures in this box are suitable to be mounted on spare horses from some other kit... if you plan to scratch build some, the best would probably be using some REVELL Normans [Good luck! These guys are now as rare as hen's teeth! Nick] which are quite easy to convert (in most cases would be enough replace the shield), or chop the figures at the belt and use the legs of the original mounted figure. My votes:
My suggestion: buy it immediately if you can find them, they're well worth and with all the out-of-catalogue release who knows if and when they will distribute some more... I guess that's all for the moment, have fun and send me feedback! Cheers, Claudio [Thanks again Claudio, that's much appreciated. Another very useful look some at figures that are still a wee way away from being available here in NZ. Nick] 
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