Hello Mr. Posty! Strelet's (alleged) 1944 Finns.

I know I have over-spent this month already, but when I saw this on one of the model web stores I just had to have it - it was just a Fiver! (I keep telling myself!)

Now, despite the fact this promises to be the first proper Finnish infantry in summer uniform figures in 1/72 on the market I am NOT going to get too excited...I have, after all, already got Strelet's 'Winter War Finns' and I think I made my opinion of them clear enough in previous posts (they are a bit stinky)!

...BUT they are - allegedly - 1944 summer Finns so how could I not buy them?

Well they arrived this morning, and so I held my breath and pulled the first sprue out of the box...Oh dear!

(Apologies about the rushed and shaky photography!) There are 4 of these
sprues, making 52 figures in all.

...Yep, they are Strelets!

Now, I am going to be nice here and say there is definitely a market for these figures. As said they are - after all - the only proper mid-late WW2 summer dress Finns on the market in 1/72. And aside from that persuasive fact some people - particularly war gamers - seem to like a slightly exaggerated, almost cartoony, look to their figures.

The poor guy on the right obviously picked up someone else's helmet!

As usual, these figures are at the larger end of the 1/72 figure scale and so would possibly fit in with other larger figures like those of Plastic Soldier Company and Valiant. But they probably don't fit in with my Zvezda, Pegasus or Caesar figures.

They are also made from the softer plastic that you associate with Airfix figures - so expect a lot of deformed and bent gun barrels!

Now, you might take it that I HATE this set, but that's not strictly true. They do have a certain character about them - if you ignore some of the more comical figure sculpts - and if I was building my army using PSC and Valiant sized '1/72' models I might be tempted to use them because of the novel quality of the little fellows.

Now, I quite like the soldier on the right!

As with Strelet's Winter War Finns there are actually a couple of very nice individual poses in the set. It's all a mater of taste I suppose, and you can't ignore the uniqueness of the subject or the very nice price (for 53 figures), so I think it's best to just say that they aren't to my taste and that I prefer my figures not to look like they were cast extras from a Scooby-Doo cartoon! :)

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UPDATE: COMPARATIVE 1/72 FIGURE SCALE
I was actually quite surprised to find out that the Starlets Finns aren't actually as over-scaled as I thought they were. I did a comparison when I got home and here are the results...

Above: 1/72 Hat, Revell, Starlet, Pegasus, Plastic Soldier Company and Valiant. Amazingly the Starlet officer is actually a bit smaller than the Pegasus NCO!

However, Startlet's figure dimensions are somewhat erratic. Here are some of the other ranks compared...

Most of the Starlet's infantry are slightly bigger than the Pegasus soldiers...Just. But, not as over-sized as the PSC or Valiant chunky-monkeys (on the right of this picture)!

So, there you go. I think it is the exaggerated features of the Starlets that gives the over-sized impression. Really they are mid-sized for 1/72...But, unfortunately they are still a little bigger than I want for my army.