1999 saw one more chapter in the ages long saga of violence in the Balkans. This time it was in yet another ex-Yugoslav province; Kosovo. Despite several weeks of air bombardment, the government of Serbia remained complete, even though the Serb peoples were surrounded by destroyed and burnt out buildings. However, the genocide of the Kosovar Albanians was stopped and multi-national troops are now in situ. Because of their treatment by the Serbian forces, the majority Kosvar Albanians are now getting their revenge on the remaining Kosovar Serbians, people who used to live peacefully next to each other.

In order to help maintain the peace and protect the lives of locals from the constant back and forth revenge killing, many nations have troops in Kosovo. Amongst them are soldiers from Russia. These are Spetsnaz VDV or the Russian equivalent of British SAS or American Green Beret troops. Trained to act stealthily, they are often used for covert operations and air-dropped into their assigned target areas.

This kit contains four Russian Spetsnaz VDV soldiers in various poses; three standing and one kneeling. Included in the kit is an array of weapons for the figures. Molded in a hard grey plastic, the figures are made of at least six sections; a head, torso, separate arms and legs, in addition to any hardware that may be carried on their bodies like packs, holsters, or pouches. The detailing of the individual parts is very good indeed, equal to other mainstream kits like Tamiya or Italeri. There are no ejector pin marks that I could find so cleanup of the figures should be quite easy. One thing that you do need to do is wash all the parts in warm, soapy water as there is mold release oil on the parts in my example.

The instruction sheet is a single page with parts location and a camouflage diagram for three variations in basically yellow, brown, and green. A full-color painting guide for the figures is on the back of the box. I'm not sure if decals are included in the kit as there were none in the review sample, however there are diagrams of the unit patches included in the color diagram.

In all a very nice set and sure to be welcomed by those who do modern military subjects