Zvezda 6135 1/72 (Snap-Fit) Soviet Anti-Tank Team 1941-1943 (Rifles+Soldiers)

(Type: model figures) This is a plastic snap fit model kit, which comes unassembled and unpainted. So model paints and other basic modelling tools are additionally required. This "snap fit" model can be assembled without glue.

This kit includes four plastic model Soviet soldiers and two model anti-tank rifles.

With the introduction of the tank to the battlefield in World War I, infantry required some kind of weapon that could be used to combat it. Almost immediately, "anti-tank rifles" appeared. Most anti-tank rifles were simply larger, more powerful versions of standard rifles, usually larger than .50 calibre, firing a steel-core armour penetrating round.

When World War II began, these weapons were fairly effective, particularly against light tanks and other lightly-armoured vehicles. As tank armour improved over the course of the war, however, they quickly disappeared from the battlefield, replaced by more advanced and sophisticated weapons that could fire explosive charges.

The Soviet Union primarily fielded two kinds of anti-tank rifles: the Simonov 14.5mm PTRS-41 and the Degtyaryov 14.5mm PTRD-41. Both weapons could penetrate up to 40mm of armour plate at a range of about 100 meters on a direct hit. Since most German tanks had side and rear armour that was less than 40mm??and other vehicles such as armoured cars and half-tracks h