Cold War Crap
Soviet PDF-2sh Children's Gas Mask Kit
Manufacturer: State Factories
Model: PDF-2sh
Other Variants: PDF-D, PDF-Sh, DP-6 DP-6m PDF-7
Country: Soviet union
Year: 1988
Production Run: 1980's-1990's (this variant)
Condition: Brand new. Unissued stock
Size: 3 (children's size)
Vendor: Seller armyshop-2015 on Ebay
Price: £8.00 + £6.50 shipping
Shipped From: Vilnius, Lithuania
Reminiscent of 'The Iron Giant'
The Soviets didn't just make great looking masks for the adults, they also made a few for the children too.
The PDF-2D appears to be the final incarnation of the PDF line of masks which started production in the 1950's.
Designed to be worn by the general population they were widely distributed.
My involvement with these masks started with a keen interest in the earlier PDF-SH vetsion which are all over eBay just now.
I stumbled across this variant quite by accident and decided that this particular one was better looking and harder to find.
Finding some background information on this model was a futile task. Nothing much in the way of reviews and what not. Plenty of stuff on the earlier masks but info on this one is illusive.
The mask was shipped from Lithuania which took a while to arrive.
It was well packaged and was indeed new and unissued as promised in the auction.
The face piece is made from thick black rubber with an inner mask to aid with making an air tight seal. It's very much like the GP-7V mask I reviewed the other week.
The eye pieces are like the PMG style, small sunken round holes.
Anti-fog stickers are provided to shove on the inside if required.
Size 3 (kids) made in 1989
The permanent hose fixing can be seen in the above photo. I'm not sure why they chose to do this. It would be much more practical to remove the hose for storage purposes.
The mask fastens to head head by means of a five point strap harness located at the rear. It's almost identical to the one used on the GP-7V mask which means it's made of rubber and rips your hair out when you try and put the mask on.
Typical Soviet exhale valve with plastic basket
As with some other Soviet masks this one has the characteristic disc shaped double exhale valve.
Something not seen before is the protective 'Basket' which clips over the top.
Not as wide as the standard Soviet hose
The air hose used with this mask is permanently fixed to the inlet valve. It's noticeably smaller in diameter to the normal Soviet mask hoses. The reason for this is probably to keep the weight down so the little kids have less to hang in front of them.
This is what you get with the mask
The accessories which accompany the mask are nothing special.
A small green filter can and standard anti-fog lens are supplied.
The filter still has the brown paper wrapping on it. Never been opened and the same goes for the fog lens case.
The haversack shown here is not the right one for this kit. It's way too small to fit everything in. The filter fits ok but introduce the mask and it becomes a nightmare. It's appears that the proper haversack has a large capacity and a side pocket which may be large enough to hold the filter?. I will get the right bag as soon as I can.
It just about fits!
As I'm trying on a kids mask it isn't really fair to criticize it when it comes to the difficulty in getting it on and off.
Of course it was difficult, it's a little too small but once I got it on it didn't feel too bad. It just needs to be a size bigger. (Which was what I had ordered in the first place but nevermind)
Rating ✅✅✅✅ 4 out of 5
Of all of the Soviet kids masks this one has to be the creepiest in my opinion. There isn't a mask that quite looks like this.
This kit should get a full 5 ticks in this review by rights but it came with the wrong Haversack. Unfortunate. Still worth getting one though, they seem quite rare.
It's a really nice mask
