IS-2 Soviet heavy tank 1:72 Zvezda - Kit Review

 

We come to the third of Zvezda's 1:72 tanks that I acquired recently....the best summary I can think of is...I loved the hull, chassis and turret...absolutely HATED the tracks. I shall explain as we go hah.

 

Here we have an ill omen....what a GREAT place to affix the sprue joins, right in between delicate spokes...I do not possess clippers THAT needle like hah. Had to make some risky maneuvers with a scalpel.

Here we come to the portent of the omen...the mother fu%&ing tracks. As I mentioned in depth in my King Tiger review...it is often the habit of manufacturers to make these tracks too short/tight for the wheels they have to fit around. Either resulting in split tracks or bent wheels. (They seem to think a thin piece of plastic, weakened by polystyrene cement is going to handle the pressure of you bending what is effectively a wide rubber band around it.)
Essentially, in this case...both things happened, the tracks broke...and they bent not only the froward idler wheel out of shape, but also the much heftier sprocket wheel.

Look at this mess....the actual link point is glossy from the dousing of glue, and super glue it took to hold it, and has evidently split in several places on the forward part over the idler wheel. I literally cut it into smaller track segments, and super glued them individually with a bit of spacing to relieve tension on the rest of the track length.
I then glued the rest of the tracks in place, with copious amounts of swearing in made up Russian, and then applied liberal amounts of filler over the gaps which will be modelled as heavy mud and debris upon painting.
The saving grace of accidents/flaws in kit building...you can always cover mistakes up with debris, damage and general filth hah.

Moving on...*deep calming breath* besides the tracks, the rest of the kit was VERY nice. Really nice detailings and a good texture to the turret. The tow cable at the rear was particularly nice and looks distinctive, and the DSHk AA gun on the turret cupola is a very nice touch, with good detailing itself.

 The finished comrade! I liked the kit overall, and would definitiely buy more...IF, I can find a reasonably priced individual track set. In the meantime though I will experiment with other manufacturers to see how I find those. Apart from that I like the rest.
(Alterations)
As you can see there is a tiny bit of gap showing where the turret halves joined. Will be filling that, and also take note that I drilled the gun barrel out myself, it comes with a closed end, but the muzzle break itself is hollow through so it works quite nicely.

King Tiger 1:72 Zvezda - Kit Review

Following on from the Jagdpanther kit, we have my second favourite. Overall this was a very nice kit, similar to the quick build 15mm version. I will be getting some more, despite the issues I had with the tracks, due to the track covering plates you can conceal any aesthetic issues that may be had in construction.

Unlike in the Jagdpanther kit the decals were fairly standard, nice colouring but an exact tactical numbering. No room for maneuver, so multiple kit purchases will require after market decals to be acquired.

Zvezda seemed to be experimenting with various nifty ways of attaching the tracks to the vehicle. Generally supplying rubber *shudders* tracks, this one has a nice way of having half the road wheels moulded in a central block, like so, and then attaching them to the tracks first then the outer layer of wheels being glued on afterwards...

This works fairly nicely for speed of building, and solidity of the road wheels, but as is usual with rubber tracks, they are a nightmare to get on nicely. It is either a case of the tracks breaking from the strain of being pulled tight enough round the road wheels, or even worse I feel, the road wheels being bent out of alignment due to the tension from the rubber tracks pulling at them. Either way it is down to companys making the rubber tracks far too short, it is barely possible to get tracks round the wheels and then to link up properly, never mind expecting glue to hold them there. Some kits do have nicer rubber tracks that have enough give that you don't feel like they are about to rip from the strain of the tension, but in this case they were still too tight.
(Also this is totally unrealistic for actual tank tracks, especially Soviet tanks which would usually have fairly loose tracks that would sag and sit on the wheels, not be perfectly rigid and flat, suspended above the road wheels rims.)

My usual solution to this issue is to either secure the tracks on the bottom, or base of the wheels, wrap them around the front and back, and where the linkage point is, secure them to the wheels, but not with the tracks touching, under the shadow of the hull. This usually works best with tanks (Like the King tiger) where the upper tracks are concealed by armour plate or wheel guards, and if they are visible, some filler and some weathering creativity in painting can cover up the gap with "mud and debris". Alternatively, you can do it the reverse way and wrap around the top, then glue the tracks on the underside, generally ensuring they link up directly under a road wheel for some solid anchorage, this helps for ease of weighting the model down and pressing the tracks into place while the glue dries.
Either way...a pain in the arse. (See my next kit review for the worst case scenarios hah)

You can see in the picture below how the upper tracks are partially concealed, and it's almost impossible to tell that the tracks don't link properly under there, and looks fine, especially if the vehicle is to be used primarily for wargaming.

Overall though, the kit is very nice, with good detailings and an appropriate amount of stowage. A few additions I would have liked would have been the options for a pintle mounted MG on the commanders cupola, and the decals could use some diversity. But I will be purchasing some more of these!

Jagdpanther 1:72 Zvezda - Kit Review

 The Jagdpanther is one of my favourites for the pure aesthetic, it has that swept back sleekness coupled with the long 88, all still managing a fairly low profile for such a big vehicle. It was also the second 1:72 kit I ever had a kid, so has some fond memories of what I believe was a Revell kit back in the day.
The Zvezda kit was the first I had built besides the quick assembly 15mm versions. I bought three of their kits in 1:72, and this was by far my favourite to put together. The IS-2 was my least favourite but more on that at another time. (Lets just say, rubber tracks are the most irritating things ever when they aren't sized correctly.)

The instructions were quite clear and easy to follow despite it being Russian first and English translation second, anyone who is even fairly experienced with there sort of kits should have no problem with the diagrams. This kit holds the prize for being the only one out of the three where I didn't have a hard time getting the tracks on without breakages or copious swearing hah. The schurzen are always a welcome addition and I made sure to score in the separation lines and remove a few to give it that battle worn look.

 The decals were a pleasant surprise. I don't generally expect much from kits like this, but there are a varied choice of numbers and the obligatory balkenkreuz. Most kits supply one or two pre-set tactical number options. With this it gives the options to buy multiple kits and number them as you please.

 

 

 

The detailing is nice and the details that are raised and prominent are smoothly done. I will of course still be going through scoring out some of the panel lines and weld joints with a scalpel, as they are fairly shallow in places and will be lost in a couple of coats of paint.

 My absolute favourite part of this though, which I haven't come across before...the gun barrel not only moves up and down if fitted correctly, it also moved laterally! Brilliant!

 Elevation and max depression demonstrated...

 

Overall a very nice kit, I will be getting some armourfast ones as well, so can do a compare then!

Panthers, ALL the panthers! 6mm 2D6 miniatures review

 

2D6 are a new miniatures company producing 6mm or 1:285 scale vehicles. So far they have four British and four German vehicles. I have ordered a grouping of each of the German vehicles and will be showing them off here. They include a Panther D, a Jagdpanther, a rather unique early bergepanther variant, and an Ersatz M10 panther (Ardennes '44 campaign)

The detail and casting is immaculate, I don't think I had to remove any flash from these, and they are comparable to GHQ in quality but about half the price at £1.10 per vehicle. Also...that exactly, that you can order individual vehicles is brilliant, as oppose to being forced to buy in lots of 5.

I shall start with my favourite the M10. It is beautiful! I have wondered about scratchmodelling of these for ages, and lo and behold, they have done one in their first batch!

 

 Below we have the berge panther, unique in that almost every other company does theirs in the later model with the crane and purpose built tool and utility mountings. Really nice crisp detailings as you can see!

Next up is the Panther D, just the excuse I need to start an Eastern front 1943 panzer group. This one made me notice how nice the barrels are as well, they have the same thickness and sturdiness as GHQ, while not being too oversized. As oppose to CinC who are very nice and size accurate, but of course quite fragile and bend as soon as you look at them.

 Finally we come to the beautiful sloped form of the Jagdpanther, I have wanted some more of these for ages to finish my 654th Schwere panzer jager abteilung, but have been refraining from purchasing more GHQ miniatures. The barrels are nice and attach really well to the hull, and again no evident flash except on the underside, which is almost an irrelevance!

 

 

 

To close I have a couple of quick comparison shots with the 2D6 miniatures alongside GHQ panthers...