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!

Plastic Soldier company - 20mm German halftrack sdkfz. 251/D - Kit Review

Very pleased with these overall. Ages ago I had some of the 15mm versions, but these fit perfectly alongside my new 1:72 German armour. The primary difference between the 15 and 20mm versions of course being the number of vehicles included; 5 and 3 respectively.

 

 The details and cast are very crisp and smooth, nice detailing and they are very quick to detach from the sprue and put together. I particularly like the crew figures which really add character to the vehicles. You can make all 3 regular troop carriers or modify on with a 37mm PaK AT gun. I had leftover bits and figures, so I was also quite pleased to be able to use them to add more character to my existing halftracks from Armourfast.

 They also have plentiful stowage and a selection of spare weapons to use as laid down weaponry or further baggage. These seem to include a Panzerschreck, some rifles and some spare MG42s most likely intended fot the AA pintle at the rear.

 I also particularly like the addition of the semi-concealed drivers which I think you can JUST see in the picture below.

Here we have the Armourfast halftracks updated with the PSC figures and stowage (evident from their raw plastic state) The Armourfast vehicles are Ausf. C not D, but I think they'll fit in with the others as a platoon.

 The figure already in one of the halftracks by the way is a Pegasus figure from the "Germans in Berlin" set, which I am also working on at the moment for some Volksturm.
The whole 'Squad'....

I really like these vehicles and will definitely be getting some more. Potentially the variants set next!
The Armourfast ones are just as nice, but lack the options for crew and stowage, and have a slightly simpler detailing. Also, Armourfast as yet only do an Ausf. C option. Hopefully get a post up soon of them painted and battle damaged.

Valiant miniatures - Fighting 20s. Kit Review. German Infantry and German heavy weapons.

Years ago, Wargames illustrated gave away a free sprue of Valiant miniatures American G.Is from their 1:72 range. Despite the fiddly options for heads, arms and weapons I was always very impressed with the sculpts and dynamic and lifelife poses they supplied. Always having an intention to get some of their German infantry in a full set, I never quite got round to it, primarily because Valiant's 1:72 guys are fairly chunky, and look a little oversized next to other 1:72 plastics figures.

Valiant have since started a scaled down range of the same figures, named the "Fighting 20's" which are a slightly smaller version of their original figures. This is in itself excellent, a company listening to the comments of wargamers and modellers alike, and acitvely adjusting their product!

I got hold of two sets recently, the "German Infantry 42-44" and the matching "German 81mm Mortar and Tripod MG42" sets.

As you can see the packaging is compact, with nice artwork and well laid info on the kit. Each kit comes with an HQ sprue of 3 figures, then 2 identical sprues each.

For the Infantry set this equates to 21 figures total
For the heavy weapons set it equates to 13 figures, and two tripod MG's and two 81mm Mortars.

The Sprues up close...

 

German infantry sprues assembled

  

Heavy weapons sprues assembled

All together

The infantry set comes with four figures with all arms and weapons already attached. From left to right they come in a total quantity of four, three, two and one.

 Following this we have the figures with arm options, including MP40's, STG44's (oddly, considering the kit ranges from 42-44) panzerfaust, and a vaguely generic rifle that looks as if it could be either a Kar98k or a Gewehr 43, depending on which detail you look at. You also have the options for a rather oddly posed MG42 gunner. Although I do like the Panzerschreck carrier.

As well as these we have kneeling figures that I armed thusly, it was also with these guys that I made use of the kits options for headswaps.
Oddly it gives you varied heads with different headgear, i.e forage caps, and helmets with camo covers, but no headless figures, so you literally have to hack off the head of an existing figure, and hope it doesn't go wrong hah.

You can see one problem of attaching a replacement head on the far right, as the plastic itself is fairly soft, the accidental overapplication of poly cement (to get the head to f%$ing stay there ;) ) has melted the collar and chest details, but looks good to my eyes and some brush work will cover that up.

Another thing I found mildly irritating and inexplicable was that the kneeling figures like this, had their left legs separate...it gives no other leg options and merely makes it awkward to complete them, I imagine there must have been some casting reason for this, but it escapes me....as you can see, one of the legs on the left has...gone wandering. Something I only noticed upon uploading this picture, it has since been rectified.

Finally we have the HQ figures, a nice combo of an officer in cap and a senior NCO in helment with nice poses, although the kneeling figure is not ideal, I assume he is a radio operator, but it is not made overly obvious and there is a hole in his front from the mould.

The hole in the central figure is just visible over his stomach.

 Next we have the heavy weapons kit. The mortars are nice pieces and went together fairly easily, with arm options for the crew so they do not come across TOO generic. The MG's on the other hand were highly frustrating, despite being very nicely moulded figures. The tripod struts are very fragile, one of the back legs snapped on one removing it from the sprue, then even though I took even more care because of this, the second ones front tripod leg snapped on removal...there was much swearing and fiddling with glue to rectify the mistakes, but in the end they look great.

Now we come to the "bits", the leftovers, we have a selection of heads, arms and weapons remaining for future use and conversion, which is always nice...

As usual a nice black primer spray and a light dusting of base colour bring them together quite nicely.

Finally, a quick size comparison with other brands...

In the brown we have some of the original, slightly larger Valiant 1:72 G.Is, the sandy coloured are the German figures in question. You can see they are mounted on pennies, so next to the older figs they are the same height, but there is a discernable size difference, as if the Americans are better fed, but they would work well together in mixed units I think. On the right are two classic 1:72 Revell figures, showing that the Valiant figures still seem to work well scaling wise.

CONCLUSIONS?

On first impressions the figures are very nicely sculpted and are well scaled with a good range of options for arming. They are well moulded and bits fit together smoothly and without issue for the most part.
The heavy weapons can be fiddly to put together, and you must be gentle removing them from the sprue, but they go together nicely.
Appearance wise, I find the poses a little wooden in some of the figures, especially the walking MG soldier, it seems an odd way to be modelled with an MG. I can also see problems with having multiples kits and the poses becoming repetitive quite quickly without conversion work, but overall there is sufficient diversity.
Overall I am quite happy with them, and they scale well with my 1:72 armour as well as my other figures in the scale from Revell and Pegasus. We shall see how well they paint up, hopefully quite soon :)