Zvezda 1/100 Ferdinand and Sturmtiger

I bought these two (and a few others besides) early in 2018 with a view to building them up to review and add to my collection. I started this piece of work in May, but then forgot about them until last Sunday when I found them whilst was looking for something else!

 As ever the box art gives you an overview of assembly, which looked to be straight forward enough.
The parts come on two sprues moulded in a hard grey plastic. Parts are easily clipped from the sprues though (as ever) it is hard to do so without leaving tell-tale marks on the track surfaces.

These five parts are required to build up the chassis. Beware there are right and left hand track units....check before you glue!

 The chassis once it was assembled.

Next stage is to assemble the fighting compartment and attach this to the upper hull. There is a separate front armoured plate to fit with locator pins so you get it the correct way up. The fighting compartment has some nice detail including the interlocking armour joints at each corner of the superstructure.

Finally attach the completed upper hull and fighting compartment to the chassis and attach the 88mm gun/mantlet and the model is finished.

Very quick to assemble and a lovely little model of an early (pre-bow machine gun) Ferdinand. I guess this would be best suited to Kursk era battles, though the MG and a STUG III type cuploa would be easy enough to add for later battles (i.e. Italy) turning it into an Elefant!

 The other model was the Sturmtiger Heavy Assault Mortar/Rocket Launcher.

This time the box artwork just showed the finished tank as the assembly instructions were on a printed sheet inside the box.

 They obviously thought it too complex to rely on an exploded diagram on the box!

 Once again all the parts are on two sprues, moulded in light grey polystyrene.

Starting again with the chassis, the kit uses what seems to be one of Zvezda's rather over complex means of attachment. I guess this is to make the model truly snap-fit, but does seem just a little over-engineered.

 Once assembled it looks like this, ready for the track units to be attached.

 Also there is a front armour plate at the bow to be fitted along with the tracks.

 Once again, I have a tendency to mark the tracks when removing them from the sprues, no matter how hard I try not to.

The body of the hull comes in one piece. Nicely detailed with interlocking armour plates engraved. All that needs to be done is to add the main gun etc. and the winch for spare ammo.

 With care the back piece can be held in place whilst the front is glued.

 This then enables the gun to elevate freely.

There is a large gun mount surround to add afterwards, and a mantlet, before the barrel is fixed in place. There is a finely moulded bow MG mount (take care with the barrel!) and the aforementioned winch to attach. The rear plate has the exhausts already moulded in place, but there is a part of the air ducting to add to the engine plates.

 Finally attach the completed hull and rear plate to the chassis to complete the model.

Another really nice little kit. Simple enough to build and gives a nice rendition of a rather rare Panzer. The late type steel rimmed wheels of the track unit, might prove to be suitable to produce a late model Tiger 1 when combined with another kit?

To finish these off I gave them a spray coat of Vallejo Air Desert Yellow over a coat of white primer. Then followed Vallejo Air German Green over spray, and in the case of the Sturmtiger, Vallejo Air German Brown too.

The Sturmtiger was given desert yellow flecks to the green and brown areas to create an "Ambush" finish and then both models were weathered with Vallejo Sepia wash and high-lighted with Vallejo Iraqi Sand. They were both based on sand covered mdf bases (as all my AFVs are) and markings added from my ever diminishing supply of surplus Dragon decals.

Excellent little models, fairly straight forward to assemble and enough detail to lead to a good finish. These are such good value at approximately £3 you cannot go wrong. What's not to like...?

Zvezda 15mm M1 Abrams

This model comes on two sprues packed in Zvezda’s usual cardboard carton together with a small decal sheet, Art of Tactic data card and instruction sheet.

Now one thing I cannot get my head around is their pricing structure for these kits. The WW2 range all cost around £3.50 each these days, however there are some anomalies.

The Tiger I comes in at £6.50 (which makes it more expensive than the PSC offering) as does the T35. However the Maus is only £3.50??

The entire Modern range is priced at £6.50 and I’ve read on-line that this is because of a "more limited market"? But the models themselves are no more complex to produce than their WW2 brethren?

Anyway, we are where we are! As ever the moulding quality is good. The plastic material used takes glue well and there is the bonus of some very simple decals.

The model goes together well. It is of the IMPM1 with the 120mm gun.

There are the usual Zvezda wacky ways of attaching some of the parts (I guess this is to keep it snap-fit?). You can see what I mean from the pictures the means of attaching the tracks is a little over complicated to say the least.

However……and it’s a big however… the detail on the moulded parts is pretty basic……

I fact I’d go as far as to say it’s really quite poor.

The side plates have no engraving whatsoever….just one big plate! And the tracks are over simplified.

The turret is probably the worse bit. to start with the detail is pretty light, and there is no environment sensor, but I guess this would be easy to add. But the lack of smoke dischargers is inexcusable and the greatly over simplified stowage rack is shocking.

As there were no Commander or loader MGs included either, I used my spares from the Battlefront offering to jazz things up a bit.

Size wise it compares reasonably well with the Battlefront M1 although the main gun looks really puny...or maybe the Battlefront one is too big? I'm not certain..

Hull dimensions and turret dimensions are broadly similar.

I think once painted the same, they will mix OK on the table together. 

Sadly this is overall a really disappointing kit. When I think back how much I have enjoyed their other models (And I have built examples of the entire WW2 range) this one doesn't really hit the mark, and at nearly twice the normal price does not represent good value for money.

Zvezda Stuart "Honey"

I see that Zvezda have brought out (or are bringing out) a shed load of new 1/100 Art of ataxic related AFVs thus year. So far I've seen the Tiger, M3 Medium and M3 Stuart in our local model shop, but am looking forwards to the Soviet SP a Guns and Elefant. I was disappointed to see that the Tiger was priced at £6 like the Cold War Vehicles. This doesn't make it particularly good value in my eyes when compared to the alternatives.....

Simple to build, the instructions are on the back of the box.

The model is moulded in sand coloured plastic like many of the recent additions. The boxes no longer include the stats cards. These are now available to download on line.

All the 12 parts are on a single sprue and are easy to remove with side cutters.

The lower hull is assembled first. This fits together leaving a slight gap visible behind the track units. I filled this with a bead of polystyrene cement.

The upper hull is in one piece including the very finely moulded bow mg.

The turret is made from four pieces, but Looks the part.

The completed model is tiny, but is detailed and strongly made. This AFV can be used in so many theatres of action, ii is extremely flexible.

I chose a simple finish. Vallejo Russian Green substituting for British Bronze Green. Then a Sepia wash and finally dry brushing lightened Russian Green. I went back to my old way of painting tracks, light grey with black wash followed by flesh wash to simulate rust. Finally I based it on mdf and sprayed varnish to protect it. Just a few white allied stars finished things off.

Great little model.

Zvezda 15mm Daimler Dingo Scout Car

Whilst they hadn't got the KV2's, my local model shop did have. The new Dingo Scout Car.

I guess I'm just addicted to this range of models as £2.99 seems a lot for such a tiny model!

No instruction sheet for this one, the nine parts (including four wheels!) go together rather easily following the exploded drawing on the back of the box.

All the parts are on one sprue.....hardly surprising really!

They are quick to clean up.

And it makes up into a lovely little model. Watch out for the fine mg barrel which would be easily broken. I'd have liked it to be built with the top hatch open. Not an option straight out of the box, but I may revisit this and attempt the surgery required to add some surplus PSC commander figures.

Here it is alongside some recent builds, to give you an idea just how tiny it really is!

Nice kit.

Zvezda 15mm KV2

When I saw on-line that Zvezda had added the awkward looking KV2 Heavy Tank to their Art of Tactic range I just had to have some.

The local model shop never had any when I visited so I forgot all about them until I was on holiday in June and spotted two in a little model shop in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. And they were mine!

Moulded in green plastic on two sprues, they included an instruction sheet.

I'm not sure if it's me, but Zvezda seem to be looking for the most complex solution when designing their latest models. The SDKFZ 222 and BA10 both use a similar approach to that taken with the KV's turret. 

Maybe it's because they're designed to be snap fit? Anyhow it's made up of 8 parts all hanging off the central skeleton which incorporates the main gun and rear mg. the parts need some careful cleaning up as all the points where the sprues connect are on the inner chamfered edges. Failure to clean them up well, will mean the edges won't sit together cleanly.

The finished article captures the over tall look of the original quite well.

The hull is simplicity itself. Four components identical to those in the KV1.

The finished model looks smashing and just needs a coat of paint to appear next to its cousins.