Meanwhile In Sassnitz...

Work in progress, maybe I will finish the diorama this weekend.

Zvezda 1:100 SU-76M Self-Propelled Gun

A closer look at the 1:100 Soviet SU-76M self-propelled gun model kit. This kit is produced by the Russian manufacturer Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame range. But as all 1:00 Zvezda model kits, this model could be used for any 15mm world war 2 wargame.

After we too a closer look at the Plastic Soldier Company SU-76 model kit in a previous post, today let us see, what Zvezda has to offer with its SU-76 kit:

The kit comes in two green sprues made in the same plastic as all other Soviet units for Zvezdas ww2 and ww3 wargames. The casting is without any flaws, there is virtually no flash to remove. The absence of any sinkholes and visible ejectormarks is a very nice feature, and the only mouldlines you would have to remove can be found on the tracks, the barrel and some smaller parts.

The tracks on this kit are made well, it seems that the newer Zvezad 1:100 tank kits do not lack as much track detail as their first released kits.

What was most surprising, is the grade of detail of the crew compartment, as you can see on the picture below. Please note that the gunsight was not installed on the picture.

As usual, this kit can be built without the use of glue, but the plastic takes normal modelglue well and binds fast

With the SU-76 Zvezda offers a nice modelkit with a good amount of details. I could not find any negative points on the kit itself, but the addition of decals and crewmembers would have been nice.

But for its low price and the quality of the kit, I only can recommend this kit as an addition for your Soviet ww2 army.

This kit was built pretty fast and I had no issues with this, but you should carefully read the included instruction leaflet, since the construction of Zvezda 1:100 kits sometimes can be a little, ahm, special (?).

The picture shows, how it looks, when this thing is built and painted:

In one of the next posts, the Zvezda SU-76 will be compared to the Plastic Soldier Company SU-76, which of them would I rather recommend ?

Zvezda 1:100 BM-13 Katyusha

A closer look at the 1:100 Soviet BM-13 Katyusha game expansion produced by the Russian modelmaker Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame range. This kit was a nice alternative to the resin/metal BM-13 kits made by Battlefront Miniatures, but BFM recently released a new Katyusha plastic modelkit, you can find a video here.

I bought one of these kits some months ago and used it as a base for my ZIS-6 truck with a 37mm aa gun built, but since I also wanted a Katyusha rocket launcher, I got this kit a second time, but without any more words spents, let us take a look at the modelkit of this game expansion:

First of all, you do not get what you see on the boxart. There is no armoured windshield, the rails of the launcher do not have any holes, and there are only rockets for the upper part of the launcher rails. This sucks, but as we saw in the Bradley review, this happens sometimes with Zvezda kits.

The kit comes in two green sprues, and as usual, this modelkit is made fom the same green plastic as all other Soviet "Art Of Tactic" 1:100 tank kits. The casting quality is good, what I expected, since most Zvezda wargaming modelkits are made very well.

It could be built without the use of any glue, all parts fit and sit well without it, but using regular modelglue works fine on this kit.

I did not find any issues on the sprues, except for some mouldlines which have to be to removed, but there is minimal flash, no sinkholes, and any ejectormarks (if there are some on the parts) would not be seen, when this kit is built.

The frame parts of the launcher are pretty delicate, that you have to take care not to bend them, but they look nice when built.

Once again we have a 1:100 "Age Of Tactic" modelkit, which I recommend, even when you do not get what you see on the box. The overall grade of detail is well done and for its price it could be a cheap alternative to the resin/metal and plastic wargame model made by BFM. Maybe I will get my hands on one of those plastic kits in the future, then I will take a closer look at it.

If you want to built a "real" 1:100 BM-13 model kit, you will have to wait til one will hit the market, you may use the Zvezda kit as a base, but this would take a lot of work, even when drilling up the windows would not be as complicated as it would be for Zvezdas 1:100 Opel Blitz.

Today I do not have a picture of my built and painted Katyusha truck, I keep this for a future post, when I will show the simple modifications I did to improve its look.

Instead of this you can listen to the beautiful Russian song "Katyusha" from which the BM-13 got its nickname.

3Dprinted 1:144 P-40 and P-47

Finally I finished the last 1:144 plane model for my planned plane expansion for ww2 "TANKS". While I already had the P-40 done, I thought the USA also should have the choice between two planes. Then I looked at Thingiverse for  matching stl .files to print a second US plane.

These may not be historically accurate for the European scenario, but there is a life beyond modelbuilding (at least I heard so), and I already exceeded this months modelling budget, (and I like both planes design), that is why I decided to print the second plane, and at least both planes were used by the US Airforce in the second world war.

First there is the P-47 Thunderbolt:

I took this .stl file from Thingiverse to print this plane. I had to rescale it, and I think it is scaled right.

You may have seen this in the post which contains the timelapse video of its print. I did not much after I printed it, the machineguns were added, using some thin wire (one is already lost), I added some rotorblades from the bitsbox, and I had to use filler to close some of the bigger holes and gaps. I did not care much about the bottom, what clearly can be seen on the picture.

The plane was primed in black, then it got a layer of Citadel Mithryl Silver. The old Citadel colorpots do a great job in conserving paints, the silver I used is at least 15 years old, just as the white and the red I used on the plane, all are the good old Citadel paints.

After that I added the white and black stripes without any masking, and they could be way better, but for me it is ok. The decals were taken from the sparebook, I think they belonged to a Revell 1:144 Microwings kit which I threw away after I messed it up.

Next is the P-40 Warhawk:

This was also taken from Thingiverse, if I remember correctly, it was this file. The P-40 also was rescaled to 1:144, and also on this thing I had to use some filler and sanding paper. I still have to add some rotorblades from the bitsbox, I think I should have some more.

This plane got a simple paintjob in grey and dark green, then I used some decals from the Revell Microwings 1:144 P-40 warhawk, this kit somehow got lost while moving, and I think when I will add the rotorblades I will repaint some parts of this thing to make it match up with the Revell P-40 boxart.

For sure, I will not win a prize for these crude models, but they should fulfil their purposes. Now that all models for my project are done, it is time to start with the paperwork, but I will not rush and take my time to do it.

This is just a filler post, but as usual, I wrote more than I had planned. Tonight I will take a closer look at another 1:100 Zvezda "Art Of Tactic" kit, since I already have two reviews finished, I still have not decided which of them I will upload tonight.

If my internet provider can keep a stable internet connection, what was not always the case in the last few weeks. Especially in the nighttimes the connection was gone and I had to rely on my mobile.

Plastic Soldier Company 1:100 SU-76 Self-Propelled Gun

A closer look at the 1:100 Soviet SU-76 self-propelled gun made by the British Plastic Soldier Company.  The PSC offers a growing range of ww2 and cold war tanks and miniatures in 15 and 20mm scale which are a nice alternative to "official" miniatures for "Flames Of War" and other wargames.

I already built some PSC 15mm tank models (here or here), and all of them result in nice models. Will the Plastic Soldier Company keep up with its standards?

Let us take a  look at the plastic to find out:

The kit comes in a gray(grey) plastic sprue, which is casted pretty sharp, with a fair amount of detail. No sinkholes, that can be seen when it is built, can be found on the sprue, except for one big sinkhole on the side of the crew compartment, which will be covered partly by the exhausts (update: almost unseen, when the kit is built).
A big ejectormark can be found inside of the crew compartment, but I do not think it will be seen when the tank is built (update: It will not be seen).
There is some flash, especially on the smaller parts, which should be removed.

You can choose between the early and the late version of the SU-76, and also you can choose to have the drivers hatch opened or closed.
Six crewmembers can be found in this kit, what is pretty nice. One half of them comes in Summer clothing, the rest is equipped with Winter gear, you can see them on the picture below:

I bought a single sprue of this kit without instruction leaflet, but you can find it on the web and the building instructions are clear and easy to understand as all of the PSC are. It is (almost) possible to build this kit without instructions but you better should have them.

This is a nice kit from the Plastic Soldier Company, for its scale it is ok, and it is a good alternative to the SU-76 resinmodel from Battlefront Miniatures. There are some simplified parts, but the impression of the kit is is good.
The addition of crewfigures is always welcome, and getting 6 of them means that you can at least equip one other tank with crew figures. The price for a single kit of the PSC SU-76 is a little higher than the price of the Zvezda SU-76, while you get a 5 kit box for about 20 Euros.

In one of the next posts you will see, which of the two SU-76 I would prefer for building a platoon of them, for now you will only get a picture of the built and painted model, building this kit was a pretty easy thing and did not take much time.

I almost forgot, I made an updated abilities list for ww2 "TANKS", you can find it in my dropbox at

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11av4DA2VkVau88BD_RGjKsQbWMKtpkz7/view?usp=sharing