Zvezda 1:100 M4A2 Sherman

A closer look at the 1:100 M4A2 Sherman tank expansion for the "Art Of Tactic" wargame made by Zvezda from Russia. This kit gives you a 15mm Sherman tank, that can be used either for Zvezdas game itself or any other wargame where you can find this unit.

But I do not want to spend any more words before we have taken a look at the modelkit which came with this expansion:

This kit comes in two sand-colored sprues. And as usual, the material is not as stiff as from other kits I know, what does not mean that it is soft. But Zvezda uses a material for their kits that feels (at least for me) somehow different.

Maybe this is the reason that their wargaming kits in general are casted without any flaws. No sinkholes, no ejectormarks which would be seen after construction, minimal mouldlines that would need removal.

Some tools and the towrope are moulded onto the hull, the overall grade of detail is acceptable for a wargaming piece, I have seen worse in bigger scales. The roadwheels are well made and surprisingly the tracks are not as simple as we have seen on other Zvezda kits, the Sherman tracks are ok.

A standard issue with these "Art Of Tactic" tanks kits is the absence of decals, and this kit is no exception. Another thing that I do not like, there is only the option to build it with closed hatches for (not included) crewmembers.

Following the well made building instrutions, after some cleanup, the tank was built pretty fast without any issues, as usual I used glue but it is not needed to use. In each case you should use enough pressure to avoid any gaps during the construction (next Tuesday we will see what happens if you do not).

I added a leftover hedgerow cutter from the Sherman kit of the "TANKS" starterbox, see the finished kit below:

All in all this is a decent kit.

The grade of detail is acceptable, even the tracks are not too bad. If you need a cheap M4 Sherman, you should get this one, if you can live with the usual issues that "Art Of Tactic" tanks kits offer (no opened hatches, no decals, nocrewmembers).

And (as we see below) there are some differences in the size of this compared to the BFM Sherman:

While I would not mix both models in a single platoon because of their differences, if you would use only Zvezda (of BFM or PSC) Shermans in a platoon, it would be ok.

The price for this kit is below 4 Euros what is the average price for the sort of kits. What I wrote in earlier posts fits here as well, either you want it cheap and easy to build, or you pay a little more and get 15mm Shermans from other companies, in most cases those kits offer some extra bits and stuff.

In the end it is your choice whatever Sherman you want to use, but I recommend this kit beside the issues I have with it.

This is one of the last posts I had prepared, what means that I have to start another writing marathon in the next days, yet tomorrow we will take another closer look at a Zvezda 1:100 kit, and then I will have to start writing upcoming the posts for the next weeks.

Zvezda 1:100 Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf. B

A closer look at the 1:100 German Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausführung B game expansion produced by the Russian modelmaker Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame range. This is one of the most iconic ww2 vehicles (beside the Tiger, the Sherman and the T-34), also well known under the name "Hanomag". Zvezda offers with the 251 Stuka Zu Fuss another version of this vehicle.

Let us take a look at the modelkit included in this expansion:

The kit comes in one grey sprue of plastic. Here and there are some ejectormarks which may be needed to remove. I did not find any real sinkholes, some spots are minimal sunken in, and the amount of mouldlines is minimal. Some tools are moulded onto the hull, the MG34 lacks of greater detail compared to MG34s from other 15mm kits.

As usual for most Zvezda 1:100 kits, the roadwheels are ok, but the tracks have low detail on the outside and no details on the inner side of them. A quick comparison with the PSC Sd.Kfz. 251 shows that the tracks of both kits have the same standard.

There are neither crewmembers nor a decalsheet included.

I am no expert, but according to the wikipedia article, this thing should not have side vision slits for the crew compartment. By the way, the boxart does not show them, but in best Zvezda tradition they recycled their boxart of the 1:35 modelkit of the Hanomag for this expansion. You can see this on many "Art Of Tactic" boxes.

Todays closer look at a kit contains some closeups:

Some deatailed views on the sprue show more, in the upper left corner you see the damaged hood of this kit, but it may be that this fault came only on my kit. Also you can see the less detailed machinegun on the left.

Due to the wellmade building instruction on the back of the box, the construction of this modelkit went pretty fast and uncomplicated, as with all (most?) other 1:100 Zvezda tanks kits, you will not need glue to build this kit, but it is more stable if you use modellers cement on the parts.

The picture below shows my w.i.p. 251/1 halftrack with some leftover parts from the Plastic Soldier Company Sd.Kfz. 250 (coming soon) before it was converted to a SD.Kfz. 251/10 (I also had the choice to build a 251/9 with some leftover BFM Puma bits):

Everything worked as supposed and with a first layer of paint, I think it was Revell Aquacolor Africabrown, at the moment the model is in this state:

(in you background you can see some (also w.i.p.) technicals made from 3Dprinted SUVs and leftover bits)

To be honest, I do not have any use for this (or do I?), but now, after it was on my table, I would say that even when this is a ok kit (if you ignore the absence of crewminis and decals), you should go for an alternative. The grade of detail is not too bad, but there are some inconsenties about the version.

Compared to the cost of below 4 Euros for it, for app. 5 Euros you could get the Plastic Soldier Company 251/c or 251/D (picture) where some crew figures and a big load of stowage are included. 

Battlefront miniatures also offers a Hanomag, which I know only from pictures, while there are no crew figures included, you could not only build the 251/1 version from that kit, also you could build the 251/9 and 251/10.

If you have leftover bits to build other Hanomag versions, I recommend this kit for cheap conversions, but if you need 251/1 then you should get the PSC 251/1 for the simple reason that it contains crewfigures and parts to customize its look.

This Thursday we are going to take a look at an Allied or Soviet "Art Of Tactic" expansion at the usual time, more about the current scheduling can be found in the lastest blog update post. And this Friday I am going to do another closer look at a German"Art Of Tactic" expansion, and this will get written that day.

Leopard 1 Tank Expansion for TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the 1:100 Leopard 1 tank expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" from Galeforce 9. This expansion contains a modelkit and some upgrade cards for the game. The kit itself originates from the "Team Yankee" wargame made by Battlefront Miniatures.

Some time ago, my mate Olli got this expansion for his Bundeswehr platoon, and he allowed me to review and build it. But with no further words left, first let us take a look at the modelkit which comes with this expansion:

The kit came in 2 green sprues containing all parts to build the Leopard 1 tank. All kits were nicely casted, and neither me nor Olli found any errors. No flash or miscasted parts were found, neither sinkholes nor visible ejectromarks (when built) were on the parts.

Even the amount of mouldlines was very minimal.

The kit give you the choice of either the wield or the casted turret, both with opened or closed commanders hatches. Also you can build the Canadian Leopard version, but that does not count for this expanion. Two turrets will mean, that one complete turret would disappear in the bitsbox (or not).

After we have seen the plastic kit from this box, let us take a look at the card for the Leopard 1:

The Leopard 1 has a high initiative of 8, paired with 1 armourpoint and a total of 6 hitpoints, this a solid unit. The attack of 4 is ok, the Stabilizer ability would let you reroll a single attack dice.

For its price this is a nice addition to each Bundeswehr platoon, costing only 15 points means, that you could take either 2 leopard 1 (+2 points for upgrades) or a single Leopard 2 for the some points.

Next let us see, which upgrade cards are included in this expansion, starting with the German heroic crewcards, which are "flip over" cards, what means, that they only work from the moment they are revealed:

(by the way, the official FAQ for ww2 "TANKS" is pretty helpful for this game too)

The driver "Dietrich Manheim" adds 2 initiative points for the movement phase. When revealed directly after shooting, the tank may do a single move in any direction without adding a speed token. When I saw that card the first time, I had to think of the "Cautious" abilitiy from ww2 "TANKS".

For 5 points this driver can be useful.

"Jürgen Schmidt" can be added as gunner to your tank. This gunner is one of the most powerful crewcards I have seen in both "TANKS" games. Not only he grants you 2 additional initiative points for the attack phase when the card gets flipped after its attack.

After that attack you may do an unmodified D4 attack to the same target, what means that you could destroy a heavy tank in a single round with some lucky dice.

Next are 3 global upgrade cards, the "Suberb Commander" adds 1 initiative for the cost of 2 points, more initiative is always useful, but there are better upgrades for the same cost.

"Manpads" adds a single D5 missile attack when discarded. For 2 points this is a useful upgrade, giving the ability to attack helicopters.

(Even when every tank at least has a D3 basic attack versus helis.)

The last card from this expansion is "Willie Pete" for 2 points. In ww2 "TANKS" this is called "Smoke Rounds", and that is what it is. When this gets discarded, you do not shoot any tank. Instead of that you define a target, that gets -3 attack and counts in cover for that round.

This is a good card to weaken heavy tanks like the Leopard 2 or the M1A1 Abrams for at least one round.

Just think of an enemy platoon, where each tank has equipped "Willie Petes" ;)

The kit itself was easy to build, and the result looks like this:

There are 2 minor changes made, I used the machine guns from the BFM Leopard 2 kit instead of the included gun, and I added a scratchbuild target sight (?) on the wielded turret which will get a 3D printed hull. And I added a Bundeswehr commander mini from my bitsbox.

The third tank expansion for Bundeswehr platoons is a good one. Not only you would get a solid battle tank (and a good model of it) for your platton, you also get a bunch of very useful upgrades for your tanks. As usual, the only minus is the missing of any decalsheet or crewmember, but this is a known thing with these expansions.

Since the choice of available Bundeswehr expansions is very limited (only 4), get at least one of them if you play German forces in "TANKS The Modern Age".

"Dietrich Manheim", "Jürgen Schmidt" and the ammo cards included did well when my mate Olli and I had a small game on my workbench (tanks only), ending with the defeat of my French forces. There are no pictures from that battle but I will get a revanche in the next days, which will get a small battlereport then.

By the way, I think, I found some "official (??)" custom cards for "TANKS" in this blog.

Zvezda 1:100 SB-2 High-Speed Bomber

A closer look at the Soviet SB-2 high-speed bomber in 1:200 scale made by the Russian company Zvezda. This box is an expansion for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame, but this model could not only be used for this or other ww2 games, the SB-2 was used in China and the Spanish civil war, too.

You may already know that I am no aviation expert, but this should be no big hurdle to give this kit a quick look:

The kit comes in two olivegreen sprues, there are no ejectormarkings and sinkholes, virtually no flash was found on the sprue. Here and there are some mouldlines on smaller parts to remove.

You can build this plane with open or closed landing gear.

As usual, there is no glue required to build this Zvezda kit, but if you want to, you can use normal model cement on the parts.

The next is the clear plastic sprue. It is made from pretty soft plastic and contains 3 canopies to finish the kit.

The final sprue in this box contains 2 parts to build a stand for the plane. It is included in every "Art Of Tactic" plane expansion. It seems solid and not too bad and would be a decent model stand if you remove all mouldlines and ejectormarkings.

The decalsheet seems like it is printed in the same good quality than the other Zvezda decal sheets I know. This one contains some generic numbers and Red Stars. I had no time to test them at the moment, but there should be no issues with them, but...

if you want to use decal setting and/or decal softing solution there is the chance that it may damage them, I had this issue with the decals from Zvezdas Hawker Hurricane (next Saturdays plane) when I used decalsofter.

The instruction leaflet was easy to understand and after some minutes of minimal cleanup and some more minutes to build this kit, the plane was finished and looks like this:

I already have some ideas how to paint this thing, but I do not think this will happen this year. And, as usual, I will have to get some decals to make this version.

I have no idea how to rate this kit, and I can not say if this kit is accurate for its scale, but this may not only be useful for "Art Of Tactic" players.

Whenever you would need a early war Soviet, a Spanish civil war, or even a Chinese nationalist SB-2 bomber, you could use this one.

It seems that the ww2 Zvezda kits in Germany are cheaper compared to most countries, this costs in all of my favorised shops under 4 Euros.

Tomorrow we will take a closer look at another "TANKS" expansion.

15mm Late War Afrikakorps ?!

Here are some pictures of a platoon for "TANKS" which me and my mate Olli had prepared for a friend as birthday present. He had played some games with us and he liked the look of my Afrikakorps platoon, that was a good opportunity to give him his own small starterforce.

The platoon is made from some Zvezda kits, a BFM Tiger and some bits/3Dprinted hybrids, all were basecoated in Revell Aquacolor Sand followed by some drybrushing and washes.

First we have a Panther and two Panzer IV H from Zvezda. These were easy to build, we will take a closer look at these kits in some later posts.

Next we have the Battlefront Miniatures late war Tiger with Zimmerit. Formerly it served under my mate Ollis service and did well in various battles, but now it is time to reach new frontiers.

These 3 assaultguns, two Jagdpanthers and one STUG III, were made from leftover upper hull parts from the bitsbox and 3D printed lower hulls and tracks. On the Jagdpanthers I had to improvise but they are looking pretty decent for that.

Last but not least we have a 3D printed Puma, the only thing that was changed on this model was the barrel, which was taken from the bitsbox. Even when some of the details got distorted, this is a nice model.

To make this package complete he gets a rulebook and all unitcards which are needed, some upgradecards and enough dice to play a first round with this new platoon.

We hope, that he will like it, when he gets this present this afternoon. (update: he did)

By the way...
while I went through the upgrade cards of the Italian expansions for for "TANKS", I noticed, that one card in both packs is double sided, I added this to the reviews.