A closer look at the 1:144 Hawker Hurrican Mk. 1 game expansion made by the Russian company Zvezda. This kit belongs to Zvezdas range of small scaled modelplanes for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame. I built some planes from this range and they are easy to build, and can not only be used for Zvezdas wargame.
But without any words left, let us take a look at the kit which is included in this game expansion:
The Hurricane modelkit comes in a single sprue of sandcolored plastic, the same stuff Zvezda always uses for their Allied "Art Of Tactic" models. You can read my thoughts about this material in earlier Zvezda (p)reviews.
The sprue contains all parts needed to build this plane and I did not find any flaws on the sprue, no ejectormarkings or sinkholes were on the parts, and there is not much mouldlining to remove.
As you can see, there is the option to build the landing gear opened or closed, a nice feature that this kit has in common with all other 1:144 and 1:200 Zvezda wargaming planes.
The next "sprue" from this box contains the clear part:
The clear part for the canopy is casted as solid block, as they are in most Zvezda wargame planes, next Saturday we will see an exception. Due to its thickness, you could not add a pilot figure without a new piece for the canopy.
The third and 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 modelstand if all flash and ejectormarks would be removed.
As usual for "Art Of Tactic" plane kits, the Hurricane also includes a well made decalsheet for the model. In general, Zvezda produces decals of good quality, but these did not take the decalsofter without taking some minor damage.
A good layer of matte varnish may hide this, but I when I saw what happened after the application of "Mr Mark Softer", I thought that I messed up the kit.
Luckily that was not the case, my finished 1:144 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 looks like this:
For a gamepiece this kit is ok, it is easy and fast to build due to the well made building instructions, and after you may have painted it you could add some of the decals that are included.
Do not expect a real modelkit, this one aims at wargamers, the plane could be used for early war scenarios like the Blitzkrieg or the battle for Africa, even the Sovietunion got them via the lend/lease contract.
In the end it depends on you, but if you need a Hurricane, you should take a look at this one, even when there are other alternatives in this scale like the (out of prodution) Revell Microwings Hurricane or the Sweet Aviation Models Hawker Hurricane, both are way more detailed, but compared to the price of the Zvezda kit (below 4 Euros), their cost would be higher.
Tomorrow it is Sunday what means we will take a look at an expansion either for "TANKS" or "TANKS The Modern Age", this time we will take a look at the T-34.
A closer look at the 1:100 STUG III Ausführung B made by Zvezda, a modelcompany from Russia. This is an expansion box for their "Art Of Tatic" wargame, but (I may have written this before) you could use the included model in every 15mm ww2 wargame if there are rules for this tank.
But before we are going to examine this kit, please let me say that today it is the 10th anniversary of the World War 2 Modelzone (even when I wrote only approximately 3,5 years in that time), and this is great.
I never thought that I would continue this blog after I had a
harsh break in my life some years ago, but after I returned to modelbuilding, it
was a logical step to continue this blog as I explained in this Rügen'46 post.
Everyday people visit this blog(*) and I am thankful and happy if some of my posts may be entertaining or helpful. I think my old English teacher would kick my butt if he would read this gibberish, but
Are there any plans for the future ?
Sure, getting more models, build and paint them and write reviews about some of them, playing both "TANKS" games and write some more battlereports, more custom units for both games, more wartime pictures, all that mixed with the usual shit I am writing about.
But to go in detail, the planes expansion and a lot of new custom units should come over the next weeks (rules ready/cards not), the Britons for cold war "TANKS" will stay in focus next year (Easter?), my mate Olli and I created some funny gamemodes (Senshado anyone?) which will get tested, and much more.
Not to forget to mention, that over the next year I should be done with (p)reviewing the whole range of Zvezda "Hot War" and "Art of "Tactic" 1:100/1:144/1:200 game expansions. According to my list, there are 76 (?) kits fitting in that scheme (even a ship), of which I already have 21 reviewed (including this), 20+ are in preparation to be reviewed soon, but as soon I have time for regular posting, I will lower the frequency of kit (p)reviews.
(If you ever ask why I link to the Boardgamegeek hub for that game, the official site is not existing anymore.)
While there is a plan, it all depends on the amount of time to spend for this hobby and I almost always priotorize the building itself to posting about it.
I should have used the auto-publishing function earlier, and now, since I am using it, there are here and there some posts that got lost (Leo 1 comparison), or, like last weekend, a T-34 turned into a Leopard 1, but all in all, it works.
Any lost post will be re-added to the list of auto-published posts that they sooner or later will appear.
While the first post in this blog was about a STUG III, I would like to start the next decade of the World War II Modelzone with another STUG. III. But without spending any more words, since this is a (p)review, let us take a look at the plastic kit which is included in this game expansion:
The kit comes as a single grey sprue, made from the usual material which is used by Zvezda. For me it feels minimal softer than the stuff other companies use. As a regular reader you should have read my impression on this in previous posts about these 1:100 Zvezda kits.
Some tools and the towrope are moulded onto the hull, and they look good. Beside the wellmade roadwheels, even the tracks are not as bad as usual, what does not mean that they are great, on the last picture you get a better view of them
In best Zvezda tradition, the boxart was taken from their 1:35 STUG III modelkit, but this time it fits and shows indeed the model which can be build from the box, this is not always the case, for example their 1:100 Katjusha modelkit differs much from its boxart.
All hatches can only be build closed, but that is ok since there is no commander miniature on the sprue which could be used. I think you could modify this but I did not try this on my STUG, maybe I will get another of these kits in the future, then I will try if this would work.
I built this kit as addition for my Afrikakorps platoon, the construction was uncomplicated due to the simple but good instructions on the back of the box, and this is the result:
I like its look and and it fits perfect to the colorscheme of the other tanks from that platoon, there are still 2 or 3 models to get, then, when it is finished, I will write at least one post about them, but back to topic.
This model can be a useful addition to every early or mid war German army. Sure, there are other STUG kits like the Plastic Soldier Company STUG or the Battlefront Miniatures STUG, but this should do its job pretty good. As you can see on the picture above, the tracks are not as plain as on the general Zvezda 1:100 tank kit, we will see similar tracksets in later posts.
Some decals would have been nice, but "Art Of Tactic" tank kits never have them included.
As usual, you can get this kit (at least in Germany) for below 4 Euros. If you would need more STUGs, you could get a PSC or BFM Stug 3 platoon-sized box, you would not only get decals (not sure if there are decals in the PSC platoon boxes) and tankcommanders with those boxes, you could build different versions of this tank (see links above). But their construction is way more complicated as with this Zvezda kit and would need glue, what is not needed to build this modelkit.
In the end, it is always your decision, get whatever you like, but I recommend this kit.
This Saturday we will take a look at another 1:144 plane expansion from Zvezda and the day after tomorrow we will see another 15mm T-34. Since I have some time over the next days, I will prepare the next batch of posts for the coming weeks.
In the next days I will close this blog for some hours to do some maintenance and a decent redesign, but I will keep you informed about that.
But before this is happening, my mate Olli and I are going to play a little game of "TANKS The Modern Age" this afternoon, that battles report will get posted on Monday. While I made a small 101 pt. French list, I have no idea which nation will be my opponent.
(* Funfact: if you use privacy addons for your browser, you are invisible for that counter it and do not get counted.)
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.
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.
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.
