Hello! Before I begin, I apologize for the poor English of Google Translate; I swear mine is much worse!
This week I started building a Zvezda KV-1, and since I previously searched for reviews and building articles and didn’t find many, I thought I’d share this one with you. I hope to finish it this week.
The intention is to provide tools of choice and some advice to modelers, like me, who are looking for information on this product (and, incidentally, on any tools or accessories used in the build). The build, mostly if not entirely, will be OOB. I’m not skilled enough for much more than that, unfortunately!
This is the kit.
The Zvezda model is a variant I haven’t seen before from major brands. It’s identified by an early model, which, given the differences in the designation, could be a late 1939 or an early 1940 with a 1939 turret. I need to study this a bit.
The kit comes in the typical and very secure Zvezda box, a rigid box with a front closure and a top cover. For me, it’s a nice gesture from this brand to use this type of box in our days when we buy so much online and with shipments that sometimes even cross continents!
. Unfortunately, the tracks have a lot of ejection marks, and wheels have a central burr.
Although it doesn’t have a huge number of parts, I see a large number of tiny parts. Analyzing the instructions, they correspond to the interior or the hatch operating mechanisms. We’ll look at this aspect during assembly, but in general, I’m going to skip assembling the interior.
The parts look very well molded; most of them have no marks or burrs. The turret has some interior details that can help when a hatch is left open. The covers for these are detailed on the inside.
The tracks are link and length. Some don’t like them, but if they cover the wheels well, they seem like an acceptable and quick solution, but here they don’t allow for the sag between the rollers. The tracks appear well detailed. The sprue for them and the wheels comes double. They have ejector pin marks on the inside, but I think a quick sanding will suffice.
The hull in parts surely saves a lot of molds, but it’s a part that can be complex. I’ll go into more detail later. As a spoiler, it was easier and better than I expected.
I’ll review it a bit, but so far the only thing that seems a bit questionable is the plastic being so smooth… but I don’t know what type of steel was used.
The turret also comes in parts; we’ll see how it goes together. Interior details for the gun, ammunition, hatch, and other parts.
Two decoration options included.
The decals look great, sleek and with good saturation. Lenses for the headlamp and sight. Following the current trend, braided wire is used to simulate the cable. Do you like it or is it useful?
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