Thought I would support my local hobby store and build something stress free OOB and cost less than a set of AM tracks.
It starts with the lower hull.
Then the rest to make the “bathtub”
All very straight forward. The plastic looks like it wasn’t mixed properly?
A clever touch is the top two parts of the track sprues are joined to make a jig for the link & length tracks.
The wheels are a mixture of all steel and rubber tyred.
In keeping with a budget kit Zvezda give you a mesh to cut down for the engine deck grill.
The hull complete. I have left of some bits for ease of painting later and putting the tracks on.
The fit was very good overall…
… compared to a Meng premium kit which is atrocious. Warped as hell, badly fitting and flash on just about everything.
Starting the turret tomorrow and then its on to my favourite bit - the painting.
More pictures soon.
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Thats come together very nicely and quickly. I like the mix of road wheels you get with it which adds to the realism. I have been looking at some of the Zvezda kits and was wondering about the fit etc. May well look at one of the modern wagons … T72 and onwards.
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I just received one of their T-90’s and the parts look very good on the sprues. The detail is crisp and clean. Fingers crossed it builds up easily.
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Which Meng kit had that atrocious fit?
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Thanks Rory.
Neat kit! It’s always fun to clean out your modelmaking palate with a simple kit built just for the sake of it. That’s clever how Zvezda made the jig. Looking forward to seeing the finished build!
Luckily I haven’t bought a kit like this before.
I would find it looks awful when something isn’t mixed properly?
I hope your project will nevertheless be succesful.
I wish you all the best with making your project.
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Turret assembled. All primed with Mr Surfacer 1500.
Made some wheel masks for the four rubber tyred ones plus a 5mm disc to cover the clear headlight lens.
Inside of tracks painted with Tamiya rattle can. I am hoping that when I mask the areas off where the wheels polish the tracks and then weather them they will tone down a lot.
Hull & turret pre-shaded and AK Real Colors RC072 4BO green heavily thinned with laquer thinner applied.
That’s it for today, Guinness at the pub beckons as does solids while watching the snooker.
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It certainly appears that Zvezda has stepped up their game! Nice looking kit.
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Looking very nice there Cats. That 4BO looks the business… I just got a bottle of it for the Bulgarian Panther I’m going to do.
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This is as far as I am getting with this. My 4 YO niece decided to play with it and the other side has no track anymore! My wife and I had a pretty sharp row about keeping visiting children under control and of course I am in the wrong 
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Thats a real bummer Cats. it looks really nice though with the side you can show. very nice finish on it.
and sadly … when it comes to SWMBO … we are always guilty or in the wrong, or both …
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I am between a rock and a hard place.
I have to leave my man-cave door open because it “needs airing” LOL.
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Thank god its not just me that hears that all the time 
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I find I have 50/50 shot of being 100% wrong. 
The tank was looking good.
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Use it in a diorama where the damaged side is hidden in a deep and waterfilled ditch?
Maybe: "Comrade commissar, we had to ditch the tank " ?
Maybe some member who knows Russian could provide an idiomatically and grammatically correct phrase?
Some inspiration (a Serbian tank in this case, shows the general idea)
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Thanks for the suggestion but it has now gone to be re-cycled.