The Little World

I am still making my mind up about the Zvezda kits. They seem curate’s eggs in many respects, but I have not built enough to be able to judge accurately.

My first Russian kit was a MiG 15. It was chosen as the only kit of its type in that shop at that time – I’d remembered the dear old Airfix kit of 1964 and figured that if anyone could do an ex-Soviet jet it would be Zvezda. It had military markings – though I opted for a museum build of a rare aerobatic plane. In the end it worked well, and I even tamed an automotive clear lacquer to seal it. Never had that success again…

The JS-2 tank is a lot bigger and more detailed, but it has a few economies that I would not have expected. That hull and fenders are not sealed – there is a massive gap between them that spoils any chance of realism if you turn the tank over.

A Facebook group post suggested a sheet of plastic card to fill this in and I was happy to have an unused Evergreen sheet with enough area to cover the two sides. It’s a siding sheet for small railway scale but looks like corrugated aluminium in this tank scale. Like a lot of interior detail it will not be readily seen, but I like the security of it.

But why did Zvezda not just mould the hull completely? It will interesting to see if the next one of their kits to come on the floor is better – it’s a lend-lease Sherman.

Perhaps they have various factories and divisions of designers. The old Soviet system.