Can anyone give me some info on Zvezda models. I am interested in one of their T34 tanks and was wondering about the quality and difficulty of this brand. I have never saw them before and could use some info from someone who has had experience with their kits.

thanks

Paul

These subjects are OK. I built the Italeri rebox of the Zvezda kit. Apart from some minor fit problems with the rear bulkhead, not too much else was required to make a decent T34. In all, an enjoyable build. I would imagine that the kits have probably gotten better over time, so a recent release might be better than the one that I built.

They come with vinyl tracks, so if you want to portray the tank over rough ground, you will have to do some surgery on the idler arms to get them in the right position, and then glue the track to the road wheels.

I've got the Zvezda T-34/76 Model 1942 and it is a much better kit than the reworked Tamiya T-34 ChTz kit I had before and gave away. I had also built an original Tamiya T-34/76 OOB for a friend (his kit) about 13 years ago. Again this kit is much better.

Most of the Zvezda kits I've run across were Italeri reboxes. I noticed that they are starting to rebox DML modern Soviet armor as well. The first "true" Zvezda kit I've had the displeasure of owning is the WW2 Soviet T-60 light tank. Nasty looking kit that is about unbuildable.

Hi HastyP
I have built the T-34 85mm and the 4 man tank crew from Zvezda (reboxed as italeri). I am no expert on accuracy or russian armor but I liked both the tank and the figures. The instructions were in english, I worried about that, and were easy to understand. Very little flash and no sink holes. Vinyl tracks that are pretty cheasy. I found the hull a little warped and it made fitting the rear alignment a little hard. The turret had a nice rough texture to it that added to the feel of a old cheaply built russian tank. Decals were ok, 2 versions. I was happy with it and have since bought the JS-2 and it was a direct zvezda product. The decals arn't quite as nice but the instructions still have enough english to make sense. ANd best of all both kits were cheap compared to almost everything else.
This was my first tank and i thought it was a pretty straightforward build. Check it out... http://groups.msn.com/Armorama/bisondroppings.msnw