Zvezda 1:100 T-35

After a bit of a delay, I just received an order from Plastic Soldier Company of a squadron-lot of Zvezda 1:100 scale T-35 heavy tanks.

The delay was due to PSC not getting their shipment from Zvezda on time — I hear that Zvezda's CEO just died, so it may have had something to do with that. Anyway, they did keep me informed about what was going on, so I'm not all that worried about having to wait a couple of weeks longer than expected.

The squadron deal got me five tanks for £12.75, plus about two quid fifty postage. So they ended up at about three quid (about $NZ6.00) each, which is not too bad at all.

Each vehicle comes on two sprues of fairly soft plastic — not as soft as, say, Airfix toy soldiers, but soft enough to cut (and mark) very easily.

They're snap-together kits, and though I did use glue on this one, they snap together pretty firmly, and I doubt that they'd be likely to fall to bits under normal handling. The models assemble very quickly; I'd be surprised if this one took longer than about ten minutes, and that includes a bit of time sanding away some mould lines around the turret.

The detail has been simplified a bit, but not so much that it loses the essential form of the tank.

One area that could have done with being detailed a bit less in scale is in the rivets. There is rivet detail on the side-skirts, but it's so fine and delicate that it's hardly visible at all, and may not survive being painted. I would have liked to have seen something a bit more definite.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with them. They're cheap as chips, and make excellent wargaming pieces. The best thing about them is that they cost less than a quarter what I'd have to pay for a T-35 from Battlefront.

Having looked at some photos of the T-35 with soldiers (German soldiers, as it happens) standing next to them, two things become immediately apparent:

1. Those things are HUGE, and
2. the rivets in the side-plates of Zvezda's offering are actually UNDER scale. Those rivet-heads must be easily 40-50mm in diameter.

I'm tempted to try adding some rivets to the next one I do... maybe a sheet of 3d rivet waterslide transfers is in my future.