Detail is decent but there should be a few rivets on the body which are absent.
The instructions are quite good though they are a bit vague in some places. Location points are non-existent for a lot of the parts and you have to refer back to the art work or other references to get an idea as to where to place things.
One trouble spot to watch for is the placement of the rear suspension unit. In step 3 of the instructions you need to cut of 6.5mm from the frame before assembling to body. I found it easier to put body together as outlined in step 6 and then test fit the frame to see exactly how much of it needs removal. This way I was able to cut off the exact portion of the chassis required.
The kit was built pretty much straight from the box. I thinned the steps located under the doors, added door handles from thin wire and also added some rear fender braces as shown on the box’s artwork.
The tires are of the vinyl variety which is not my favourite format. I did try gluing a few tires to the rims from the backside with some super glue but this failed so I just pushed all the tires onto the rims. This resulted in some uneven gaps between the rims and the tires. Surprisingly all the tires did touch the ground without any adjustments required on my part.
Take care when building the turret. The instructions in step 5 have all the part numbers crossed out in freehand with what looks to be a circled N beside each (parts 174D, 179D & 180D). I took this to mean that these are the incorrect ones and checked the sprue layouts. Here the proper parts are circled (84D, 95D & 99D)
The decals are thin, in register, have a matte finish and apply to the kit very nicely. They settled down well after a soaking in Microsol. The sheet contains a few red stars, a variety of white numerals and the patriotic phrase Za Rodiniya (“For the motherland”).
Outside of the useless vinyl tires I really liked this kit.
Al Magnus
E-mail to Henk Timmerman / HenkofHolland