Soviet T-70M & ZiS-3

Ron Garcia
Before attempting to build this kit, be forewarned! There are no identification numbers on the sprues. This forces you to go back and forth from the sprues to the instructions to locate the pieces. To me, this was VERY frustrating!

I decided to build both the gun and the tank. It has been a long time since I built an artillery piece (Tamiya's 25 pounder in the '80s, maybe?). The gun took longer to build than the tank! Lots of small pieces and directions that didn't clearly show where pieces went. I left off a handwheel because I simply couldn't figure out where it went. When I finished it, the gun leaned forward instead of back for some reason and no amount of fiddling with it helped me figure it out. I finally just snapped the gun from the carriage and glued it at a better elevation.

The tank was a fast build. No PE which was nice. Individual track links are very fragile and several broke when cutting them from the sprue. Don't discard them! After using two for the spare tracks, I think I only had four left over - and this was after gluing the broken ones back together. The coaxial MG is very fragile and it broke when I barely touched it. No painting instructions or decals. The tank looks pretty good once finished. Recommended for those who have a few tanks under their belts. Lots of small and fragile parts make the build a bit tricky - not to mention the lack of identifying numbers on the sprues!