I’m after some info on zvezda and academy kits, has anyone made any zvezda armor kits, i’ve heard about them but never tried making one, whats the quality like of the fit of parts and is the detail up to scratch, i know that there not going to be in the same class like dragon or tamiya, but i’m after a first hand review of someone who’s made one of these kits. and also academy are there kits any good, do they fit together well, it’s because I’ve seen the British warrior APC, always wanted to have a go at making that kit, if anyone has made it let me know if it was any good to make. cheers!!
IMHO it depends on the kit. Overall I’d judge Zvezda quality at slightly less than Italeri. They do re-box several of Italeri’s kits though so the quality does vary some what. The newer Academy kits are very good quality, but many of their older kits are re-boxes of other old kits and come with the same flaws. (motorization holes etc.) [2c]
As stated, many Zvezda kits are reboxed Italeri kits (which means some are ancient Peerless Max kits as well). Their more recent kits are also reboxed Dragon kits (mainly modern Soviet armor and some WW2 German armor). Some of their original kits are well thought of (T-34/76, BT-5). Avoid their T-60 WW2 light Soviet tank.
They’ve also done some modern Russian armor on their own like the BMD.
Rob, are you sayin’ their BT-5 is a good kit, and builds well? This is one of their kits i’m interested in!
Not the world’s best kit, but I believe it is the best BT series of fast tanks available.
Great info’ in that link, cheers!
I built Zvezda’s 3581 M3 Armored Scout Car. I’m not sure, but I think they have two different variants out now. It’s an old Peerless Max mold from before I was born. There was a lot of clean up, but not a huge amount of fit problems(mostly from flash). The details were surprisingly good considering how old this kit is. There are some accuracy issues and some of the details are “chucky,” but that give you the excuse to buy more stuff to fix it.[swg] I’d say that anyone with good construction skills would enjoy the M3. It was a fun build, but it is one of the many I have waiting to get painted.
Aber makes PE tracks for it. That appears to be the biggest complaint about the kit.