The Soviet union started the war with the F-22 and USV divisional guns as the mainstays of its artillery. In 1942 they were replaced by the lighter, faster-firing and more modern ZIS-3 design that was more suited to war time production and maintenance capabilities of the vast country. Over 45,000 guns were built during war years; many were towed, some served on anti-tank SPGs like the SU-76 and SU-76M.
Italeri and UM have already produced kits of the subject, the first one even included crew in winter uniform. My personal opinion is that either kit suffer from oversimplification, so the kit from Zvezda is a welcome addition to the market despite positioned as the wargaming piece that the Italeri rendition is.
Italeri, Heller, and more recently Roden and Dragon have released PAK-40 in 1/72. There have also been wargaming models in the scale.
Italeri’s crew are softer plastic than I like, Dragon’s “bundle” with the PAK-36 and 5 crewfigures is excellent, but hard to find and expensive. Preiser’s 5-member gun crew is similarly elusive, but tops all of them.
The cons above – along with aggressive pricing of about $3 – puts Zvezda’s new set at a very competitive position, despite the crew consisting of just 3 figures. The two sprues are molded in grey and reasonably well-detailed.
Admittedly I couldn’t wait to start building the kit, so here’s a bit of progress.
Detailed add-on armor for the upper glacis with wave deflector and towing hooks added.
On the second image notice the edge that aligns the add-on armor with the upper glacis (parts reversed to showedges).
Exhaust (3 part assembly) glued in place. Another 2-part assembly (fuel tank for laying smoke screen) covers the exhaust on top.
The bulldozer blade added to the lower glacis. The sprue gates are mounted between the actuating arms, so I broke one of them trying to clean the part up…
The Bf (or Me) 109 needs no introduction. It is such an important aircraft in the history of aviation (and the world) that I am unable to think of a mainstream modelling company that has NOT offered a version of the 109. In 2014 Eduard unsurprisingly extended their product line with a G-6, the most numerous of the WWII versions.
There are just 4 sprues in the standard box (used for most 1/48 scale aircraft the company produces AND the Royal Class editions), so contents will rattle about as you’re taking it home. Thankfully all frames are tightly packed in sealing bags and there is little to no chance parts will be damaged.
