Reviews : Trumpeter Soviet KV-1S/85 Heavy Tank

Although I used to mainly focus on Tamiya kits, I am quickly becoming a fan of Trumpeter kits, because of their attention to fine detail and focus in producing models of the more obscure historical tank prototypes/proposals. The only drawbacks I could find to the kit, was no optional long rubber tread belts, and the lack of any other optional weapon gun tubes for the kit. I have seen that Trumpeter does make a standard KV-1S kit, but the actual need for such, with its accompanying production hassles/expense could have easily been avoided by just producing a small parts tree with the optional weaponry. The standard KV-1S was equipped with either the 76.2mm ZiS-5 or F-34 gun, and there was even a proposal unit that was to be equipped with the 57mm ZiS-4 gun. I have plenty of both 76.2mm types left over from other model builds, so it doesn't bother me so much, but the 57mm gun tube is fairly elusive. The weapons mantle system can be swapped out for that from Trumpeter's KV-8 kit, to build a KV-8S version. Overall, the quality and detail of the kit is excellent, and I would recommend it to others.

This kit from Trumpeter is by far the best kit I have ever had the pleasure of building. After opening the box I was greeted with super crisp parts, very well packaged and presented. The detail was some of the best I have ever seen. Parts come off the sprue very clean and no flash. The fit is the best, no gaps to fiddle with. Easy to follow instructions. The metal parts are perfect. The tracks are very easy to assemble link to link and give super sag. I spent about 60 hours start to finish, mainly just for the fun of having planning out the finish. I am a Trumpeter fan now and can't wait for my next kit!!!