To begin with, the instructions are, well, just awful. They are printed on what looks to be recycled newspaper and are actually more harm then help; there are part numbers that are labeled wrong and three-step construction sequences (for example) that Zveda combines in one or half steps. The illustrations do not, at all, clearly show how to assemble parts. I would give the instructions an F (I teach, so I am familiar with the letter grade system)
Furthermore, the location holes (-or- where you put part A into part B for lack of a better description) are incomplete or too small. Honestly, this is not a big deal, but it is a pain in the butt and just another reason to waste time and second guess why I am building this mess - which happened more than once along the building road.
Final assembly is mating the top half of the hull to the bottom half and when glued together, you are left with huge gaps underneath and on the side entrance doors. This reminded me of Tamiya's Sherman models with fully exposed sponsons. Strips of Evergreen solved this. Probably the worst parts were those side, middle entrance doors. Parts D34, 35, 15, and 10 just do not fit. There are parts that seem to be from other kits and this is the part of assembly where those prayers come in handy and swearing commences. I kind of just "made it up" and hoped for the best. The suspension was the second worst part. Parts are numbered wrong and the assembly process is just not correct; again, prayers and swears. The upper hull is actually not that bad, parts are extremely over simplified in other areas and the plastic is very soft. Speaking of that, the sprues are made in a fashion that when you cut a part off, it shatters or breaks in half; Sprue cutters couldn't even help here. A clear example of this oversimplified engineering is putting together hinges - Part B8 is the commander's hatch (this is not a bad looking part) that is designed to "snap" into the accommodating part on the hull - this is nothing more than two open faced "C" shaped pieces of soft plastic. It just doesn't look real and I solved this by softening the plastic even more with Tamiya thin cement and clasped it with tweezers; I can live with that.
Every part of this model, every assembly process had to be carefully studied and either rearranged, sanded down, made larger, filled, thrown out, say some prayers, and so on. I realize some of this is an inevitable part of building models, but it got to be the norm and border line ridiculous.
Fit and build - F+Thank God for the Internet - loads of reference and very neat videos of the actual vehicle in action on YouTube - just type in Grozny or BTR-80 and you'll find some interesting footage. I think it is neat when you see in real life what you are building in scale. There is also an amazing site of pictures of modern Soviet men and material here:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/library/modern/modern.htm
The Dream Catcher tire set is great; I would give this set an A.
The Tucha set by ModelPoint is beautiful as well as Armorscale's aerial set. Both receive an A and I felt at times I was wasting such good sets on such a crappy model. However, I changed my mind on this, at least, I think I have.
The Eduard p.e. set is good, but some parts are very fiddly and the headache of assembly doesn't seem to balance out the end result. Maybe it's just me, but I cannot get the hang of rolling photo etch for gun barrel muzzles. I know, I did heat it to anneal the material, but it didn't help. I settled for hollowing out the barrels. (I could not find an after-market set - ModelPoint is out of stock and so is TigerModel Design) I would give the Eduard set a B-
The Bison decal set is wonderful and the instruction sheets or call out sheets even give you painting schemes to follow and a brief setting for each vehicle depicted. This set gets an A. (although I have not used them, so this may be a bit premature...) I was just glad and surprised to see this set released. Bison is continuing to release modern Soviet sets, so glad to see this theme going strong.
Perhaps I have been a bit too harsh on the model. I mean, this is all just my opinion and it is all subjective, of course. I suppose we have come to be a bit spoiled by the latest kits these days, so a little bit of elbow grease sharpens the modeling skills a bit more. I really like this vehicle and for now, it's all we have in plastic, so onto the primer I move.
The aftermarket sets really do enhance the look of the model and they deliver a busy and more realistic look overall.
Would I build this model again? Probably not. However, I bought all the tank rider figures from MasterClub - example here:
http://www.historicahobbies.com/Russian-AFV-Rider-Modern-Winter_p_1732.html
and knew that I had to build this model to complement them. The thought is that the excellent figures will make a so-so model shine. At least, that's the idea;)
Hope this helps anyone out there thinking of building this kit. If you have any advice, I would be more than happy to take it.
Thanks!
-Felix
