I bought some Zvezda Soviet WW II figures many years ago, and frankly they were junk compared to Dragon, Tamiya, and even MB. Has Zvezda improved at all?

I think Zvezda is hit and miss. Some of their newer kits are very nice, but I'm only speaking from other people's experience.

Not yet, but with their newer products they are definitely on the right track. On the other side, they are cheap, so You kind of get what You paid for.

Zvezda has upped their game and are producing kits that will please many quality wise curently.

I built a Zvezda Su-100 a couple years I got on sale from Squadron.com; it was okay but the hull was multi-piece instead of single-piece; came out okay but a few fit problems. tracks were crap; used some spares from another kit; the newer kits are supposed to be better. still built into a good-looking model.

For figures I would say they are still pretty unrefined but better than they were. Kit-wise, they are making leaps and bounds in terms of quality. Their recent Panther for instance is quite elegant albeit sans fan grill covers.
Compare to Dragon, for instance, who have struck out three times with some pretty bad Allied "black label" kits.
Be mindful much of Zvezda's stable of kits are reboxes of older kits from Peerless-cum-Italeri, Eastern Express, etc. Therefore one needs to confirm the provenance of a kit before buying - the interwebs is your friend!

I can only join in with the other gentlemen...try to find a review (or 2) on the web before you buy anything (not only from Zvezda ).

Zvezda are producing fantastic figures in 1/72 (historical ones), some of the very best on the market...as long as they are not repackaged old Italeri sets. Here we can use the fantastic review site available to get a top evaluation of the product.

Cheers

Romain

It depends what You are looking for. New armour kits are good, old reboxis of Dragon/Italeri not. Most 1/72 figures are great, in 1/35 they have some issues. Planes in 1/48 are overcomplicated and even thou they get good reviews due to detail, I dont like them and in fact I trashed their Me109F2 recently due to poor fit.

Zvezda is improving, their new releases area very good, as example the T-90 - besides the critics about proportions an fidelity, its a very well casted and detailed kit!

Totally uncalled for.

Like most other Eastern European/Russian companies, Zvezda has improved considerably.

I reviewed and built their Tiger I early production and thought it was a very nice kit. Had a problem with the hull being warped, which they replaced. A few minor sink marks that I was able to fix, like with many other kits. Detail was good. The only low was a lack of etch screens for the rear deck, but an aftermarket set for Tamiya worked fine. The price was less than half that for a Dragon tiger kit.

I have their BF-109F-4, which is considered by many to be the best in styrene. Not armor, but an indication of what they can do.

I have built many of their Art of Tactic kits in 1/72 and 1/100. These are gaming kits, but the detail is comparable with other 1/72 kits I have seen. The snap tite assembly is also an excellent starting point for beginning modelers.

Some of their products are reviewed here as well, so you can get a better idea of what they offer.

From personal experience i can say Zvezda has improved a huge in terms of accuracy and quality control. Their panzerjager I kit is one of my all time favorites. I just finished the 1/48 yak -3 and i enjoyed a lot.The old armor and figures were not super but i will say even today they still a bargain. you can still find some figures sets for about $5. and some tanks kits for less than $15. In today's
economy that real good. The 1/72 gaming line is really good, i have most of the samurais and they rock.

Hi gents,

My personal experience: In the first beginning of Zvedza, the 1:35 kits were just Italeri (or better, Italaeri) reboxed. Some of them were poor, other were acceptable.

Actually the are quite better, i.m.o. Of course not comparable with Dragon or MB, but definitely cheaper.

Cheers

Giovanni

Though not as refined as resin kits, many of Zvezda's figures have some very unique action poses. I say ... If you see a particular set that you like ... give 'em a go!

I have experience with the following Zvezda kits:

'Soviet Tank Infantry' -- good details.
'Soviet DSHK Machinegun w/Crew' -- good details.
'German Motorcycle R12 w/sidecar and crew' -- good details.
'GAZ-MM Soviet Truck' -- lots of flashing, not the best details -- tolerable after paint/weathering.
'Soviet BA-10 Armored Car' -- same as GAZ-MM (identical chassis) -- served well as a burned-out vehicle!

Regardless of some quality issues, these kits were inexpensive and a lot of fun to build.

--mike

Agree with this. With some additional corrective work, the final result can be good.

Cheers

Giovanni

Hi,

It depends the figure kits.
The russian sniper set is one of the best plastic set I ever seen at the time of its release. They look like the tank resin figures. But at the same moment a set of German sniper were relased, which were total crap. Their russian moutain troops as also an excellent nlevel of details, and the action poses are never seen before. Their latest german para set is quite good too, with a entire parachute in it. The soviet flak group with DSHK is also of good quality.
As other said, recent kits are ok. But it varies from one to the other too.

Julien

Zvezda's Soviet marines (Stalingrad?) is also a very good set and mix well with MB's hand-to-hand combat between German and Soviet marine troops. Their German infantry in winter ('41 - '42) is also excellent and mix well with Dragon figs.

I can personally vouch for their 1/35 Merc 4.5 tonner. This is avery nice kit well detailed and builds up well. I have another and the big Maultier in my stash.

I've been building a bunch of their kits. I buy their trucks, armored cars etc...I wouldn't buy their tanks though. It's an ok model as long as you are aware that they are not top of the line, then its not too hard on your brain. You can make their kits look good with a little extra work...pigments, washes..extra added parts from the spares box..etc.. Dragon/Cyber Hobby all the way for armor.