I just bought an Eastern Express model of a Russian Zis half-track today. The price was good - about 9 or 10 USD. The guy at the hobby store said this brand was very good (for Russian kits). So I'm building it now. The detailing is quite good with lots of rivits and bolts (presumably where they should be), fenders are suitably thin, and a fine wood grain on the cargo bed sides. I think it will turn into a really nice model if you work at the fit - the hood took some cutting, and filing, and jiggling to make the parts fit. Likewise the cab and roof. I've only gotten this far. Like I said, it looks like it's going to be a nice model, but it's going to take some extra work.
Has anyone else bought an Eastern Express model and experienced similar problems?

Hi.
I can only comment on their aircraft.
Sounds similar. Good details, nice thin plastic but can need a bit of jiggerypokery with fit, but overall very good for the price.
Cheers
Peter :-)

I have several of their 1/72 armor kits in my inventory. The only one that I have finished is a T-34/43-76 with commanders capula. It went together as well as an ESCI kit, with good decals amd surface detailing. Comparing the sprues with those from PST kits, I wonder if the molds aren't cut by the same company. The DShaKs are nearly identical.

BlueBear sends

I also built the Zis and it is a bit of a struggle with fit. I found the tracks to be the worst part. All in all,though, It came out nice.

I have EE's KV-8S and am pretty happy with it. It's LOTS better than the old Tamiya KV-1 kit in proportion and accuracy. There was quite a bit of flash, but it was easy to clean up.

The tracks were crap, so I replaced them with a Fruil set. I also replaced the turret with a resin KV-85 turret I had laying around, but I'm sure I could have used the kit turret.

The first kit I made on resuming model making after a gap of many years was Eastern Express' SU-85. I found the tracks difficult but put it down to inexperience, however maybe this is a general point with these kits.My main difficulty though was with the gun barrel,which although in one piece had a nasty groove along its length , at that time I found it impossible to remove effectively and really had to compromise to avoid a totally distorted result.Equally fustrating were the fuel tanks and the join seam,for this reason I like the way the PST kits are designed so that the join is flush with fuel tanks attaching straps and the seam appears to add detail.

Yeah, the tracks are especially crap! They're really stiff and hard to shape around the drive wheels. Unfortunately, they're unique to this vehicle and I'll just have to work with them.

Yup, typical EE comments. At least the BT-5A I built had plastic trakcs rather than those vinyl monstrosities...

Another word on EE kits, they are cheap here http://www.rollmodels.com

$16.50 for the PT-76B, that is lower than most online companies SALE price...a price that low makes the PT-76B kit a good deal. Heck, Eduards PE set, which this kit needs (I am sorry to say) is more expensive than the kit itself.

I've built a couple of the EE kits, and have more in the stash... other than a ton of flash, lousy tracks, not real good fit and a few other minor problems, not bad for the price. Not overly good, but not bad. After putting together a EE kit, I have to a couple of Tamiya or Dragon kits for therapy....