Andras Donaszi shares with us a review of the 8.5cm Sturmgeschutz auf Fgst. T34 Jagdpanzer SU-85(r) with crew by MiniArt in 1/35th scale.

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Thanks!

Thanks for the detailed review. Looks like another great kit. While I can appreciate that it might be more difficult to produce a kit with a complete tub chassis I personally appreciate the effort and here the kit loses some of its appeal. This is the case with all so-called-"flat pack" kits so common of some companies. I like building with everything aligned and true right from the start. Don't know how it compares with the Dragon offering (which is several years old) but this one seems to have better instructions.

I was thinking a lot about this flat-pack design (good name, by the way), and I think it might be intentional: the amount of detail included makes the walls and bottom into sub-assemblies. I'm building the Tamiya T-55 with CMK interior now, and to be honest, it's easier to work on the sides if they are separate. But I might be wrong.

Think about it this way: single piece tubs need to have thicker side walls for the molding process. So interior bits typically need to be undersized to fit into them. All flat panels allows for easier assembly of details and floors and thinner side walls with stability coming from bulkheads. Interior bits can be more true to life with the floors and bulkheads full sized as opposed to paired down to fit in artificially thick side walls.

Even though I usually mis-align them I still prefer flat pack to tub. I have building flat pack forever. I cut my teeth on ancient Airfix, Fujimi and ESCI small scale armor; all flat multi-piece hulls, and those with tubs were Bandai 1/48 scale armor where the bulkheads and floors wouldn't fit.

That is indeed a good point; I have not thought about the thickness issue. Thank you for the insight

Apparently working coil springs are becoming quite easy to create using a three part slide mold. Starting with the standard two part mold and then adding a sliding rod that comes in to form the open center of the coil spring.

It's still pretty cool. Thanks for the information; it seems like I'm learning a lot on this review