introduction

Panda Hobby’s 2nd 1/35 scale offering is a 2S6M Tunguska.
The Soviet 2k22 Tunguska is a self propelled anti-aircraft armed with 2 - 30 MM auto cannons and 8 SA-19 “Grison” missiles. The program started in June 1970 with production starting in 1976 to present, with the M system starting in 1990 to present.
Russia, India, China, Peru, and Ukraine are currently using the Tunguska, and were used in the Kosovo conflict, reportedly shooting down several NATO warplanes.

the kit

The kit is injected mold plastic with 18 sprues of parts plus 5 large molded parts for the tank hull and turret. The tracks are molded in a light tan color with the rest of the parts a dark green. 2 frets of PE .012 mm thick with a plastic film on both sides, 1 sheet of waterslide decals and a copper wire tow cable. All in all this brings the total to 984 parts.

The plastic is almost flash free so clean up will be very little. The tank treads are separate links with 8 sprues of treads and 3 sprues of guide horns. The tank treads will have to be glued toghter as the fit is not tight. The top and bottom hull have a good fit although a little filler will be needed on a couple of seams on the bottom. There are no rubber band tracks included so the only option will be the indy links. Also included are 2 SA-19 missiles for display as the missile tubes are sealed.

The instructions are 16 pages long with color photos on the front and back.
Page 2 has a layout of all the sprues with the numbers listed with each part. This also includes the PE, but there are no numbers that can be seen. The assembly of the kit spans the next 15 pages There are 24 steps for building the kit and the last page is the painting and decal guide for 1 version of the Tunguska.

The over all length of the hull scales out to 7.70 m long, 2.90 m wide. The height would be hard to determine without building the kit so we will see how that scales out at a later date. The build starts with the lower hull and followed by the tracks.

The upper hull will have some options of leaving hatches open for the driver and/or the commander. If you leave the hatch open for the driver to you will need to provide a glass window. This part of the build is where you run into the small parts such as handles, door latches and hinges. Also the side skirts are all plastic, with the 1:1 version consisting of half steel, half rubber.

Following this we start on the turret, once again there are a multitude of hatches that can be left open. I did find a small drawing of the turret and it matches what Panda supplied.

Next is the 30 mm guns, this by far is going to be the challenge with the small parts and PE. The gun is a small kit in its own, with 36 parts for the right and the left. Parts A 10 and 11 are keyed so that if you elevate the guns both will move tighter. It appears Panda did a good job here, comparing to one of the few M series photos I could find. Again it would be hard to get a scale measurement with out building the kit. The missile launchers contain 30 parts per side and are mounted to the gun assembles and will move with the gun.

The 2 radar units are well detailed and again they consist of multiple parts and PE. The rear radar will be able to turn and also can be moved to transport position.

The plans are very straight forward with blow ups of all sub assemblies with no other instructions. There are very small parts to contend with, but it will be a good build when done. One thing that I liked on the kit is all hatch openings are open with a hatch cover that is detailed on the inside. Another improvement would be PE for the frame work on the back radar as it is plastic and looks to be bulky, an interior and engine would look good as an aftermarket kit

I did a glue test on a scrap piece of plastic to see how the plastic would respond to liquid glue. Using Tamiya extra thin, Weld.on #4, Tenax-7R, and Weld.on #3, all the test pieces welded the plastic to a tight bond using this range of adhesives.

With this being Pandas 2nd kit in 1/35 scale, I look forward to the next kit they make.
I think this kit will fill a void of post war anti aircraft systems that the builder, collector will have to add to their collection.

conclusion

This is a highly detailed kit with many plastic and photo etch parts, it will also be a bit fragile with the radar, guns and rocket pods. This is not a beginner’s kit; it is more geared to the intermediate or advanced builder.