"15mm ZOD Super Tanks from Russia" Topic

Just browsing a popular auction site, when I stumbled across this interesting thing :

If you search a popular auction site for the term
15mm ZOD SUPER TANK

You might find this :

And here is a picture of the sprue :

The advert has a picture of the assembled model next to a plastic solider 15mm PzIV and a T34 – its about the same size overall.

For $3 it seems pretty decent for what you get.

Anyone had any experience with these ? I gather they are soft plastic, not resin or hard plastic.

Pretty cool !

Where can we purchase them in the USA?

Ah – my bad, found another thread pn the same topic here :

TMP link

please direct comments to that thread. (Although its worth a bump still)

Kneel before ZOD!

Do NOT buy these for 15mm. I'll say it again – do NOT buy ZOD tanks to use with 15mm sci-fi miniatures. The ZOD vehicles are grossly undersized, and I asked the seller to correct the listings to indicate that they are suitable for 1/144 gaming.

Here's one of their "Main Battle Tanks" next to some 15mm infantry and a GZG Light Tank (one of the smallest passable 15mm tanks on the market):

More pics and details: TMP link

Chris K.

A tank is not always a behemoth.

I don't like the designs, they are too 40k windup toy looking for me, but they don't have to be five inches long to be tanks in 15mm scale.

I think they'd work as 15mm tankettes.

but they don't have to be five inches long to be tanks in 15mm scale.

I think they'd work as 15mm tankettes.

Except when they have very obvious hatches, panels, windows, and other details that betray their scale. Which these do. The ruler in the picture is centimeters… these are no longer than Matchbox cars, and only a little wider. They are simply not 1/100 vehicles of any size or form, no matter what Tekhnolog suggests.

If you combine that with the fact that they stole Ground Zero Games infantry and recast them as their own (confirmed by Jon Tuffley, by the way)… I don't want to tell you guys how to spend your money, but do you really want to support a company like that? Or would you rather spend money on GZG, Combat Wombat, Khurasan, Rebel, Critical Mass, and everyone else who frequents these pages and are always trying to offer us newer and better products?

-Chris K.

The design of a lot of the parts is clearly borrowed from the Robogear range – some of the track units and at least seven guns. I measured one of the robogear track units I've got kicking around it was 50 x 19 mm, which tally's with the picture (that's 5 x 2m @ 1:100 – taller and longer than a whole Wiesel AWC).

The mech's from the same company were in a hard styrene, hard to the point of being brittle in some, but quality seems a little variable.

The one of everything is bit of a turn off for me.

Yep, the one of everything is a total turn off and compounded by some flat-out wonky design. I painted up one mech, but all the others are bitz fodder, I've decided. The only things I'm relatively happy with are the flyers. If you spent some time covering over 6mm scale canopies, maybe you could use more for this scale. The grey mechs I might use as warbots in support of my CMG RAL.

Chris is absolutely justified in requesting that these items not be sold as 15mm. Some of it can be used, but the entire contents of each auction shouldn't be labeled as such. In the mechs and fliers auction I picked up, there are three mechs of the 16 I would use for 15mm and the flyers. Everything else will be used as bits for conversions and terrain doo-dads.

And for the same reasons as Chris mentioned- don't buy this guy's stuff; I won't be picking anymore up. The goods we get from the 15mm sci fi crews are excellent quality and reasonably priced, this undermine's GZG's sales. If you look back through his ebay feedback as well, it appears that he is a forgeworld re-caster. I regret not having done a lookback before purchasing what I did- I never would have sent my money that direction.

Jeff

Two things guys… first, these seem somewhat larger than standard ZOD tanks which could be good. Second, he's a reseller not the company itself, so its not his fault that they made poor quality rip-jobs of GZG infantry.

I will take your word for it Chris not up to 15mm scale and I won't do business with a recaster. Manufactuers please note I really like the sprues and the ability to mix and match parts to create different tanks. I have nine of the Khurasan Banner series tanks and I really like the capacity to create different vehicles. I also like what Combat Wombat has done with his metal gun barrels, the ability to swap out exisiting gun barrels and create a different tank. Now we just need CEV parts and flamethrower parts…

The big ones definitely seem big enough for 15mm.

To reiterate some points that have been made regarding recasting. Tekhnolog is the recaster of GZG figures. The reseller is not a recaster (in plastic) of the GZG figures. The reseller may be selling recasts of other products (I do not know this).

Since Tekhnolog is the recaster and Tekhnolog is the manufacturer of the Platfomer/Hexagon/Chemical Plant and other assorted plastic terrain sets people should take that into consideration too. I for one will not be buying any recasts, but will not abstain from buying further Platformer/Hexagon/Chemical Plant. Purchasing these larger, super tanks is up in the air.

@Dragon Gunner: you might be on to something with the interchangeable vehicle kit idea. Some of JBR's stuff (the Rebel Earthforce tanks in particular) are along those lines… it would be awesome to see a mix-and-match high-quality resin set.

@Psyckosama:

Two things guys… first, these seem somewhat larger than standard ZOD tanks which could be good.

They are not. The picture of the sprues has a ruler, and I see a track length of 43mm. That's the same as the two "MBTs" in the other pack. Everything listed today will be extremely close in size to the green one I posted above… and still no more usable in 15mm than a Reaper CAV tank.

Second, he's a reseller not the company itself, so its not his fault that they made poor quality rip-jobs of GZG infantry.

So letting two people profit from stealing GZG's product is somehow better than just allowing one? If the seller genuinely didn't know, then I'll accept it's not their fault. It is, however, your fault if you purchase those products knowing the manufacturer is stealing designs. Your money will still support Tekhnolog in the end.

Folks, if you want cheap tanks and don't care what scale they really are, there are Dollar Trees or Poundlands in pretty much all of your respective communities. I'll even make you some "1:100 SCALE!" stickers for the blister packs… it will be just as true on any random toy as it is on these Tekhnolog vehicles.

-Chris K.

Folks, if you want cheap tanks and don't care what scale they really are, there are Dollar Trees or Poundlands in pretty much all of your respective communities. I'll even make you some "1:100 SCALE!" stickers for the blister packs… it will be just as true on any random toy as it is on these Tekhnolog vehicles.

Is buying (probable) Chinese/Taiwanese recasts of toys really any better?

Is buying (probable) Chinese/Taiwanese recasts of toys really any better?

Eh, probably not. But it'll be cheaper, you won't spend 3-4 weeks waiting for it to arrive, and it won't disappoint you as much when you open the package. :)

-Chris K.

Thanks for the info, Chris.

I don't game in 15mm, so it's a non-starter for me anyway, but 1) I didn't pick up on the tiny hatches, and 2) I don't support recasters, either.

@clkeagle

I was just saying don't blame the seller. Hell, on the whole I doubt even Tekhnolog is entirely responsible. I have a feeling that this is probably the result of a lazy jerk sculptor. Personally I think what needs to be done is Jon at GZG probably should send them a C&D letter… but thats moving away from the topic.

These would probably go better with N gauge Battletech than 15mm.

To paraphrase 'other resellers are available'.

A C&D wouldn't be worth the postage let alone any legal fee. Unfortunately reuse of other manufactures figures, and not just as badly modified dolls, seems rife among Russian companies. Occasionally resulting in hilariously bad products – seriously I'm not seeing any repeat sales for this set
link
I know nothing of Russian copyright law, but it appears to be (has been?) a stumbling block to their entry in to the WTO.

@ROU: That's pretty much Jon Tuffley said to me… even paying a Russian-speaking lawyer to send the letter wouldn't be worth his time or money. He's counting on 15mm customers having enough sense to not support this company, now that the theft is more widely known.

And you're right about the bad products. The detail in the Tekhnolog mouldings is an absolute joke compared to even the worst 15mm pewter castings.

-Chris

I'd be mildly interested to know what level of technology Tekhnolog use. Its clearly below even some of their domestic competitors i.e. Zvezda. My suspicion is they design on computer and then use a CNC lath to tool the mold (probably well over a decade behind whats achievable with modern kit) – there is some real nasty undercuts in many of their pieces and a lot of stuff put bluntly is flat. But then they seem to see themselves as in the toy business rather than model kits. If it was my IP I wouldn't loose sleep – its not blatant recasting. They've been horribly remodeled with GW shoulder pads to the point of being barely recognisable – no one (sane) is going to saying "I fancy a cheap 15mm NAC for stargrunt I'll use these.." There have been profoundly more blatant rip-offs perpetrated by model kit manufactures of rivals work in history.

I try to provide as much information about my prosuct as i can. So i think evem mayby i slightly misadverite Tehnolog items, i think any one, who read description have enough information to make smart buy.

Well, one thing you might want to provide information on is that the infantry are designs stolen from Ground Zero Games.

I read the description… looked at the pics.. bought the product. (The tanks only) and I am pleased.

Thanks LV.

The turrets, accessories and other bits have been useful in some kit bashing.