"Upcoming Zvezda kits for 2015" Topic

Zvezda has released a catalogue for 2015 in Russian and it's full of interesting Art of Tactic stuff for those of us who play in 15mm and 1/72.

Infantry and artillery (1/72):
- Soviet HQ,
- Soviet airport personnel,
- ZiS-3,
- Romanian infantry,
- German airport personnel,
- German HQ,
- Pak 40,
- British HQ,
- British medics.

Tanks (1/100):
- T-60,
- Panzer IV Ausf. F2,
- Panzer VI Tiger,
- M4 Sherman,
- M3 Lee,
- M3 Stuart.

Planes (1/144):
- Polikarpov I-16,
- Lavochkin La-5.

You can find the catalogue here: yadi.sk/i/prMDNWNZddjDb

Rumanians,nice.

Interesting looking stuff, wonder what version of the Sherman it will be, a US M4 or a Soviet M4A2?

King Monkey, since Art of Tactic range hasn't featured any US troops as of yet my bet is that the Sherman will be a lend-lease tank in Soviet colors.

Which exact version of Sherman it'll be is obviously a mystery…

I think all three American tanks are meant for the British in North Africa, so it will probably be an M4A1.
But Zvezda does sometimes make strange choices (like the least numerous variant of the T-34), so who knows what will they release?

Personally, I'd prefer M4A2s for my Soviets.

Ruble is tanking. Won't these be a buy for us?

Maybe – depends how much they spend on imported materials, and whether they choose to use the falling currency to reduce what they charge western distributors, or to prop up their margins instead. Given that they're generally regarded as cracking value already, I'd not count on a significant price cut.

The HQ pieces might be nice little vignettes as well. I do not expect a drop in price.

No more big sets is a bummer. Even the Napoleonic sets will be small. Nice, but small. :(

No more big sets is a bummer.

Sure is.

By "big sets" do you mean infantry sets, like the Soviet/German platoons, or something else?

The normal boxes of 40+ figures. The small boxes are nice figures but more expensive.

Yeah the old school model of 40+ 1/72 figures for about $10 USD is what got me using soft plastic infantry a few years ago. The new business model of 4-5 figures for $7 USD ended my Zvezda purchasing days.

Sad to see they've dropped all but one of their castlres/forts….should have bought more when I had the chance !

The one on that list that I see selling in decent numbers is the Lee, possibly the T-60 as well. All the other models are already available in plastic from other better sources.

An 1:100 M3A1 Stuart in Plastic? PSC makes an M5, but they are very different vehicles. Please enlighten me who else makes the M3 "Honey"?

iirc my M3s are all QRF.

QRF stuff is not plastic as far as I know.

Personally, I'm happy that Zvezda is going to make new 1/100 tanks even if there are better models on the market already. I rarely need to buy a whole platoon, and the price of 2,5$ for a vehicle is just marvellous.

Does anybody know the projected release dates for the new stuff?

might be cheap because of ruble. Also might be embargoed. Basically made with Russian oil.

I just got an 85mm AA gun on sale from Squadron and it went together pretty nicely. Not sure about technical accuracy, I don't generally study that. I did lose an arm on the floor though…
I buy 1/72 plastic because they're cheap, if I'm paying as much as lead I might as well buy lead. These guns are a pretty good deal on sale.

That Sherman tank. I'm sure it's going to be M4A2 with 75mm. Saw it on cataloque at my local retailer.

Here's a link to a pic.

I remain hopeful for an M4A1 for my Americans. Zvezda's photo references have been off before. Way, way off. Like how they announced a Daimler Mk I and then produced a Dingo.

They're a great deal over here in China: one tank = 1 grande drip coffee.

I would prefer M4A1 too. It would be much more useful in all theaters of war.

I'm eager to get my hands on their Lees so I can convert some prime movers for heavy artillery.

I got my hands on catalogue. I guess I could post pictures if you so wish.

Just noted that Battle for Moscow set (6262) will be "revised re-edition".. That's what it says. I don't even.

There will be also Battle of Stalingrad set (6260) released this year. I think it is safe to assume this one will contain T-60 and both AT guns.

Post some pics if you can.

Zip file with few relevant pages.

link

Thanks for the info.. I will be adding as many of those as possible to the Zvezda section of my store ASAP.

Thanks
Christopher Dean
NWS Online Gaming Store
nws-online.net

I am looking forward to the 1/100th M3 Lee or as the Soviets called the tank (A coffin for seven brothers).

As we're entering last third of this year I'm slightly worried that we are not going to get all three US tanks like we didn't get 1:72 25pdr few years back.

I'd have a use for ton of M4A2's and few of both M3's.

Yeah! I heard from local retailer today that Zvezda has released new kits again. Ground crews and stuff like that but what got me excited was Sherman and Pz IVH! Latter came out of the bushes for me as I expected their "Long Gun" Pz to be F2 they already released. Maybe they had spontaneous realization that those would sell well. I should get my both kits in my hands during next week.

Sherman appears to be late M4A2 or A3 with 76mm. Kit number is 6263 and here are links.

Box. It's funny how they have used E2's painting as box art.

Model.

From photo of actual model definitely an M4A2, not an A3.

What are the signs? I see engine grille is different between A2 and A3 but other differences elude my eye.

Arrangement of the fuel/water and other fluids caps as well as number of them very distinct. Slight difference in tool stowage.

Nice!

I got the Sherman and "IV H" which turned out to be F2 that came out in summer. I guess you can't win every time.

Sherman has 19 parts, it's very easy to put together and generally well designed kit. As you are probably going to glue it together I'd recommend to cut to pieces that part which holds everything. It's extremely light too, definitely less than full match box. I'm going to get platoon of those s. Highly recommended!

Pz IV is going to be built as 12.8cm Waffenträger auf Panzer IV

Ohh! Zvezda has released M3's. Scroll down this page a bit to see them. 6264 is Lee's product number and 6265 is Stuart.

emodels.co.uk/brands/zvezda

Bought all three American tanks – they're more complicated than the earlier Soviet ones (Lee is 24 parts!), but assembling them is still quite easy and the finished models look great.

I'll try to post some photos soon.

They chose an unusual Sherman model (AFAIK used only by the Soviets), but I don't mind – it'll make nice support for my tankodesantniki. ;-)

I placed an order for 3's too. It'll take time till I get them though. Mean time I'll wait for your pictures like kid waits for christmas : D

That's an interesting "skeleton" system the model has.

Here you go.

Sherman and Lee have the "skeleton" assembly, with an internal piece that connects the various parts of the hull.
The Stuart is similar to the earlier Panzer 38(t) – the hull is made of three pieces stacked on top of the other. The turret is interesting, as it's 4-piece with the barrel connecting all the other parts.
The barrels of the MGs and 37mm guns are pretty fragile – might be a good idea to replace them with needles or something similar.
And yes, the upper turret on the Lee is movable. ;)

Oooooooooooh pretty; shiny; must haave some!!!

Fatman

PS Why yes I do like these how did you guess?

Very nice!

Thanks! Judging from photo & from experiences with their Sherman I think it'll be easy to convert some of those Lees to M33 Prime Movers for Long Tom battery.

That Stuart turret thing sounds pretty weird. I'll probably just snip internal parts away as I ended up doing with Sherman and KV-2's turret.

Kits are done to be used with their rules. So an expansion set for them means more tanks becoming available.
Some of the British kits for early 2015 are just now available from my distributor. However some are yet to come into them.

Tiger, T60 and KV are out! That's right, model 41 KV is available so finally we can have proper KV-1 without modifications.

link

I have been finding that it is very hard to locate a retailer that has these new releases!

PSC have announced that they have stocks.

That's right, model 41 KV is available

That's actually a model 1940 – same welded turret as in the previous model, but a different gun (F-32 instead of L-11). Model 41 had a rectangular cast turret – visually similar, but with thicker armor.
At least that's what they're called in the books I own, Zvezda seems to use a different naming convention…

I'll call it KV-1A so we can have german designation to complicate things. That 41 thing could be one of Zvezda's weird shenanigans. It probably is.

I'm eager to see if Tiger can be built without Feifels. I don't like them and I don't want them anywhere near my tanks!

If you have any suggestions on how to make bolts for KV-1E conversion I'd love to hear ideas.

Should we speculate on 2016's releases?