Allow me to quote from the instructions:

"This modification of the well-known armored carrier was a feature of only the limited contingent of Soviet Army in the Afghani Republic. The guerilla character of the war revealed that the BTRs were easily damaged by hand anti-tank weapons and mines of dushmans. To increase the fire power a usual grenade discharger cup AGS-17 was welded to the tower of the BTR. Besides, water reservoirs and a spare wheel giving additional defense were fastened on the upper part of the hull."

I'm quite sure that there are many of you out there that know a whole lot more about this vehicle that I!

This is the first Zvezda military kit I've ever seen and I'm really rather impressed with the quality of the molding. It is as good as anything I've seen from Italeri or Airfix or Heller. Parts are crisply molded with good detail level, minimal flash (mostly on smaller bits) and only a few sink areas on the thicker parts. There are also a myriad of ejector pin marks on most of the larger pieces. While many of them will be out of sight once the kit is built, there are a number that won't be so taking care of them will be an additional chore.

I should mention, that like the other Zvezda kit I previewed, this one had no shrink wrap on the box nor were the parts in any kind of shrink wrap. Since the tires are solid rubber, I fear that having them in contact with the unbagged sprues caused a few of the smaller parts to be broken.

The instructions sheet is quite good and mostly in Russian, though a few construction notes are also in English. Color info is given in a Russian paint company and in Model Master paints. No interior is provided and there are no optional parts indicated. Apparently most of the vehicle is painted with exterior colors for only a few items are given any color info during the construction sequence. Markings are provided for a single vehicle as shown on the box art. The decals are white on a light ivory background so don't reproduce at all well. Colors for the vehicle are basically Dark Gull Grey over a Dark Green vehicle, though it looks like two shades of green on the box art.

Overall it looks fairly respectable to me. There are the usual large number of pieces that any military vehicle kit seems to have and the subject is one of interest, as the BTR-70 has been a standard APC for Russian and many other armed services over the years. This one should build into a very nice kit and I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't a number of aftermarket goodies for it as the armor folks are usually well supplied in this area!

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