Zvezda 1/35 KV-2 Heavy Tank

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection during the early war, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Almost completely immune to the 7.5 cm KwK 37 and 3.7 cm KwK 36 guns mounted on the early Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, until better guns were developed often the only way to defeat a KV was a point-blank shot to the rear. Prior to the invasion, about 500 of the over 22,000 tanks in Soviet service at the time were of the KV-1 type. When the KV-1 appeared, it outclassed the French Char B1, the only heavy tank used in the world at that time. Yet in the end it turned out that there was little sense in producing the expensive KV tanks, as the T-34 medium tank performed better (or at least equally) in all practical respects. Later in the war, the KV series became a base of development of the Iosif Stalin tanks.

The KV-2 tank was quite similar but considered to be a 'bunker buster' and so was armed with a 152mm howitzer. This very slow moving tank was constructed until the tank factory was moved in 1941/42 and KV-2 production was not resumed.

This latest kit from Zvezda comes in some interesting packaging. It has a standard box top as normal, however, when the box top is removed, it has a 'lunch box' cover over the lower section. So in actuality, you have to open it twice!

Inside are a mass of unbagged green sprues, typical of Zvezda kits. The molding on the parts is very good. While I found no sink areas there were quite a few ejector pin marks. However, most of them are on the inside of major parts. This is a kit with no interior and no engine detail, though there is an engine piece to fit under the engine cover, in case you wish to have that open.

Both the hull and the turret are built up from flat sections. The suspension looks to be adequate for most and the road wheels, sprockets, idler wheels and return rollers are all well molded. For those who hate to paint road wheels, these are steel. Only the return rollers have rubber on them. All of the various hatches could be displayed open, but with nothing to see, why bother?

The hull and turret machine guns are well molded and the main gun also has considerable detail that includes the breech. The main barrel is made up of three tubular pieces that are glued together. The kit offers both vinyl as well as link and length plastic tracks. Each side's vinyl track is made of two pieces which are heated together. The link and length sections are well done, but have ejector marks on the guide pin side that the builder may want to remove or at least cover with gunk. There are nearly 400 parts, with some of them (such as grab handles) being very petite, so one will need to take care removing them from the sprues.

Instructions are well done with Model Master paint references. There is but a single decal with a patriotic slogan on it. Apparently most KV-2s were unmarked and all are painted in a dark green.  

It looks like a very nicely done kit that will make into an accurate representation when done. Best of all, the parts count is reasonable and painting will be pretty simple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KV-2

February 2012

Thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com for the preview kit. Get yours today at your local hobby shop.

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