During a thaw in Nazi-Soviet relations in the late 1930s, legend has it, a team of Soviet officers toured a German tank factory. Their Nazi guides beamed with pride as the latest German tank, the Panzer mk. III, rolled off the assembly line. The Soviets exchanged confused looks and then one asked, in broken German, "Don't you have anything bigger?" The fascist running-dogs would soon understand why the Soviets were unimpressed.
This is a review of the Zvevda 1/100 (15mm) KV-1e. I picked up three of them a while back at Gamers' World. They run 4 euro a piece.
Assembly is easy, so much so that I had all three put together before I remembered to take any photographs. The hull is two pieces that snap together. Each track is a single piece that snaps into the hull, and the turret is two pieces. Although the "snap-fit" kits ostensibly do not require any glue a little dab on a few of the contact points won't hurt. I painted them using the practical method I previously detailed in
the decent looking tank tutorial.
In short, this is a great kit. It's a good looking tank and it adds an iconic vehicle to your model collection. In Flames of War it's a good unit and you can easily make it the core of a competitive army. Its high armor value makes it virtually immune to Shermans, StuGs, and Panzer IVs. It has a better than 50/50 chance of bouncing shots off the ubiquitous PaK40 anti-tank guns too. Although slow the combination of high top and side armor and a turret-rear MG make it one of the best assault tanks in the game. Finally, as a guards unit they do not suffer from the horrible Soviet special rule Hens and Chicks. I've got the following list in the painting queue after I finish my Canadians. The KV-1e has the same armor values as a Tiger I, and this list has eleven of them! The KV-1e has a weak gun so you'll need something to help against heavy armor. I added a unit of artillery and Il-2 air support.
Labels: BristolScale7, Flames of War, KV-1e, Review, Zvezda
