2S1 Gvozdika

Manufacturer: ACE (Kit No.72121)

This is the first (andonly) 2S1 Gvozdika available in plastic, and it is an excellentkit. ACE's kits are getting better with each new release. Thedetail is getting more abundant, and being molded much moresharply, and as always, the accuracy is very good. It is alimited-run kit, but the molding quality is really quite good.There are no sinkmarks in this kit, and very little flash.

The lower hull and chassisare very similar to their MT-LB kit, but lengthened by a seventhwheel station. Again, very nicely detailed.

The hull and turretdetails are the best I have seen in any of their kits. My onlycomplaint is the closed hatches. The opening on the turret roofis not actually an open hatch, but rather is the socket allowingfor a rotating commander's cupola. The commander's hatch withinthe cupola is molded shut.

The wheels and tracks arealso the same as in the the MT-LB kit, which is not surprisingbecause this vehicle is based upon a modified MT-LB chassis. Theyare all very well done. The tracks have very good detail on theoutside, but the insides lack the the distinction betweenindividual links. But with the excellent track guide teeth, itwill likely not be too noticable on the completed kit. (For thewheel and track scans, two sprues are pictured to show bothsides, but only one sprue is included with each kit.)

One of the best parts ofthis kit is the inclusion of the fret of etched brass. There aresome model parts which can best be represented only with brass,such as the fenders and headlight guards. ACE is one of the fewmanufacturers of plastic kits who regularly includes etched brassparts with their kits, and they should be commended for it.

Markings are included forseven vehicles of four nationalities. As usual, the decals arevery thin, matte, and very sharply printed (although the Finnishroundels are slightly out of register).

I have compared this kitto the scale drawings of the 2S1 within the Russian book,Bronekollektsiya #4/2000 - Soviet Armor1945-1995 , and confirmed it with Jane'sTanks and Combat Vehicles Recognition Guide ,and this kit scales out exactly to 1/72d.

As compared to the resin ARMO2S1 kit,I would recommend this plastic kit by a narrow margin. Althoughboth are excellent kits, the ARMO kit has a couple of minorerrors which this ACE kit does not have. With the inclusion ofthe etched brass parts, decals and decent instructions, this iscertainly a more complete model.

THANK YOU to Alexey and Mike at ACEModels for providing the review sample.