MT-LB

Manufacturer: ACE (Kit No.72122)

This is the first (andonly) MT-LB available in plastic, and it is certainly a welcomekit. This workhorse vehicle is in use by almost 20 nations, andit's somewhat suprising that this is the first we've seen of itin plastic. ARMO makes this same vehicle in resin, but I have notyet seen their kit. ACE's kits are getting better with each newrelease. The detail is getting more abundant, and being moldedmuch more sharply, and as always, the accuracy is very good. Itis a limited-run kit, but the molding quality is really quitegood. There are no sinkmarks in this kit, and very little flash.

The lower hull and chassisare very nicely detailed.

The hull details are someof the best I have seen in any of ACE's kits. As always, my onlycomplaint is the closed hatches. The opening at the rear of thehull is not actually an open fighting compartment, but rather theopening for an insert which will allow the release of otherversions of this basic hull.

The wheels and tracks arealso 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.)

The best part of this kitis the inclusion of the fret of etched brass. There are someparts to models which can only best be represented 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 forsix vehicles of four nationalities. As usual, the decals are verythin, matte, and very sharply printed.

I have compared this kitto the scale drawings of the MT-LB 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.

A resin MT-LB is availablefrom ARMO, but I have not seen that kit, so I cannot make acomparison between the two.

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