2S1 Gvozdika

Manufacturer: ARMO (#72037)

One of two Gvozdika kitsavailable, the ARMO kit is made entirely from resin. I feel thatthis is one of ARMO's better kits, considering scale and detailaccuracy. The resin is typical ARMO resin, very high quality,with few, if any, defects. About the only part needing repair inmy kit is the gun barrel, which is slightly warped.

There is a small amount offlash on some of the parts, which is easily removed. The largemolding plugs common on older ARMO kits are missing, as it seemsthat they have now started to inject the resin into the molds,instead of pouring it. The hull and turret are solid, and allhatches are molded shut.

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. Some of the smallerdetails aren't quite correct; for example, the tracks are a bittoo wide, and the idler wheels are much too large.

In comparison with the ACE2S1 , thiskit has some strengths and weaknesses. The details on this kithave a more "hand-crafted" appearance. I'm not going todisparage it, because it's much better than I could do myself,but I feel that the ACE kit has more refined and polished detail.The tracks in this kit are highly detailed, but again, obviouslyhand-made. I think that once built, painted and weathered, theywill look very good. The mesh pattern on the hull is finer onthis kit than the ACE kit, and there are also a couple of minordetails included on the ARMO kit but missing from the ACE kit,such as bullet-splash guards around some of the hatches. The towcables molded onto the hull side are really nicely done.

As always, theinstructions leave a lot to be desired, but the kit is simpleenough that a couple of decent photographs should be enough toget by. No decals are included. All in all, this is a very finekit, and I can highly recommend it.