PST 1/72 scale KV-1S heavy tank

Manufacturer: PST (Belarus), available from Squadron Mail Order, 1115 Crowley Drive, Carrollton, TX 75011-5010, 972-242-8663 www.squadron.com
Kit: No. 720025
Scale: 1/72
Price: $9.98
Comments: Injection-molded, 211 parts, decals
Pros: Good overall fit and good shapes
Cons: Fitting tracks is difficult, decals were difficult to remove from sheet, small parts overscale

The two main battle tanks for the Soviet army during World War II were the famous T-34 series and the KV series. The troops favored the faster and more roomy (if one could describe a Soviet tank as roomy) T-34 tank. In order to make the KV-1 tank more acceptable, the KV-1S was produced with lighter weight and higher speed. Over 1,100 of the KV-1S version were built.


PST's kit features injection-molded link-and-length tracks. While many of the parts are common to other versions of the KV tank, PST provides new parts for the hull top, turret, and road wheels. Detail of the moldings is generally very good. Many of the small parts are way too thick (typical of most 1/72 scale armor kits). Decals are provided for 11 different tanks.


The fit was good. I installed all of the suspension parts, then began adding the tracks to the lower hull. Some of my sample's track parts were incompletely molded, but PST provides plenty of extra links, so I had enough to replace the bad ones.


I ran into problems where the links had to wrap around the drive sprocket. There is no way the links will fit the teeth of the drive sprocket. I trimmed off the teeth where the tracks fit the driver, and continued adding links. The main turret parts fit well and show good detail. All of the grab handles on the kit are too thick and should be replaced by fine stretched sprue or wire.


The position of many of the detail parts is a little vague. The kit provides nothing to use for the tow cables, just the ends and the tie-down parts.


I painted my KV-1S with Tamiya's Japanese Army Green as a base color because it was what I had on hand. The decals would not slide off their paper backing, so I had to lift them off with a blade and carefully put them in place. They snuggled down nicely with a bit of Micro Sol.


My finished model measured out almost exactly to the dimensions in Chris Ellis' Tanks of World War II. The finished result looked very good. The large number of small parts puts this kit into the experienced-modeler-only class. I spent about 14 hours building my kit, quite a bit more than I usually spend on a 1/72 scale armor model. It is good to see PST filling important gaps in 1/72 scale Soviet armor.