Review - Tank Killer Company (SBX31)

Hello All

For my ever expanding Soviets I picked up two boxes of the new Plastic Cat Killer (SBX31). I already had 8 SU-100's with the old Resin hulls, but having no SU-85M's I thought it would be nice to have both options.

The box set comes with enough bits to make 5 SU-85's, SU-85M's or SU-100's. The guide on the back of the box makes it really clear what bits you need off the sprue to make each variant.

The boxes were well packed and the excess space in them was filled with some bubble wrap which I thought was a nice touch.

Most of this set shares it's components with the Plastic T-34 (not really surprising when you think they were made from the same hull). The smaller add on sprue (top left in the picture) is mostly unused, just the gun barrels and the tanks for the side of the hull are used from it. I did wonder if they could have added this to the main sprue, but I'm not going to complain about a load of extra bits for free! One big added advantage to this set is the mud guards are sculpted on! This was massive for me as I'm forever fixing my old resin and metal SU-100s as I seem to knock a mud guard off every time I use them! Quite annoying, but no longer a problem thanks to the plastics.

One of the things that excited me most about the set was the new crew sprue. Having put together a lot of Soviet tanks only having 5 different models to use gets a little repetitive very quickly. But these 6 new crew are all very nicely sculpted and add a lot of variation to the existing range of crew.

The model itself was a pleasure to build. The kit fits together really well and the construction time was very quick for a plastic kit. I don't think I'm over selling it when I say this was possible my favourite plastic kit I have put together yet.

They were also very quick to paint and quite fun to. I used my normal method of Russian Green, followed by a Green Grey dry brush and then black lined the whole tank. I used a few more decals than normal to add a little more character to the set.

The plastic Cat Killer does compare nicely to it's older resin and metal brother, I don't think you'll notice the differece on the board, but up close as you may expect the plastic kit is a lot smoother and the details are a lot crisper. I'm already thinking about selling my old SU-100's for new plastic ones.

I can't wait to try this guys out in a few games with my Medium Assault Gun Regiment, it might struggle to attack but what armoured player wouldn't be scared of 12 Cat Killers on the board! (well maybe anyone running King Tigers....).

Overall I give this set a near perfect 9 out of 10. This is a great set with little draw backs, with a little messing around with magnets it would also be very easy to have both the SU-85M and SU-100 from the same hull. They are also a lot easier and quicker to but together than their Turreted cousins the T-34. If Battlefront keep this level up with the rest of their plastics I think the range will be truly great!

Thanks for reading

Ben