ZIS-30 (SU105) Review

Hi all,

I got my hands on a recent release from battlefront, namely the Zis-30 (SU105). Which is a self-propelled AT gun. You get two in a blister, I have two blisters so will be showing off four of them.

My first reaction to the above picture was...cool.  On the cool-o-meter they are up there hanging out with Marder IIs, staring down on Marder IIIs.  I'm quite excited to get on with these puppies and will be writing this blog post in stages.
So far I've ripped the blister pack open and soaked the pieces in warm soapy water.

That's the Komsomolet chassis, Zis 2 gun, gun shield, 2 crew, and a Hull MG per unit.  Crew without circles on their feet is a nice touch and I'm quite please about that.  A quick attempt at a dry fit shows the bases of the crew have a lip which fits nicely onto the chassis, so should form a strong bond.  I must remember to paint them at the same time as the chassis.

There's quite a bit of flash cleaning up to do and barrel straightening, I'll crack on with that and assemble the units.

Make sure you glue the hull MG on first as trying to put it on after you've glued the Zis 2 gun in place is very fiddly.  Speaking of glue, I've stopped using cheap 50p "super glue" from the pound store and bought some Gorilla Glue.  Definitely worth the extra cost, putting stuff together is so much easier.

These went together simply enough, cleaning up the hull MGs was quite fiddly because they're just so darn difficult to grip.  The barrels are never going to be as straight as a plastic moulded barrel, but you get that with any resin/metal model.  As you can see I decided to leave the crew off the model for now, we'll see if that was a wise decision later on.

Part II

And here they are painted up.  I've been wanting to try out a distressed winter white wash scheme for a while now, so these and Adam's chipping fluid gave me that opportunity.

You really get a good feel for a model when you paint it.  These were a delight to paint for the most part. The crew let this model down as they were not well cast and slightly detract from the overall coolness of the model.

Overall I like them, in an ideal world I'd swap the crew for some winter themed fellas, but with the bases forming part of the model that would require some conversion skills.

I tend to build armies based on what models I like.  These definitely fit that criteria, so when I eventually get around to a Soviet EW army, these will feature.  Being armour 0 all round, they are very vulnerable, AT11 means you've got something to hit the big nasty tanks with, but at AT 4+ I think you'll want some infantry knocking around to take advantage of any the bailed results.

Unfortunately they are awkward layout, meaning they can't move and shoot...you could mitigate that by moving half up and leaving half to provide covering fire, but hen-and-chicks gets in the way of that.  Volley fire is cool, but you can't use it in ambush.

If you desperately need high AT in EW, then I guess these fellas will help with that, but AT guns are probably a better purchase being potentially more survivable (at least a 5+ save) able to move (thanks to roll up the guns) and can move and fire...sad.

Hope that helps

Dave