Zvezda SU100

SU100

The Zvezda SU100 is one of two new Soviet assault gun kits to be released recently, the other being the SU152

The SU100 was based on the T34 chassis, it was designed as an improvement on the SU85 and entered mass production in September 1944, seeing extensive service, between then and the end of the war. It remained on the frontline strength of the Red Army until 1957 and was widely exported. Fidel Castro commanded the Cuban forces at the Bay of Pigs from an SU100, it's parked outside the Revolutionary Museum in Havana. For those of you with "Fate of a Nation" forces the SU100 appears in the UAR army lists, and others ended up in Angola and China

The SU100 kit is a 15 piece kit and comes on two sprues in green plastic. Mass production is pretty simple and I completed 4 in less than half an hour. painting is obviously a whole different ball game

The detailing is pretty good, Zvezda are really improving the detailing on their kits. The fighting compartment side on the left has a saw whilst on the right it is flat - but that is the same as the Battlefront plastic and resin versions too

There are 6 steps to construction, and a paper bilingual instruction booklet is included. The steps  are illustrated in the attached photographs. The only issue I had with the sprues are that the underbelly piece is connected to the sprue via the “prongs” that are used to fit the tracks so care is needed when cutting the piece away, make sure you leave enough of the “prong” to subsequently attach the tracks

Instructions

Sprues

The kit snaps together very well, and doesn’t need glue, except for two places , and it is a big except in the first instance it's the gun and mantlet assembly. Zvezda appear to be obsessed with having guns that elevate (I’ve recently made the M3 Lee and the ZSU-23-4 which both have elevating guns), where there isn’t really a need. The gun fits through the glacis plate and is supposedly secured by the mantlet piece. I found that it doesn’t secure it very well, and leaves the model with the gun in a quite elevated position, so on second and subsequent kits I glued it in place, this allows a horizontal barrel to be modelled . The second exception is the 4 additional external fuel tanks which are very loose fitting and unless glued in place will just keep coming off

Fighting compartment assembly

before the glacis and gun are added

glacis and gun

the fiddly bit

fitting the glacis and roof

fighting compartment complete

hull assembly

hull and fighting compartment together

fuel tanks and mantlet

As you can see the kit is very nicely sized when compared with the Battlefront plastic SU100, and when placed next to each other there is little to tell them apart dimensions wise

Battlefront on the left

The Zvezda kit has some slight differences, the hatches are less pronounced on the hull roof, and the radiator grille on the engine deck is also less pronounced

finished article

, the mantlet is bulged on the left of the gun (which appears more in keeping with the original than the BF model), but also appears to be pierced for a co-ax MG, I can’t find any details of any SU100 production model (even the later export ones) having a Co-Ax MG. Also the armour cover to the mantlet is much bigger on the Zvezda kit and the gun is a bit more "beefy" on the Battlefront kit. All things being equal once they are painted up I think you'll struggle to spot the difference unless you pick them up off the table and bring them to eye level

Battlefront top

Personally I find the Medium Self Propelled Artillery List to be the hardest of the Self Propelled lists to use, but for giving cheap access to a unit of cat killers or for those wanting to try out the Medium SP list on the cheap this is a really good kit. If the gun assembly was less fiddly I’d go as far as to say excellent

Battlefront left

Platoon shot

Zvezda SU152

SU152

The Box

The Zvezda SU152 is one of two new Soviet assault gun kits to be released recently, the other being the SU100. Originally entering service in 1943 the SU152 arrived at the front just in time to see action at Kursk, where their ability to destroy Panthers and tigers by literally blowing off the turrets led them to be nicknamed Zveroboy ("Beast Slayer")

Based on the KV tank chassis the SU152 was the last vehicle of the KV series to remain in production, and production continued until December 1943. After service with every Soviet front the SU152 remained on the strength of the Red Army until 1954

The SU152 kit is a 13 piece kit and comes on two sprues in green plastic

The Sprue

The detailing is very good in places, and disappointing in others, Zvezda are really trying to improve the detailing on their kits, I have a couple of their T35s and the flat slab sides are a major let down on that kit. The detailing on the roof and engine top of the chassis on the SU152 is actually very good, but again the fighting compartment sides are very flat and undetailed - this can be remedied by attaching spare track lengths or stowage of course

The assembly instructions are printed on the rear of the box, there is no separate instruction booklet. However the build is fairly intuitive and not difficult. The steps I took are illustrated in the attached photographs. There are no “with care” issues in relation to removing the pieces from the sprue (unlike on the SU100 model)

The kit snaps together very well, and doesn’t need glue. The gun is attached through the front of the glacis and has an oddly angled fitting, so do try a “dry fit” if you are planning to use glue on your model. Unlike the SU100 kit where the external fuel tanks need gluing the external tanks on this kit fit snugly on without glue. To give the model a bit of additional weight I glued a couple of small, low value foreign coins onto the inside of the underbelly casting and the inside of the upper hull casting and that works quite well in giving a nice “feel” to the kit

Lower hull parts and ballast 

Hull assembled

Fighting compartment and gun

Completed

As you can see the kit is very nicely sized when compared with the Battlefront metal and resin SU152, it is slightly smaller in both length and height but not so much as to be noticeable on the tabletop. There are slight modelling differences to the hatches. In terms of ease of assembly it’s easier than the Su100, but unlike the SU100 there is a slight (and I do mean slight) size difference when compared to the Battlefront comparitor. in respect of detail, the Zvezda model actually has more detail on than the Battlefront one. The fighting compartment roof is riveted and the front two hatches have slightly more detail. On the roof of the engine compartment the rear two engine access hatches are more raised than on the Battlefront model

Battlefront on the bottom for comparison

Battlefront on the left

slab sides, but these can be covered up

doesn't look out of place

Personally I found this a really really nice kit, it doesn’t look out of place next to my two existing Battlefront SU152s, it goes together really nicely and the detailing is excellent, so I’ve added 7 of the Zvezda kits to my existing Battlefront 2 for use in an SU152 based Heavy Self Propelled Artillery Regiment, giving me 9 hulls rather than the 6 that I tend to end up with in the ISU based Regiment

7 is better than 1 !

Final Group Shot

We Have Moved

Hello All

We are very please to announce that we have a new website. Please check it out here http://www.breakthroughassault.co.uk/

We hope you like the new site and continue to follow the website. We have a few plans to make accessing the site better, but none of this would have been possible without the support of Battlefield Hobbies. A big thank you to Nobby, Nich, Hammy and everyone else involved with the new site and Battlefield Hobbies.

Please check out the new site and let us know what you think.

Ben

Team Yankee - 2S1 Gvozdika Review

Hello All

Battlefront very kindly sent us some Team Yankee samples to review, which also seemed a good point to start my Tale of Four Gamers Soviet Army.

I choose the 2S1 Gvozdika as it seemed a good unit to practice my colour scheme on and I really wanted to try out the new artillery rules for Team Yankee. Now in my rush I forgot to take any photos of the construction phase (bad Ben!), but I don't think that will affect the review too much.

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 44

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond The Foxholes Episode 44, we join Ben and Fez as they chat about all things FOW.

In today's episode we are joined by Keith from Armies Army as he chats about getting into model makings, he new Cold War range and his planned kick starter campaign.

Beyond The Foxholes: Ear and Eyes - Night Attacking German Armour

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes: Eyes & Ears Episode 10, our premium content podcast available on Libsyn.

In this episode we join Ben and Adam as they chat about using the Night Attacking German Armour in Late War, we have tips on how to make your lists, how to get the most out of the special rules and

Week Off

Hi Guys

It's been a busy few weeks for us at Breakthrough Assault with house moves, new jobs and new additions to the family, So we are taking a little break. We should be back with articles for you all to enjoy on the 2nd December.

Thanks Ben

Team Yankee - M1 Abrams Kit Preview

Hello

It feels like Team Yankee is almost upon us, stores are taking pre-orders and some have copies of the rule-book out on display.  We've now know what the box sets will contain and how much they'll be selling at.  Here we have another sneak peek of a plastic kit, this time for the iconic M1 Abrams.

AIW AAR - Israeli Infantry Company vs UAR Tank - Hold The Line

Hello All and welcome to our first AIW AAR. A picture from the first game. As you know we have been collecting armies for a tale of four gamers challenge after which we wanted to do three AARs with the armies. This is the first game and sees my Israelis vs Adam's UAR, well not quite. We did start a first game which was fighting withdrawal but Adam's plane killed both of my Sho'ts in two turns and my Jeeps got MG'd shortly afterwards. So we rolled for another mission and got Hold The Line. I decided against trying to Night Attack and tried to defend the village.

Israeli Infantry Company HQ Full Infantry (without transports) + Blindside Full Infantry (without transports) + Blindside Recce Jeeps 4 AT Jeeps 2 Sho'ts 4 Heavy Mortars

UAR Tank Battalion HQ T-55 7 T-55 + Stabilzers 7 T-55 + Stabilzers 6 PT-76 + 4 BTR-50PK 2 ZSU-57-2

Changing Lists in the Digital Age

So this post has been inspired by a little thing I noticed when I was online the other day. If you go back to my list review of Berlin (digital) you'll get this about Munchberg

'We get two lists here, the first is a CV panzer list - with IR equipment! So we have all those nachtjager nightlight rules! And thrown into that is a far better list IMHO! Your core platoons are panthers or tigers - though the tigers have no skills and no IR. the other option in a combat platoon is 4 StuG late - with one upgradable to a hetzer, and another to a 4/70.'

Well I went to fiddle with this list the other day, and it had changed! you could now take StuH42's and also Panzer 4/70's in this slot. So following that I went to the forums, and there was loads of chatter about other options which could/should be in some of these lists (look at this thread for further reading)

Team Yankee - Shilka review

So here's the first platoon which I've done for my Soviet force. I chose to do the Shilka first as it was the most tank like of what I had, as such I could have a real play with the scheme I wanted to go across my whole army

A List For Reading Warefare

Hello everyone!

I'm writing this from hospital on my phone after a minor procedure so sorry if any auto correct mistakes slip through. No cause for concern though, if I have my way I'll be up at Reading as planned in a few days!

A year ago, at the Warfare event I got my first look at the Early War Book, Barbarossa. I'd been playing at events all that year (2014) with big Italian infantry lists and wanted something new, exciting and better for my back! Getting those stands in and out of cases under the tables all year occasionally made me wish I had a force which would fit in one, small box.

It definitely fits in a large shoebox!

Army Collecting

Hey all

Coxer back with some more musings on wargaming. This time it's about collecting your army.

Over the last month I've painted up 

Scout platoon for my UAR 

T26's for my Finnish

Kleinpanzers, kv1's Flammpanzer for my Germans.

And to me these three all show the different ways in which you can collect an army.

That specific list. This is how I would imagine most people start 

an army - and it's how I started my Germans/French/UAR - you come up with a list, bye the list and well - that's it! It's about working it out before you bye, whether by rule of cool or a tournament researched list - you buy what you need and leave it at that - quick efficient simple. The problem I always get with this approach is that every time I do this it ends up getting changed with play testing, but if you want to copy a net list then this really works for you. 

Team Yankee - Tale of Four Gamers

Hello All

With the new Team Yankee rule set coming out we decided to have a painting challenge to get us to paint up our armies as fast as possible, But this challenge won't be as ridged as previous challenges.

There won't be a "paint X points or X number of units in a month", as this is a new game and we don't want to worry about release dates we are going to paint up the units at our own pace but with the goal of having a 100pts army painted in three months (around the end of January). So expect regular updates over the next few weeks and months. So lets see what everyone is planning.

AAR 3RTR vs FJ - No Retreat - Firestorm in the City

Myself and Winner got together for some FoW for Cameron's Firestorm Caen Campaign. We agreed that we wanted something a little more interesting than British Para's vs FJ's, so I bust out the 3RTR from overlord.

We each put together a 1500 point list and rolled to see which Beach I'd be hitting - we got Gold beach - I opted for the actual firestorm troops, where as Winner opted for the extra Points.

After Action Review - One Day Late War Tournament at IBuyWargaming

On Saturday 31 October I braved the suburban wilderness of Woking to take part in a one day Late War tournament at their local gaming store, IBuyWargames

The tournament was organised by our very own Fez and was a 1675pts open affair with no restrictions.

The venue was very nice and very welcoming and the action took place in the store itself, with a couple of games taking place upstairs in their dedicated gaming area.  This had the advantage of putting the action on display for all the customers on the day to see and ask questions about, something which I am always in favour of.

Beyond The Foxholes: Eyes and Ears Episode 9

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes: Eyes & Ears Episode 9, our premium content podcast available on Libsyn.

In this episode we join Ben and Steve Charlton as they chat about using the LRDG in Early War, we have tips on how to make your lists, how to get the most out of the special rules and

Team Yankee - Rulebook Preview

Hello All

Last Friday we got a big package from Battlefront, within that package was a copy of the new Team Yankee rulebook.

We thought it would be a good idea to preview the book and WinnerDave took the opportunity to record our first video (this has been a long term plan finally coming to fruition). It did take WinnerDave a few takes but the end results are worth it.

Team Yankee - Hind Kit Preview

Hello All

After a small break last week we are back with another Team Yankee Monday post. Today we are going to take a very quick look at the new Hind plastic kit.

Battlefront very kindly sent over a picture of the sprue so lets have a look at it.

Team Yankee - Army Deals

Hello All

We have a special Sunday Team Yankee post for you today. Early this week the army deals got posted up on the Team Yankee Facebook page.

We thought we'd have a quick look at the box sets on here.