Zvezda 1/72 Soviet 203mm M1931 B4 Howitzer (5085)

This time we are going to talk about Zvezda 1/72 Soviet 203mm M1931 B4 Howitzer (5085). As you can guess from the name, new kit comes as smaller scale release of the quite large vehicle. It should help you with saving some space or maybe even building some diorama around it. Overall idea is simple - just a howitzer gun, and no other additions. There are 207 parts which should assemble into a model with 13cm length. Let's open this box and take a closer look together.

By the way, here you can read review with another Soviet vehicle in the same scale.
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Watch this video where I show all parts even closer.

First frame is notable as it is dedicated to the main gun and its breach. Overall quality looks great out of the box, even the tiniest parts are nicely molded.

There are guiding pins inside main gun halves, but of course it would be better to have this element as one piece.

Drivetrain is supplied on two frames. We get plastic tracks here, but you won't be able to avoid working with separate links.

The main chassis should be glued out of separate panels. Whole design is quite smart and should be easy to combine together.

Surface features look impressive for this scale, and it might be worth spending some time weathering those for a bit more convincing look.

There are no decals in this kit. Marking guide is printed in color and you can see it on the photo above. Pictures of the finished model can be found on the photo below.

Assembly manual is typical for this brand. I show all pages in the video-review.

New small big gun should be already available for purchase. In one box you can expect a nice plastic which should be fun to build. I would prefer to have at least one figurine so that you can replicate something similar to what is show on the boxart. Otherwise two-piece barrel can be named as another problem here. Professional modelers will be able to work around that, but I wonder if we will see some aftermarket later...

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