OKB Grigorov specializes in resin, photoetch and turned metal barrel conversions for armor. One of their latest releases is the tracks for the Russian T-34 mod.1940 third variant.

This aftermarket set includes parts in grey resin. As you can see from the pictures, the casting of the parts is pretty good, without any bubbles in the resin and small attachment points.

This set provides you with 4 sections of track and the pictures show the fantastic level of detail of the tracks, both inside and outside sides.

The sections of track are cast flat, so you would have to gently bend them to shape, using the wheels from the kit to get the proper curvature radius. The resin is very thin, so this should be relatively easy. I would suggest to dip the tracks in hot water before bending them around the wheels and dipping them in cold water afterwards to “set” the curvature in.

Introduction

An Austro-Hungarian engineer, Günther Burstyn, designed a "land-ship" vehicle in 1911, which was tailored to cross trenches, provide infantry support and crush barbed wire entanglements. This was the Burstyn Motorgeschütz. It was relatively small, with a revolving turret and potentially armed with a light 37 or 47 mm gun, and a crew of two. The unique aspect of this experimental design was the articulated arms that could be deployed to assist in trench crossing, and "push down" barbed wire. These arms were lowered to help cross trenches, angled to push down wire entanglements, and up for normal terrain . Burstyn received a patent and built models and a wooden mock-up; but the design went no further. He proved to be a visionary. His design anticipated trench warfare years before WW1 and included the basic layout of a tank.

Opel Blitz, is number 24 in the “Camera On” series published by MMPBooks/Stratus. The author, Alan Ranger, has written over 20 books in the Camera On Series dealing with German and Japanese armor specializing in soft skin and armored vehicles. With Opel Blitz Camera On # 24 published in 2021, the author presents photographs of various light and mid-weight truck series built by the German Opel automobile manufacturer.

Opening the Box

Wow was it Christmas or what? This is a smaller armored vehicle in the big picture of things, but there is no doubt it is a big kit, and it is stuffed with sprues. The box is 22” by 13 ¾” by 5 5/8 “. Nope it is not going to fit in the mailbox. There is a single hull piece with 141 sprues (95 of which are the 190 Track blocks in a separate bag bundled in the hull along with the track components), So a rough sprue parts count drives this number up to over 1,105 individual parts. Also included are the Side skirts, clear parts and the copper tow cable and PE parts. Also included is an optional metal gun barrel.

So, if you thought because it’s bigger means less parts your build experience will be just like a well contented 1/35 kit. Nope not a snap-tite kit for sure. However, because the parts are larger, the detail is well executed and crisp with almost no flash whatsoever. The sprue gates and risers are larger so there will be more cleanup

The AMMO by Mig company is prolific in the endless useful and specific sets of paints, washes, and pigments they release. Their range of acrylic paints are designed to make painting a breeze thanks to the ease of application, with the 17mL dropper bottles. All colors in the range can be mixed with each other and with the full range of AMMO by Mig Jimenez acrylic colors. Each color is suitable for both brush and airbrush application. These acrylics are water-soluble and formulated to be safe and non-toxic. If airbrushing, I would suggest thinning first as the paints are thick out of the bottle which make them great for brush painting.