Included in the box are two identical sprues, molded in hard grey plastic. Each sprue contains 9 parts to build a complete 81mm Mortar and a crew of two with a base, as well as 3 additional parts for use with the Art of Tactic ruleset. Also included are two game data cards for use with the Art of Tactic ruleset and an instruction sheet. Only minor flash was present and was easily cleaned off with a sharp knife.

Assembly is easy and straightforward. The kit is a snap-together kit, and the model builds quite well in this manner with no major gaps are seen. However, I glued my sample together for stability while painting. The plastic base supplied with the kit is superbly detailed with ground texture compared to other figure manufacturers in this scale and price range, and all the alignment pegs in the figure fit perfectly into the alignment holes in the base.

Unfortunately, the sprues in the sample I received were either miscast or damaged. You can see in the photos that the chests and arms of the mortar crew are severely malformed and distorted, making the fronts of their uniform jackets unrecognizable even when painted. Their faces are mostly devoid of detail as well, but are for the most part, recognizable as human. The bipod for the mortar is fragile and easily breakable, and drilling out the mortar tube itself is very difficult and not recommended due to the small scale.

I painted my mortar crew to match my other early war German forces, using Vallejo/Flames of War acrylic paints. A painting key is included on the instruction sheet, but I opted not to use this scheme.

Overall, this small kit is a great way to add infantry support artillery to any 1/72 early or late WW2 German Army. This kit is designed for Zvezda’s own wargame ruleset, called Art of Tactic. Personally, I am not familiar with this ruleset, but these miniatures work great with any 1/72 or 20mm WW2 ruleset.

I would like to thank Zvezda, Dragon USA, and the IPMS/USA reviewer corps for the opportunity to review and build the mortar team.