The Stalin tank series was developed in the Soviet Union during WW II to deal with the German Panther and Tiger tanks. It had heavy, well-shaped armor and a powerful 122mm gun that could pierce the frontal armor of nearly any Axis tank at over one thousand yards. Its greatest drawback was that the main gun used two-piece ammunition, which slowed down the re-loading time, thus putting the tank at a disadvantage in a “shoot out” situation.

This model is in 1/56 scale, which is not what would be considered “typical” in the usual modeling community; however, it is quite a common scale with war gamers and that is who this kit is targeted for. War gamers want models that accurately depict the prototype, but are easy to assemble, as they are not as concerned with all the possible tiny details, and they may be assembling more than one of any given vehicles for game play. In recent years, companies like Bolt Action, Rubicon and others have started to produce kits that are a nice compromise between accuracy and utility. Assembly is simplified, but the details are present. These kits are a good gateway to modeling for those who have grown out of snap-tite kits or have tired of kits with hundreds of tiny, fiddly parts, and impossibly minute photo etch pieces, but still want a nice-looking model. They can usually be assembled in a few hours and then the modeler is free to decide how much time he or she wants to put into painting and weathering. There are even aftermarket stowage and figure sets available, if you want to go down that path. Another bonus is that they do not require as much space on a shelf or in a display case as the larger-scale kits.

This is Italeri’s kit of the JS-2 heavy tank. The kit consists of two sprues of seventy-seven well-rendered parts in OD colored plastic, good instructions, and a very nice sheet of decals for four different tanks. There was no flash or sink marks, and while there were mold seams as you would find in any kit, they were light and easy to deal with. The assembly went smoothly, as you would expect in a kit designed for just that, and the fit is particularly good. Some details are simplified, such as molding the suspension as single pieces, one for each side with the dual road wheels represented by cylinders rather than separate parts. I dealt with the latter by applying a black stripe decal down the middle of each cylinder, which, when all was finished, gives the illusion of separate wheels. The tracks are made of rigid plastic, are well detailed and are molded in lengths rather than individual links. They go on easily and look good when in place.

One word of caution, many kits in this genre allow you to build several different versions of the subject. That may necessitate having distinct parts to represent those variations, so if you have that choice, you need to look through the instructions to make sure you are using all the correct parts. Another thing to watch for is that when there are two or more of any given part, be sure that the part is not “handed,” meaning it can only go on either the right or left side or some other specific location. The parts may look identical, but they may not be. I found it best to work slowly and deliberately in such situations, only cutting parts off the trees as I needed them to make sure I got everything in the correct place.

The decals were a dream. I could not believe how well they behaved. They were released from the backing sheets quickly, were tough enough to be handled and moved around, yet with a little decal solvent, they settled down over almost any detail. A case in point is the large white cross on the turret roof. It goes over smooth level surfaces, an anti-splash rail, an antenna mount, a ventilation cap, and the mantlet cover. I expected a struggle to get it down over all this, but I applied a good amount of decal solvent, got the decal in place, and then applied more solvent and left it alone overnight. Initially, the ends were in the air, there were huge gaps over the parts mentioned, and it looked like a mess; however, much to my amazement, the next morning it had settled down over everything almost perfectly. There were a few small spots that needed some more solvent and a little persuasion with a moist cotton swab, but in the end, it almost melted into place. I was amazed at how well it behaved.

The kit is an excellent representation of the real thing, goes together well, has great decals, takes up less space, and costs far less than larger-scale kits. If you have not ventured into this realm of modeling, and you are looking for something different or need a break from PE and fiddly detail parts, give these kits a try. I think you will like them.

I want to thank MRC and Italeri for providing the sample kit for review and IPMS-USA for the chance to look at this fine kit.