Mirror Models has released a full plastic kit of the Artillery Tractor T-20, which saw service with the Finnish, German and Russian and Romanian Armies (Decals provided for the first 3 armies).

This kit has over 450 plastic parts and it includes some small PE details. The tracks are of the “individual link” style. I don’t think they will “click” to each other; rather glue should be used in each link.

The kit includes a complete engine, engine bay, firewall and transmission. There is no “hull”, it is built from individual pieces, and so careful alignment there will be needed. Once the engine and engine bay plus basic hull is completed, assembly moves into the interior, with nicely detailed seats for the artillery gun crew.

The interior includes a driver and machine-gun operator and all the hatches can be assembled in open or closed position. The road wheels/bogies are nicely detailed and they should take a wash and dry-brushing making them look like “the part”.

The tracks, as described before, are of the “individual link” kind and the instructions are very clear as to how to assemble them and specify how many links per cm are required. They also provide some hints as to how create some sag and assembly the tracks on the return rollers.

The overall surface detail of this kit is really nice, fine and restrained. The connector gates are large, though. That implies the need for careful cleaning work of the pieces and some of them are small in comparison to the connector gates.

Taking into consideration the total piece count (450+), the full detailed interior and the sprue connector gates, I would recommend this kit to experienced modelers.

An interesting note in the instructions is that all parts for the “early” version are included in this kit and the instructions are available to download at the Mirror Models website (www.mirror-models.com).

I would like to thank Stevens International, Mirror Models and IPMS/USA for the review sample.