Trumpeter has continued to add to its growing line of Soviet prime movers. The recently released ChTZ S-65 tractor is just that, a tractor. The vehicle’s history from the side of the box: “The STALINETZ S-65 (or Starlinze-65) was basically an improved design based on the S-60 and succeeding it on the production line from June 20 1937, it has a 65-75 hp M17 diesel engine. As of 1941 the STALINETZ S-65 was the most numerous type of full-tracked artillery tractor with in the Soviet Army. The exact figure how many of the 37,626.” The kit includes eight sprues of approximately 200 parts and thirteen sprues of track; approximately 234 parts. There’s a small sheet of PE, clear headlight lenses, and decals for the instrument cluster.

As many modelers know, Italeri has recently released their own line of model paints. These are not formulated by another company and packaged under the Italeri label. Since I was working on a review with the Trumpeter Russian ChTZ S-65 Tractor kit, it seemed like a nice fit.

The paint comes in plastic bottles that hold 20 ml of paint. The paint is very thick, almost like craft paint, so it brushes on well, but I was interested in how it would airbrush. I thinned it down with water to about the consistency of milk and, for the most part, it seemed to airbrush well and evenly, but each person will have to use their best judgment on how thin the paint should be.

The Messerschmitt Bf-110, often called the Me-110, was a twin engine heavy fighter (zerstorer – German for destroyer) in service of the Luftwaffe during WW II, armed with four 7.92mm machine guns in the upper nose and two 20mm cannons in the lower nose. It was also equipped with a 7.92 mg15 defensive rear-mounted gun and could carry up to 4410 lb in bombs. The D-3 version was a long-range zerstorer with a lengthened tail for a rescue dingy, and either two 80 gal or two 240 gal drop tanks.

Upon initial inspection, the kit is very impressive in size and scale. At the same time, I have never built a 1/32 scale aircraft and found it a little overwhelming. The kit has great box art and standard Dragon instructions along with a decal sheet, 430+ parts on 17 plastic sprues, and a PE fret. The canopy sprue has 11 pieces for two different variations. At first glance at the decals, they are really crisp.

Dragon had just added this Panzer Division set to their already large selection of plastic figure sets. The features of these figures are by far some of the best work I have seen in plastic miniatures. The facial features aren’t as soft like their competitive manufacturers have in this price range, and by far Dragon has some of the best detail, even when compared to some of the higher priced figures.

If you haven’t built the Zvezda Bf-109F you have missed out on a real treat. It contains an exceptional amount of detail, including an exposed engine, with extraordinary fit. Sure there are some things that could be better.

One thing that you will notice is that the ailerons only has texture on one side. Not a real big deal but something that they probably should have caught. The other thing is the shape of the engine air intake which is slightly off. Quickboost has fixed both problems with this set.

The three resin pieces are molded in light grey resin and are perfectly formed. The intake is very thin and will look great. Adding the parts is really easy. Just remove them from the pour block and add them.

This is not the first set that Quickboost has offered for the Zvezda kit, but it is the most important. They also offer the fuel injector and exhausts.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review copy.