This release took me by surprise recently as I was completely unaware of its existence when I stumbled across it in a model shop in Norwich. It actually made me laugh because the guy behind the counter was so stereotypical of the surly ignorant moron who clearly was annoyed with the fact that I had politely and cheerfully strolled up to the counter and had asked if I could take a look inside the kit. My curiosity had been aroused, as I have long wanted to make an Su-76 and all I had in my collection was the old Alan / Dragon kit, and this had no tracks aside from the fact that it was one very poor looking model kit, and I wanted to see if this was another re-boxing of that tired old mare.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. In that quick examination at the counter (I wanted to be fast as I could feel “Mr. Pleasant” boring his eyes into me in aggravation) I immediately decided to buy the kit as the detail and quality literally jumped out of the box at me.

Speaking of the box, also of note with this model is the box art itself. After being treated to a steady decline in the quality of Dragons box art, and the atrocious illustrations that grace Trumpeter kits, the striking and wonderfully hand painted box art is refreshing.

Having seen some of the Mini Art 35^th scale figure releases previously I was not surprised to see that the figures included with this kit are very nicely sculpted with plenty of refined detail and are every bit as good as Tamiya’s recent figure releases.

Each of the 8 grey styrene sprues are crisply moulded only have the slightest amounts of flash in a couple of places. This may vary from kit to kit though, and on my example some of the flash is located in some very inconvenient places, on the delicate tie-down’s for instance.  Also included is a clear sprue containing periscopes and lens covers.

The individual link tracks are simple and cleanly cast, and have only barely noticeable ejector pin marks on the inside, which should be very simple to remove with a quick swipe of the sanding stick. All that is noticeably absent from the links are the casting numbers which are visible on the real think, however it would insanity to add them to each of these, and the only possible alternative would be if one of the aftermarket producers like Fruilmodel decided to produce a set.

One of the nicer aspects of the models are the wheels, with nicely rendered detail, both on the road wheels and the return wheels, however the only let down on this fret is the drive sprocket, which lacks the refinement and accuracy of the rest of the wheels. In fact this has to be the only aspect of this kit so far that is actually worse than the older Alan Su-76!

I was very pleased with the appearance of the gun detail overall, although there are a couple of inconvenient sink marks on the breech of my example however as I mentioned with regards to the flash on some parts, this may be something that varies from kit to kit.

Considering how visible the interior of this model will be once complete, it was imperative to have a decent representation of, not only the gun, but also the rest of the fighting compartment, and Mini Art have done respectably well here. The interior is rather well done with enough detail to make this a respectable and accurate model straight from the box, while also providing a more than suitable basis for “super” detailing. There is plenty of detail on the interior of the shields as well as the floor of the fighting compartment, along with stowage containers, ammunition racks, and even close defence machine guns. I was particularly pleased to see a plethora of ammunition supplied for the 76mm main gun, both HE and AP rounds.

While I said that all of the basic detail was there, that does not mean that it is complete, and there is allot of room for improvement. Perhaps the most obvious for me was the padding around the rear access hatch which is very flat and undefined, and from looking at the real thing, this could do with some beefing up along with some texture.

As per any model kit when it comes to detail like ammunition racks, these would be best to be replaced with etched metal either from a detail set (If you can find Eduard’s set 35083 for the Dragon/Zvezda/Alan etc. kit, this will help immensely, or alternative wait for a new edition from either Eduard or Aber designed for this kit) however the ones in the kit are very nicely done and far better than I had expected.

The decals are provided by Bergemot and offer 5 separate versions of the vehicle, all in overall 4BO Russian Green. For those looking for more colourful options when it comes to this vehicle may want to pick up the German version of the vehicle.

Perhaps the best way to rate the kit overall is to compare it to what has been available previously, and in every sense this kit is a quantum leap ahead of the old Alan kit. The detail throughout this model is very well represented, and while going from what I read on the model at the Perth Military Modelling Website in Terry Ashley’s excellent review, there may be a few issues when it comes to assembly, I suspect these will be nothing that a modeller of even modest abilities shouldn’t be able to tackle.

I like this model very much, and not only because it is a subject I have wanted to model for a long time, and not because it was a very widely used vehicle during WWII, but because this particular release is a great kit. As we come to expect more and more from model kits, perhaps this release would be more spectacular had it included a few frets of etched, some resin and a turned aluminium barrel, but from looking in the box and considering the fact it can be had for around €25.00 it is a very decent model indeed.

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