1/35 Scale Accessory Kits
Mine Sweeper KMT-6 and
122mm Ammunition

SKIF

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Reviewed by Cookie Sewell

SKIF is one of those companies I pull for, as they are working on kits no other manufacturer has bother with and which are unlikely to come out from any other source. They do some good work (the D-30 howitzer is great) and also some duds (the T-55 is not worth building) but in between they find some pretty reasonable items that can be made into nice models.

Now they have released the next two accessory kits (N-501 was the number retroactively applied to their T-64 track set). Both of them have the same level of molding, and at least SKIF has left us with raised injection pin marks this time which are much easier to remove.

The track width mine plow - somewhat incorrectly designated as a KMT by the Soviets, as KMT expands to "Katkoviy Minniy Tral" or "roller mine clearing trawl" – is a real jewel, and will really look good on most modern Soviet type tanks. It has twin blades with three plows on each, the bar to knock down and detonate trip-rod mines, but lacks the retrofitted EMT electromagnetic mine detonators later fitted to these devices. If carefully assembled, the plows raise and lower, and can be posed in any position. The plow is a drop-fit (once you shave off the "keepers") on any kit that the original model company thought to fit with mine clearing mounts.

The 122mm rounds will go with any 122mm weapon, and right now that covers Zvezda's M-30 and SKIF's D-30 and 2S1 "Gvozdika". While it announces itself in Russian as a "Boyekomplekt" or basic load, a basic load for those weapons is actually 80 rounds, but this is a good start, and will more than fill up a truck or diorama. Most of the assembly will consist of cleaning off ejection pin marks and drilling out the shell casings for either installing the projos or using as discards. Soviet 122mm field guns and howitzers used two-part cased rounds rather than bagged charges, but most rounds were assembled on the ground prior to loading or storing in ammo racks in the 2S1.

Sadly, these rounds are loaded with all kinds of markings and stencils, as are the crates, but SKIF did not provide us with a decal sheet covering the info, and that is a real shame. Most of these should be marked at least with a stencil for "OF-462" which is the normal Soviet era HE-FRAG round, as represented in the kit.

Overall, however, these are welcome additions and should find their way into many kits and dioramas.
 

Cookie Sewell AMPS

Review Copyright © 2002 by Cookie Sewell
Page Created 27 April, 2002
Last updated 22 July, 2003

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