After the immense material losses following the opening months of the Great Patriotic War the Red Army had to spend 1942 rebuilding in preparation of the counter-offensives planned for the summer of 1943. Pre-war the Soviets recognized the need for self-propelled artillery for infantry support.  To fulfill this need designers mounted the 152mm howitzer on the KV chassis, fielding 300 of the KV-2. This machine proved less than successful when the turret proved to be a tactically dangerously tall and unable to rotate on anything but level ground.

As there remained a requirement for direct fire support, in November 1942 the Soviet State Defense Committee ordered development of a new heavy self-propelled gun. This new prototype (“Object 236”) for the KV-14 project mounted the 152.4mm ML-20 howitzer in an armored casement on a modified KV-1S chassis. Later the designation was changed to SU-152.

Intended as a self-propelled artillery piece rather than a true tank destroyer, the SU-152 was generally issued with standard HE rounds rather than armor-piercing projectiles. The 152mm HE round produced a massive blast that did not rely on velocity for its effectiveness, making them effective against any German tank (although with a somewhat decreased level of kill reliability over penetrating projectiles). It was renowned for its ability to knock the turret completely off a Tiger tank by sheer blast effect alone. As one of the few Soviet tanks with an even chance of killing the German Tigers and Elephants crews gave their SU-152s the nick-name Zveroboy: Beast Killer.

In 1944 the SU-152 was replaced on the production line by the JSU-152 which was very similar in shape and had the same mission while refining some of the details and hatch placements and utilizing the chassis of the newer Joseph Stalin tank series.

This kit nearly gave me a case of love at first sight, but like most affairs it wasn’t until further consideration that I came to realize some of its shortcomings.

Through 24 pages of full color, the instruction manual is fairly clear. The booklet illustrates the camouflage schemes (5 of which are shown) and also differentiates between parts and alternative placement of many of the moveable parts. The 34 steps lead you though a fairly simple construction.
Decals are provided for 5 alternatives including a German captured version.
A small fret of photo etch is included for the detail parts as well as a clear spruce for the various parascopes and lenses.

Steps 1-3 deal with the lower hull assembly and the drive sprocket. Step 4 details the interior portion of the functional torsion bar suspension.  Steps 5-8 complete the road wheels and return rollers. The suspension fits together very tightly and allows for complete functionality. Both the suspension arms are able to pivot and all the wheels and the drive sprockets are able to rotate.  Concerned about painting and being able to attach the tracks I left most of the road wheels and the drive sprocket unattached until later.  

Steps 9-11 complete the interior and exterior fittings of the lower hull including the driver’s controls and gear selector. While the interior looks rather unfinished at this point my research of the KV series describes the intentional exposure of the torsion bars.  Ammo was typically left in shipping crates and stored on the floor with the crew walking around on the boxes.

Steps 12-14 work through the assembly of the engine. This is a very nice subassembly in itself and the directions in step 15 do allow for leaving the engine hatch open. I would consider that option if one had good research material detailing the wiring of the engine.     

Step 15 assembles the engine deck, which as stated above can have the main hatch left open or closed but not moveable. The two hatches over the transmission are made to open but as there is no transmission included in the kit I decided to just seal the hatches. This would be a good place for an aftermarket addition.

This is also where I have one of the few complaints I have about the kit. The air intake grills above the engine are molded solid. There is detail built into them but this is one spot where photo-etch really should have been used ESPECIALLY as the next step; attaching the rear deck to the lower hull, DOES use photo-etch in the mostly hidden hot air exhaust under the rear deck.

Steps 17-20 detail the assembly of the ML-20 howitzer and its mounting cradle.  When completed it is a beautiful piece.  Both the barrel and muzzle brake are molded in single pieces avoiding the typical seam.  I had two issues with the gun. First, assembling the cradle (pieces B59 and 60). While there are adequate pins and overlaps to connect other pieces thorough out the kit, the two sides of cradle only glue end to end. To add strength I glued a couple small bits of styrene, overlapping the joint.  These were virtually invisible after assembling the gun and of course completely disappear after the citadel is closed up.

Second, the directions in step 25 have the gun mounded before the armor shell (part D30) is added in step 26. Lacking a spare hand to hold all the parts involved I reversed this order, gluing D30 to the citadel then passed the gun in, securing the cradle with the pivot pin (part B22) 

Back to steps 21 through 24 which illustrate first the final fitting of the interior parts under the citadel (don’t be confused by the drawing in step 21 which omits the far wall.) All of the hatches, if assembled as per the instructions remain operable.  Part B23 might be better left until step 29 when the upper and lower hull halves are joined as its placement should line up with the engine deck.  Also at this point I left off most of the photo-etched hooks (P5) as there are no location marks on the armor.

Assembly of the tracks was my favorite part of this process.  Steps 30 and 31 are essentially the same giving the builder the option of installing tracks with either continuous horns or alternating links with and without horns. There are enough links to complete either alternative.  The small jig provided lines up 6-8 links at a time. I cut the spruce holding the pins such that I could slide in eight pins at once, lightly glue the outer ends in place then trim the pins off the spruce.  While cleaning up the four injection points on each track link took about two to three hours the assembly of the tracks went very quickly in under an hour. After assembly the tracks remain fully articulate allowing the builder to add in a couple extra for some sag in the run or the possibility of detaching it as part of a diorama. 

Steps 28 -29 and 32-34 detail the installation of the fenders, mating of the upper and lower hulls, assembly and attachment of the fuel tanks and the various other small detail parts. I chose at this point to leave off the forward track covers satisfied with the fenders already provided.

With assembly complete I started the painting applying first a coat of Testors flat grey primer (1237) over the entire model still in subassemblies. 
I then used Master Modeler Enamel #2129 Russian Armor Green for the majority of the paint.( As wartime accounts describe the colors of Soviet tanks being any shade of green from light to dark I felt that this was one point that had little option to get incorrect.) The tracks were painted with Tamiya Acrylic XF-29 (NATO Black) and the contact points on the road wheels were painted again with Master Modeler Enamel #1788, (Euro I Grey).
Over all of this was sprayed a coat of floor wax to give a smooth layer for the decals which applied very easily then another coat of wax to seal the decals.  I then brushed on a very thinned (1/10) coat of XF-29 to dirty the model a bit. And finally a coat of Testors Dullcote (#1260) from a spray can to flatten out any shine the previous layers may have still displayed.

price/performance:	*****	fitting quality:	*****
details:	*****	difficulty:	*****