Manufacturer: Miniart (Ukraine)
Scale: 1/35
Material: Plastic
Number of plastic details: 351
Paint: Unpainted, Unassembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue.
Condition: New in Box
BOX: 260x162x35 mm

T-70M Early Production Soviet Light Tank (With Crew) is a 1/35th scale, plastic kit, consisting of 60 parts (vehicle), 176 (tracks) plus four, clear plastic parts for the periscopes and front headlight. The kit consists of only three (main) sprues a clear plastic sprue and four sprues for the track-links. The model is moulded in a good quality, grey plastic. The other parts of the model are an eight-page, full-color instruction sheet and a small decal sheet with markings for five vehicles. The kit is packed inside a fairly solid cardboard box with all the component sprues seperately bagged.

There are areas which could be improved, however, overall, this is a superb kit - considering it is the first MiniArt AFV, doubly so. It would be very surprising (not to say absurd) if the company could reach the techical expertise of other (longer established) manufacturers in its first release. However, the T70 was not exactly 'over-engineered' in reality. In my opinion, MiniArt have captured the lines and the 'feel' of this vehicle very well indeed. There is an incredible attention to detail apparent in this kit. The most obvious comes with the care in the preparation of the instructions (other companies take note!) which are visually interesting and simple to follow. The subject matter is excellent as well, with the possibility to convert to a prime mover, a very attractive possibilty. After the 'bad-press' many Eastern European manufacturers have received in the past, this comes as a breath of fresh air. They have done good research and have applied it to a VERY high-quality product. Hopefully, this model will sell in large enough numbers to 'seed' other similar projects of this type, the BT series and the T-26 would be ideal future projects for the company....