OOB Review of VESPID Model VS720030 T-34/85 Tank Model Kit 1/72

Brief summy:

VESPID Model VS720030 T-34/85 Tank Model has Rich configuration. The mold is too finely divided. Some parts have poor assembly. There is a small mistake in the mold opening.

After a long period of development, VESPID Model VS720030 T-34/85 kit has finally been released. Let's take a look at how this kit performs straight out of the box.

Starting with the chassis assembly.

For the running gear of VESPID Model VS720030 T-34/85 Kit, the road wheels have shallow moulded rubber tread patterns on the side faces, but the contact surface lacks any rubber tread detail – it's just a smooth surface. The bearing caps are separate parts that need to be glued on individually. These parts are quite small, making them tricky to hold and sand – I dropped them several times. Thankfully, the floor gods were merciful and didn't swallow them up. I would have preferred these to be moulded as one piece, since you can't see the wheel bearings anyway once assembled. This just adds unnecessary work and complexity without any real benefit. The effort would have been better spent on improving details, like adding rubber tread patterns on the road wheel contact surfaces.

The fit around the machine gun port is not great – even after inserting it, there are still gaps that let light through.

The grab handles on the hull are a bit thick – I replaced them with 0.4mm copper wire.

The toolboxes are handled in two ways: one is moulded as a single piece, while the other is split into three parts requiring seam filling.

The running gear follows the traditional modular approach, making assembly and painting easier.

The tracks come with pre-moulded sag, but the fit is only average – the gaps between links are tight, making them hard to snap together and difficult to adjust. When fully assembled, the track run ended up being half a link too long. With Soviet-style male/female track links, whether they're too long or too short, it's always awkward to adjust – if they're too long, you just have to cut off half a link and close the loop.

The lifting rings on the hull are provided as both photo-etched and 3D-printed parts. I used the 3D-printed ones – they require no extra work and can be glued straight on.

The plastic fuel drums are moulded as one piece with weld seam details. A set of 3D-printed "battle-worn" fuel drums is also provided, which is a nice touch. However, attaching them to the hull requires photo-etched brackets. There are three issues here: first, the PE parts don't have locating points, so you have to position them manually; second, the PE parts are very small, making them difficult to bend and glue accurately; and third, the attachment points on the hull are too thin – relying on a single point of contact makes it very hard to secure them. In the end, I had to give up on this part.

Moving on to the turret assembly. The kit provides both a metal barrel and a plastic barrel. After gluing the turret halves together, you'll need to fill the seam. The PE dust cover above the gun mantlet is incorrectly tooled and unusable – there's no plastic alternative provided, which is a real let-down.

That's the situation – nothing quite lines up as it should.

That said, Wasp's after-sales support is reliable – after all, a good reputation takes time to build but can be destroyed in an instant. After requesting replacement parts, I received the corrected PE set, and everything finally fits.

Completed OOB Build Photos:

Summary Review of VESPID Model VS720030 T-34/85:

Pros: The kit is generously equipped, with 3D-printed parts and a metal barrel included. The turret features well-rendered cast texture, and the weld seams have that rugged Soviet-style character.

Cons: The parts breakdown is overly fragmented. The photo-etched parts are complex to work with, adding unnecessary difficulty and build time, and they can also introduce fit issues. My hope for 1/72 scale armour is to capture the feel of a 1/35 kit through refined detail, not through an overcomplicated parts breakdown.

Overall, the fit of the tracks, fuel drum mounting brackets, bow machine gun, and other areas leaves room for improvement. This affects the build experience – especially the fuel drum brackets, which have no alternative and could easily lead to a stalled or abandoned build. The incorrectly tooled mantlet dust cover is another issue, though credit to the manufacturer for providing corrected PE parts.

To maintain the kind of dominance VESPID Model previously achieved with their Panther and Centurion kits in this scale, I'd suggest focusing more on surface texture – like armour plate finish, rubber tread patterns on road wheels, and the ability to see bearings through opened wheel hubs – rather than fragmenting the parts breakdown. I hope to see VESPID return to form – just my two cents.