Soviet MT-LB

AndresK
Words can't begin to describe how frustrating this kit is.
For a modern tool, the quality just simply isn't there. What's more is the way the sprues are designed. Most of the stuff is somewhat organized, but there are just so many sprues, with some steps using parts from 5 different sprues plus photo etch. That alone wouldn't be so bad if half of the pieces wouldn't have some bizarre gate connections. Instead of opting to connect to the somewhat sacrificial connective part of the detail, they have gates directly on details. And not just that, for details with grooves the gate just goes over those. There is no way of making the details look any good without manually re-scribing them. And this is the case for a good third of the parts. They have gates connecting to the smallest of handles - ON THE HANDLE PART. And there doesn't seem to be any spares either, which would be a nice move if you set up the pieces to pretty much 50:50 self destruct on cutting.
The kit has amazing interior detail that will not be relevant for at least 90% of people, it just seems to be there for marketing and for rising the price, because 80% of the kit is interior. And the interior isn't even that well done, there are gate marks on tons of flat surfaces including areas that are almost impossible to fill if you choose to do so. There doesn't seem to be an exterior only variant available.
If you simply want to have an MT-LB model, I wouldn't suggest this kit unless you want to frustrate yourself, but sadly there doesn't seem to be a better choice available. And when you do opt for this, I suggest your go through the instructions and then decide on if you really need to build every single interior detail or not, because it's really not fun with the poor part quality, uneven fit and somewhat confusing instructions. Best case you could have a bare engine as set dressing somewhere down the line when you feel like dealing with this mess again. Worst case you can throw together the MT-LB shell with minimal pain and toss the rest in the garbage where it belongs.