Bolt Action IS-3 Heavy Tank

Welcome to russian tank week, comrade! Start of this short series of 3 russian tank reviews will be the IS-3, Iossif Stalin, heavy tank recently released by Warlord Games for Bolt Action and Konflikt 47.

As the IS-3 is a mail order only product of Warlord Games, it is made to order and does not come in a cardboard box but in a bubble wrap bag.

The IS-3 was a heavy tank of the soviet army and 2.300 units were produced between 1945 and '46, but they were to late to be used in the battle for Berlin. Never the less, a tank regiment issued with IS-3 tanks took part in the parade in Berlin and were later used in the manchurian campaigns against the Japanese. With a very distinctive design, the v-shaped front and the round turret, the IS-3 was planned to counter the heavy, late tanks of the german army and to be the successor of the KV series tanks.

This resin and metal kit is set at 28 GBP and kept in the 28mm / 1:56 scale. It covers the hull, tracks and turret in resin, as well as the detailed parts in metal, among them the gun, fuel tanks and lukes.

Before the build process it is important to give a resin kit a proper wash in luke warm soap water to clean it of any remaining release agent. This oily substance is used during the casting and may cause trouble in later application of paint and/or primer. So make sure to give it a good scrub.

If you heat up the water warm enough, you can take care of most of the warpage that might occure during casting and is not unusual for resin to have slight bending / warpage. The tracks had a bit of warpage, but nothing to bad. The bigger problem was that the left track was noticibly shorter than the right one. Shrinkage can occure during resin casting, but this is some odd mistake in production.

After cleaning of any mold lines, resin flash and casting rudiments, it was time to assemble the hull. To fix the different long tracks, I added a small piece of plastic card to cover it. Other than that, quite good casting and a proper amount of detail. Between the track rollers was a bit of thin resin flash, but easy to remove.

The metal parts are quite easy to assemble. Most of them have tongue-and-groove and are easy to glue to the hull. I pinned the gun to make it more stable. The fuel tanks on the back were a bit of fiddly piece, as these are rather loose on the hull.

These hooks, that go on the front and back of the hull, are more or less placed freely and it is not entirely clear which of the two sets gets glued where and which part is top or bottom. There is additional information on the assembly instruction but the printing is to small to be identified.

Last piece to add to the IS-3 is the turret mg. A bit tricky to glue as the mg is rather heavy, and the appropiate position on the turret / connection joint is once again not really clear from the instruction (seems to be general weak spot of many resin kits), but doing a bit of research helped out.

So how does this IS-3 compare to other russian tanks?  It is not really bigger compared to the KV1 and KV2 and a noticeably larger than the SU, based on the T-34 chassis. In the first picture it is next to the Rubicon SU and Warlord / Italeri KV2, and in the second with the resin KV1 and KV2.

And with other competitors on eye-level? The IS-3 is rather low tank and so the Pershing and Tiger II are taller, but the IS-3 is quite long and matches the size of the Tiger II in width and length.

Last part of the review before the conclusion is as usual the series of shots from different angles.

Conclusion
The IS-3 is an iconic vehicle, and many people like the destinctive design of the russian tank. There are currently no other versions available (Die Waffenkammer might release one) and 28 GBP is a steep price for a tank. Casting quality is overall good, no bubbles and managable amount of flash, and the details are well done. But the short track and the unclear position of some smaller parts shouldn't be an issue for that price and with a company like Warlord that can do better.

This kit is more or less a collectors piece, as like already mentioned above, the IS-3 wasn't really a part of world war 2, and a KV or IS might be a more reasonable choice for your army. But if you're a World of Tanks fanboy, don't take the historical background to seriously or are a collector, this kit might be for you.

Bolt Action is a brand of Warlord Games.