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This is my latest build - an SU-85 (Early Production Mod.1944) of the 221st Tank Regiment, 8th Estonian Rifle Corps on the Leningrad front in the summer of 1944. Both my first Soviet AFV and full interior kit, I received it at Christmas 2017 and started it soon afterwards. However, complications with fitting the crew members inside and losing the decals (later found after MiniArt supplied a replacement set!), caused the build to stall for a considerable time. However, with an ‘end the shelf of doom’ push I have finished it! It was a very enjoyable build and I learnt a number of things - especially to look very carefully at the building instructions since several parts in a build section look similar - but are not! I found that with some components of the interior a misalignment in the fitting/gluing would nearly always cause problems further down the line. That said my biggest headache was making the four crew (commander, gunner, loader and driver by Master Box) fit the interior. Much radical surgery was required and I half suspected that the figures are slightly over-scale. It is just possible to see the back of the driver's head on the forward view photograph (below). I did consider ‘opening up’ the AFV to show the detailed engine and fighting compartments, but decided that - besides complicating things - it might blur the contrast between the ‘Factory fresh’ and ‘War weary’ aspects of the model. The display base is quite simple with the civilian worker (LZ Models) being there to give some idea of the size of this AFV. The SU-85 shared the same low profile as the German Sturmgeschütz III and, later, the Jägdpanther and, like them, would often prove to be a difficult target for the enemy. For those interested, the banner on the external fuel tanks reads: ‘Pod znamenem Lenina - vpered za Rodinu, za nashu pobedu!’ which translates to ‘Under the banner [of] Lenin - forward for the Motherland, for our victory!’ (My apologies to any Russian speakers if I have got this wrong)! The slogans on the side of the AFV are in Russian (Cyrillic) and Estonian and both say ’For Soviet Estonia.’ The SU-85 (Samohodnaya ustanovka meaning ‘self-propelled’) was a Soviet weapon system based on the chassis of the T-34 medium tank. The ’85’ designation is for the bore of the vehicle’s main armament which, in this case, was the 85 mm high velocity D-5S gun - itself adapted from the 52-K anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) weapon The Soviet Union’s first large-scale production tank destroyer (as opposed to an infantry support/assault weapon) the SU-85 was designed on the body of the SU-122 using 80% of the parts of the T-34; it was introduced in August 1943. However, when the up-gunned T-34 medium tank with an 85 mm gun entered service in early 1944 there was little point in continuing production of the SU-85. This was halted in late 1944 after a production run of 2,650 vehicles - giving way to the SU-100 tank destroyer armed with a more powerful 100 mm gun. Though it served until the end of WW2 the SU-85 was withdrawn from Soviet service soon after the war’s end; a number were exported to Soviet client states with those in North Korea and Vietnam seeing active service in those conflicts. SU-85s were still in service with several armed forces until as recently as the 1990s. Any constructive criticism would be much appreciated! Thanks for stopping by and looking. Mike