1/35 SU-100
Zvezda's 1/35 SU-100 tank destroyer

Finished! Zvezda 1/35 SU-100, with Aber metal gun barrel.

The SU-100 was a Soviet tank destroyer, initially introduced during the latter half of the Second World War.

The SU-100 was based off of the previous SU-85 tank destroyer. This vehicle based off the T-34 hull was initially designed to mount a larger gun than the T-34 of the time's 76mm gun, having a fixed casemate allowed mounting a larger 85mm D-5S gun, giving greatly improved performance against armour.

However following the introduction of the T-34-85, which mounted an 85mm gun in a fully rotating turret, the SU-85 found itself becoming obsolete. A project was begun to improve the vehicle, that resulted in the SU-100. The most obvious change was the replacement of the 85mm D-5S gun with a far more powerful 100mm D-10S gun. This weapon gave excellent anti-armour performance, roughly matching the penetration of the German 8.8cm L/71 fitted to the Tiger II (the 100mm D-10 would go on to become the main armament of the phenomenally successful T-54/55 MBT in the post war period). A more minor but still welcome change was the addition of a dedicated area for the commander on the right side of the vehicle, complete with cupola. This dramatically improved visibility and command capabilities over the vehicle.

The SU-100 would give excellent performance during the later years of WW2, and would go on to serve in the post war period, with some seeing service in the middle east almost to this day.


This kit is one of Zvezda's newer kits, releasing last year, and is an excellent entry to the market. Zvezda's newer kits have proven to have excellent quality for their cost, providing a good looking and functional kit at a very reasonable price. While they may lack some of the finer details of manufacturers such as Dragon, they are by no means basic in their finish, and provide perfectly adequate models out of the box.

That being said, I did opt to buy a replacement metal barrel for this, mostly just to show off the impressive D-10S cannon. The included barrel was fine, but the metal one is honestly much nicer.

The kit built up almost perfectly, it should be noted however that unlike kits such as Tamiya or Trumpeter, the lower hull comes in several parts rather than a one piece "tub", making it somewhat harder to align and assemble. However with some care, I was able to correctly fit the parts relatively easily.

I ran into a slight problem with the metal barrel I bought, in that it was designed for a Dragon kit rather than the Zvezda one, and as such didn't fit the mounting quite right. However I was able to improvise using some blu-tack and super glue, and it fits just fine now.

After assembling the running gear on the vehicle, I realised I would have to remove the drive wheels in order to fit the tracks. I managed to remove one intact but the other broke the peg that it goes on when I was removing it, which was a bit of a problem. I ended up building both sets of tracks on one side, and then simply gluing the broken wheel in place as I fitted the tracks.

I added a few extra bits of equipment/stowage to the sides that came from my spares, I felt they looked a little bare. The gun cleaning rod, hammer, and small stowage box were not included in the kit.


The vehicle was painted once again using my airbrush and Vallejo Model Air acrylics, using their 4B0 Russian Green paint over a black primer as the base coat. I added additional detailing using metallic black, metallic gunmetal, and rust, as well as more black paint. I used several other paints such as sand yellow, german red-brown, dark earth, and basic brown for further details and weathering.

The decals came from my spares, I had the red stars that were thrown in with the MisterCraft T-60 I did a while back (they claim to be from a 1/72 Il-2?) and the number markings were trimmed off some unused Japanese aircraft markings from a Hasegawa kit. They were applied over a gloss coat of Pledge floor gloss, and sealed in with the same. Following weathering, the vehicle was finished with a coat of acrylic matt varnish, also from Vallejo.

(Just as a side, I realise I forgot to remove the blu-tack I was using to protect the headlight lense in most pictures, I added an extra picture from after I remembered to remove it)

In conclusion, this was a really good kit, as are most of the new releases from Zvezda, and this will look really good alongside their T-34-85. I can highly recommend this kit to fans of Soviet armour or the WW2 period in general.

Happy Building!

~Katya