General Comments

PST is a relatively new producer from the former Soviet republic of Belarus, and their range includes a large number of KV kits representing the almost full range of production variants.

The general standard of molding and level of detail on PST kits is quite good, though not up to the standards of some Asian manufacturers.  Some flash is present on smaller parts and the kits therefore require some cleanup prior to assembly.  Thin parts such as grab handles and handrails are overly thick but a true scale thickness is difficult to achieve in this scale, so PST can hardly be faulted in this regard.  Such parts can easily be replaced with thin wire if desired.

PST have wisely based their kits on a common set of sprues, mixing and matching components to depict different production variants in much the same way as the real KVs.  This section will describe the components that are common to many or all of the PST kits.  The following sections will then describe each of the kits individually.

PST provide a single set of lower hull components that are common to all their kits.  The bottom of the hull and the curved lower front plate are molded as a single part, to which the flat hull side plates and the curved lower rear plate are added.  The hull bottom includes the round escape hatch, though this is incorrectly represented with an external hinge.  The lower front and rear plates have the mounting plates for the towing shackles molded integrally.

The hull side plates have suspension details such as the road wheel swing arms, bump stops, return roller mounts and idler mount molded integrally.  The torsion bar hubs are devoid of bolt detail but this is excusable in this scale.

PST provide three different suspension sprues, depending on the production variant.  These include a number of common components including ilder wheels and both early and late pattern drive sprocket hubs, and differ only in the road wheels and return rollers.

•    The “early” sprue includes cast two-part resilient road wheels as fitted from mid-July 1941 onward, and pressed steel, rubber rimmed return rollers without reinforcing ribs.

•    The “late” sprue includes all-steel reinfored road wheels and all-steel return rollers. 

•    The “KV-1S” sprue includes all-steel road wheels with large lightening holes  and all-steel return rollers.

All three sprues include both early and late pattern hubs for the drive sprockets, and also provide the idler wheels.  All of the road wheel sprues, regardless of type, show some degree of unevenness in the thickness of the rims, as do the return rollers.  This can be remedied with judicious sanding.

All of the PST kits include link-and-length tracks that apparently aim to depict the early Omsh pattern track with a guide tooth on each link.  The problem with these tracks is that the tread pattern on the outer face of the links bears absolutely no resemblance to the real Omsh pattern track, or indeed to any other track fitted to the KV series.  There is very little that can be done to rectify this problem, other than to apply plenty of “mud” to the model and hope that nobody notices.