Soviet ZSU M17 AA (SBX78) Platoon Review

By Tom Burgess

Battlefront is continuing to expand its plastics range now adding Anti-Aircraft options to its Soviet Late War line. As these are now a formation unit in most motorized/mechanized Soviet Late War formations, they have become a bit of a “must have” that I did not have. So I decided to pick up a box to add to the T-34/85 Soviet Tank Battalion I planned to run in the 2020 US Flames of War Masters Tournament. I eagerly awaited for these to show up at my local game store, Hard Knox Games.

The SBX78 boxed set came with three plastic model sprues and and crews made of the new resin-plastic materials.

The parts were crisp. There are 18 hard plastic pieces and two resin-plastic crew figures in each model. The kit also as the parts necessary to build US M15A1 AA Halftrack so will be ready when the US Bulge releases roll around in 2021.

The resin-plastic crew the kit came with were adequate if not great.

The assembly instructions were printed on the back of the box and were straightforward to follow.

Assembly of each model too about 15 minutes each. I encountered no problem’s while assembling them as all pieces fit together extremely well.

I opted to paint the vehicles separately from the crew sprue and then added the crews later.

I also base my WW2 Flames of War vehicles on magnetic bases. Here is my ZSU M17 platoon ready to roll into battle at the 2020 US Masters.

Overall, I was very satisfied with this new kit.  Battlefront keeps getting better and better at its hard plastics vehicles.

Recommended.

Models not provided by Battlefront.