Meng 9A52-2 Smerch Russian Long Range Rocket Launcher 1:35

[Mike]

9A52-2 Smerch Russian Long Range Rocket Launcher
1:35 Meng Models

Referred to as a BM-30 Smerch, or just Smerch-M if you're in a hurry. It is the modern incarnation of the old Katyusha rocket system, and came into service in the late 1980s with the Soviet Army. The full system consists of the rockets in their launch vehicle, loading crane with spare rockets, and a maintenance vehicle, but it is the launch vehicle that we're talking about here.

It is an indirect fire weapon that benefits from a fast set-up and take-down time to avoid retaliatory fire, and it can send up to twelve rockets on their way to a target in a shade under 40 seconds. It can reload in 20 minutes with a number of rocket types that are tuned for attacks on armour, personnel or soft-skinned targets, with a range of between 20km and 50km under normal use, but with an incredible maximum range of 90km for one anti-personnel type. There are quite a number of these systems in use around the world, mostly with former Soviet countries, or their usual non-aligned customers such as India and some Arab states.

It will eventually be replaced by a lighter-weight lower-cost system that should bring cost savings as well as new technology to the party, but with a smaller complement of six rockets.

The Kit
This is a new tooling from Meng, and given their reputation for releasing high quality products, expectations are raised. It is way too large for one of their standard boxes, so arrives in a pretty large one of the same height as their "standard" boxings. It's quite heavy too, so remember to lift from your knees when handling it. Inside the box is a feast of plastic, with a couple of dividers keeping everything neat and tidy, and individual bags on everything. It's easier to put it all in a list, so you get the following:

26 x sprues in sand-coloured styrene
1 x flexible styrene sprue in sand
1 x chassis part in sand-coloured styrene
12 x rocket tube parts, each one consisting of 6 sections
16 x suspension linkages of three types (8, 4, 4)
8 x rubberised tyres
2 x pre-cut self-adhesive mirror film for wing mirrors
1 x synthetic braided cord
8 x large poly-caps
18 x small poly-caps
2 x Photo-Etch (PE) brass sheets
1 x decal sheet

The instruction booklet rounds off the package, in an A4 portrait format with the five outer leaves in glossy colour printing, the balance in black and white on matt paper.

This is the second Smerch of late, and it appears that Meng have attempted to provide a more completely detailed kit that is doubtless reflected in the price. As well as a full engine, the crew compartments are also fully detailed, but overall the two kits are broadly similar. Construction begins with the huge pair of what can only be described as girders that run from stem to stern, linked by tubular "rungs" in substantial brackets. With that together, the drive mechanism is put in place, supplying motive power to each axle via short drive-shafts and transfer casings. The steering linkages for the front two axles are also added, as well as sundry equipment and additional chassis bracing parts. The main transmission box sits behind the engine, separated by a short shaft, and this is fully depicted, as is the engine itself, with highly detailed cylinder blocks, crank-case, plus all the ancillary equipment and hosing. A power take-off box at the front of the engine provides the two radiator fans with energy to cool the large slab radiator core that sits at the front of the chassis rails.

The running gear is next, and each one although looking similar to its neighbour is different, so you'll need to either build them up one-by-one, or mark the assemblies after completion and before installation. Get these mixed up and you may well end up crying. Each of the eight sets consists of a stub-axle with a steerable head that requires careful gluing, a short drive-shaft to the rear, and a pair of linkages to each side, which vary in length depending on which axle you are building. Each one is labelled with a letter for installation on the chassis sides, after which a number of protective panels are added to the sides and underneath the chassis, and a brake cylinder housing on each side. Suspension struts and steering linkages complete the underside, but there is another power take-off on the chassis top-side, yet more linkages here and there, plus a big pair of exhausts to be added. Brackets are installed to hold the mudguards, fuel tank, oil tank with sump-guard, and various stowage boxes are added along the side of the chassis, some of which are quite complex and detailed. The front bumper and engine protection is then put in place, with attention turning to the superstructure at this point.

The launch tube base is able to rotate almost fully round, as well as elevate according to need, so the assembly is parts intensive, including structural parts, wiring and of course the elevation piston, which has an inner section that slides in and out of the outer sleeve to increase or decrease its length. The "flatbed" it sits on isn't all that flat, having very nicely moulded detail, and this is augmented by more parts before being flipped over to add the "turret", which is carefully glued in place using a cap on the end of its peg, so that it remains mobile. This is then covered up with a lower plate, and brackets are added to the sides for later attachment of walkways etc. It fixes to the chassis on three mounts, and is joined by a pair of complex stabilising jacks that deploy to hold the vehicle steady for firing. Although the feet don't slide in and out, there are two lengths supplied for use, and these are left unglued to facilitate change of configuration, although you may wish to glue them in place. Two massive battery packs sit either side of the front of the flatbed, providing the power for the complex electronics once the engine is off, and these are covered in individual clasps that give them a very busy look.

The Smerch has eight road wheels with massive balloon tyres to cope with off-road transport. These are supplied as single-part flexible styrene in a black colour, which have separate two-part hubs with a poly-cap trapped inside. These are just pushed onto the axles for each of painting and handling of the model. Meng themselves have produced a set of resin replacements for these, which improve on detail at the expense of not being able to use the poly-cap method of installation. I'll be reviewing these shortly. A scrap diagram shows that the tyres have a moulded-in direction of rotation marker arrow, so make sure you get them set up right, or those with sharp eyes and wit will tell you.

With the wheels done, all the mudguards and fenders are made up along with pioneer tools and light-clusters, plus a crew access ladder on the starboard side. Up front the drivers' cab is begun with the oil-cooler and battery pack for the engine taking up the space within the starboard side over the front wheels, while the right side contains the crew cab. This is built up doors first, with inner and outer skins plus a clear window that can be posed closed or open by flipping it down on its hinge. You'll have to paint the door beforehand if you plan on doing this however. The right wall of the cab is then built and covered with equipment, with decals provided for all the important dials, data-cards and stencils, with the floor holding the two crew seats, pedal box and rather upright steering wheel. This is slotted into the left side of the cab, and again, the windows in the rest of the cab are installed from the outside, and some can be posed open. Installation of the right side closes up the cab, and then the doors are added in the open or closed position. There is a rather oddly shaped cage for a searchlight on the roof, and this is supplied as a flat spider of PE, which is bent to shape using a three-part disposable jig that gets the correct shape with minimal effort. Additional panels and antennae are then added to finish it off, after which it is glued to the chassis along with the radiator grille, which has a styrene layer with mounts, plus an outer PE layer that has louvers etched in that are twisted to give the correct angle as per a scrap diagram.

The launch control cab is fully detailed with equipment and seating, but is made of individual sides that have double-skins for detail, with the majority of the interior parts added to the floor, and the roof panel finishing off the box, after which lots of additional part for stowage, tools and racking are added along with the doors. This sits behind the cab, again on three mounts, and then the engine is covered with access panels, air-filter, toolbox and a small grille, leaving lots of possibilities to display the contents if you desire. A ladder lashed to the radiator, optional winter radiator covers, towing cable with styrene eyes, and a pair of headlights finish that area off.

The missile tubes have an unusual spiral strengthening rib that winds along their length, which must give the kit designers headaches if not nightmares. Meng have chosen to mould-in the rib and section the tubes both in half and into four lengths, leaving some fairly minimal (under the circumstances) seams to deal with. The front section is painted inside and has a missile nose hidden within and a fuse-setting "lump" underneath the muzzle, plus an optional protective cap for the end. The centre section is a simple two-part tube, as is the longer rear section. The tail assembly is in two parts, but also has the command wires and a missile back-side or protective cover at the very end. There are three types of tail-end, and of course you have to make up sufficient assemblies for all twelve missiles. That's going to take some time, so it might be worthwhile starting at the beginning of the build to ease the tedium of the process and prevent burn-out. With them all finished, the rack is built up, starting with the base and the rear panel to which you fit the tube-tails. The longer aft sections are then added and held in place with a perforated bulkhead, and the process is repeated with the mid-section. The muzzles are then clipped into the other side of the bulkhead, taking care to line everything up along the way. It is added to the base using a long pin with an end-cap that friction-fits without glue, and then it's just a case of installing the sighting system on its curved mount, and adding the sighting platform and its folding ladder.


Markings
There are six markings and camouflage options depicted on the decal sheet, with two offering the chance to model a parade-ground finished vehicle, while the rest will give some scope for weathering. From the box you can build one of the following:

• Victory Day Parade, Russian, 2009 – Green/beige/black camouflage.
• International Defence Exhibition of Land Forces, Moscow 2008 – Olive brown/beige/black camouflage.
• 336th Rocket Artillery Brigade, Belarusian Army, The Republic of Belarus – Russian green with winter white camouflage.
• 79th Guards Rocket Artillery Brigade, Western Military District, Russian Army, Tver 2014 – all over Russian Green with red star on launch cab and white 542 on sides.
• "A certain unit" North Caucasus Military District, Russian Army, 2009 – all over olive green with white parade trim to hubs and fender edges.
• Artillery Unit, Kuwaiti Army – all over sand.
  

I still don't have a clue about the "certain unit", but it's a varied choice of decal options that should suit most people's needs. The decals are printed by Cartograf, and as usual they are superb, with good register, colour density and sharpness, and a thin, matt finished carrier film that is cut close to the printed decals. Around half of the sheet is used for dials, stencils and data-plates, all of which are crisp and legible without strain.


Conclusion
Another superb kit from Meng that is highly detailed and broken down to be built in a modular fashion to reduce the likelihood of burnout. The missile tubes will be the most tricky to get a good finish on, but at least it's just sanding seams, which by now we should all have experience of. Test-fitting and careful alignment will be your friend there to minimise clean-up after. It's not cheap, but it's a lot of highly detailed plastic for your money.

Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Dudikoff]

I thought the Trumpeter kit seems cool, but this takes it head on with additional detail in many places (e.g. the top and side chassis detail, the launch tube raised detail which was simply engraved on the Trumpeter, etc.). Some parts also seem different (e.g. what I presume are the launcher mechanism base parts, on the Meng kit have 4 holes with some squared bumps directly above them, while on the Trumpeter kit there are 7 holes and the raised squared bumps are slightly offset).

It would be nice if someone who has both kits to do a more in-depth comparison of level of detail of comparable parts, but just by seeing the difference in the drive-train and rocket tube parts, I'd expect the Meng kit to be the winner.

Miner note regarding this line: "It will eventually be replaced by a lighter-weight lower-cost system that should bring cost savings as well as new technology to the party, but with a smaller complement of six rockets."

There will also be a new heavy variant with twin 6-barrel launchers (9A53-S) mounted on a new heavy vehicle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9A52-4_Tornado

Edited January 18, 2016 by Dudikoff