Trumpeter Soviet Object 704 SPH 1:35

[Mike]

Soviet Object 704 SPH
1:35 Trumpeter

Object 704 was a prototype for a new Self-Propelled Howitzer (SPH) for the Russian armed forces that developed from the earlier IS tanks, and used some heavily sloping armour to provide incredibly good protection for the crew, as well as reducing the vehicle's overall height and profile on the battlefield. The gun was a huge 152mm with a long barrel that had no muzzle-brake, the increased recoil from which caused problems in operation later on. The slope of the armour also meant a cramped crew compartment, which also led to operational difficulties and perhaps contributed to the one or two rounds per minute that the gun could fire.

It weighed in at almost 50 tonnes, and because of its fixed gun with a small amount of traverse built into the mantlet, it had to be re-positioned on the battlefield to cope with threats from other directions, which made it vulnerable to side attacks. Carrying one 12.5mm machine gun for air defence and another mounted coaxially for close self-defence, it passed trials, but wasn't adopted for service due to the operational problems mentioned.

The Kit
This is a new kit from Trumpeter, and is the Soviet equivalent of one of the Paper Panzers, although they do have one prototype extant in a museum to base the model from. It arrives in the usual Trumpeter top opening box, with an internal divider keeping the hull parts separate from the main sprues. Inside the boz are two large hull parts in light grey styrene, sixteen sprues in the same plastic, plus twelve sprues of track links in brown, a turned aluminium barrel, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a tiny decal sheet. The instruction booklet is A4 sized and has a colour painting guide slipped inside it, as well as an advert for the very kit you're handling, which seems a bit of a waste of paper. Overall, a pretty decent package for your pennies, and it's only when you look at the (almost) one piece upper that you realise just how heavily sloped the armour was.

As a first impression, it's a good looking kit with plenty of detail on the outer hull, finely moulded small parts and some incredibly chunky looking parts for the gun and its mantlet. Inclusion of the extra aluminium and brass parts is a bonus, although I'll come to the barrel later.

Construction begins with the wheels, and as the roadwheel sprues are marked as being from a JS-4, you know that there has been some economy of scale with the moulding here. Fourteen roadwheel pairs are build up with a separate hub, plus two three-part drive sprockets and six small return rollers, which are again made up of two wheels and a hub. The lower hull is detailed up with suspension and axle mounts before adding the swing-arms onto which the wheel pairs are glued (no poly-caps here). The idler wheels are the same as the road wheels, so two sets go on the front axles, with the drive sprockets at the back. Three return-rollers go on the upper mounts, and then you're ready to build up the tracks.

If you read my armour reviews (you poor things!) you'll know I'm a big fan of individual track links, as I feel they give a more realistic look than traditional "rubber-band" style all-in-one track lengths. This kit has 12 sprues of track links, from which you need to cut off 84 links for each side. Each link has four attachment points and you have two parts to interleave to create the finished item. The parts are quite easily removed from the sprues, but you will need to re-establish the curves of the links on which the gates are, or your links will look poor, as well as being difficult to fit. There are however no ejector-pin or sink marks, so it's easy swings versus extreme roundabouts IMHO. The vehicle has a reasonable amount of sag over the top track run, which is depicted in the side-profile, and can be seen on the pictures knocking about the internet. The easiest way of doing this that I've found is to build up a run of tracks against a long ruler using liquid cement, and while the links are still soft, wrap the track around the wheels and secure it in place with tape, pushing soft wedges or cotton buds in between the tracks and fenders to replicate the sag. Once the glue is dry, you can remove them to paint, which is easier to do if you leave the drive sprocket un-glued. Once the tracks are done, a pair of lower fender "wings" are added into the sides, using wide slots and tabs to hold them to the correct angle over the tracks, with three small rods slotted into their upper side. A pair of towing eyes on the rear and two spare track links finish the lower hull, and attention turns to the upper.

The upper hull is very nicely moulded with weld lines and torch-cut panel edges on show, perhaps needing only a little additional texture in the shape of some rolling blemishes to the main armour slabs. Before you can fit it to the lower hull, three PE mesh panels need applying from the inside, a single periscope (Not moulded in clear), and the rear bulkhead are installed, along with an insert in the rear slope of the casemate. Once glued to the lower hull, the fine detailing is started, with small brackets, fasteners and the exhausts on each side. The cylindrical fuel tanks and the auxiliary ones are then built up from slide-moulded cylinders with end-caps and fittings, leaving no annoying seams, which is good to see. The four crew hatches are fitted directly to the casemate roof with no hinges and only one periscope for the front two hatches. The DShK 12.5mm machine gun on the aft of the casemate is next, and it's quite a nice moulding, with a soviet star embossed into the ammo-can. The mantlet for the main gun is enormous, and covered in a nice cast texture on both the inner and outer parts, as both are visible. The gun mount sits within the inner mantlet, and has vertical and horizontal pivot points within for fine adjustment of aim, and a styrene tube projects forward to accommodate the barrel. The inner mantlet is then attached to the rear of the mantlet and then glued to the hull, before slipping the front mantlet over the barrel stub. A trop cover is added, and then you have a choice of either a turned aluminium barrel, or a two-piece styrene one. Both barrels seem to have missed the slight flange on the end portion of the barrel, so you're either going to have to add it using a strip of styrene and some putty, or pretend you've not seen it. If you can't live with it and want it done properly, I believe that RB Barrels have already turned up a replacement with the correct barrel shape and turned in rifling at the tip. In order to depict the rifling for the supplied barrels, the kit provides a short length of PE that you must roll to the shape of the muzzle and glue in place. It even has the rifling twist depicted by diagonal raised portions, but may prove difficult to make a good fit unless you are experienced with PE and have plenty of patience.

That completes the build other than to install the "Dushka" on the rear (it can mount forward or aft in practice), and the solitary pioneer tool, which is a pick-axe, and headlamps.

Markings
There is very little choice with a Prototype unless you want to delve into the realms of "maybe" known as What-if. Most photos show her totally unadorned save for a good coat of slightly faded Russian Green. The decal sheet includes a patriotic wreath with Soviet flag and digits 0 to 9 in pairs so that you can make up a vehicle code if you feel the need.

Decals are good quality, with good register, colour density and sharpness, and if they follow Trumpeter's usual form, should go down well with a little decal solution to assist them conforming with the model.

Conclusion
I like the unusual, and this ticks that box as well as being a bit on the large side. It's a purposeful looking machine, and although it wasn't good enough to reach active service, it would look good next to some of the Allied super-heavies of the same period, or in a fictional diorama or actual testing situation.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of