Trumpeter Russian SA-8 Gecko 1:35

[Mike]

Russian SA-8 Gecko
1:35 Trumpeter

Built on a fully amphibious BAZ-5937 six-wheel chassis, the Gecko, or Wasp as it is known in Russia, was the first fully independent mobile anti-aircraft missile vehicle that carried everything it needed on board from missile erection and launch systems to the targeting and radar equipment that allows it the capability of firing autonomously, although it can also cooperate with other assets on the field just as well. It carries six missiles in two pods aft of the large radar mount, which has multiple antennae to cope with jamming, with separate frequency bands able to control up to two missiles at one time.

The missiles are capable of intercepting high flying targets, but it is not a long-range system, with a maximum speed of almost mach 3, plus impact and proximity fuses to trigger the missile. It is still in service with Russia and some of her former Soviet friends in updated variants, and has seen action in the recent Syrian civil war.


The Kit
Another new tooling of a big Russian missile platform to accompany the recent stable-mates that have been spewing forth from Trumpeter at quite incredible frequency. Arriving in a medium sized box, the interior is sectioned off to hold the two large hull parts separately, with the aft further wrapped in a foam sheet to protect the upstands there that might otherwise be vulnerable. A wad of small card squares are also taped within the box to gently trap the hull bag in place, again to protect it during transit and storage. It's nice to see a manufacturer taking such care in getting their products to you in good order.

Inside the box are a surprisingly low six sprues of parts, plus the two large hull parts and four addition parts of the missile system in separate bags, all of which is moulded in Trumpeter's usual mid-grey styrene. There is also a clear sprue, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a length of copper wire, six flexible black styrene wheels and a substantial (for an AFV) decal sheet. The instruction booklet is printed in black & white in an A4 portrait format, with a separate two-sided colour guide on glossy paper. Looking over the sprues and hull pieces, there has been some substantial use of sliding moulds to produce some very well-detailed parts. It is also clear that someone forgot to tool a missile pack roof part on the main sprues, as there is one within the normal sprues, and one separately. Perhaps I'm being unkind to the designers?

If you're familiar with Trumpeter's existing arsenal of large Russian vehicles, you'll know what to expect, and that's a good thing. Plenty of detail, clever moulding, sensible construction that results in a polished kit. Unusually, the build starts with the crew cab, which is linked with the operators' cab and shares the same floor-pan. The driver and co-driver sit up front with the usual range of controls, including steering wheel, seats, pedal box and a very nicely detailed instrument panel which has three decals to busy it up. The rear compartment has three individual seats plus one bench seat, which are used by the operators of the banks of equipment on each side wall. The walls are a single part each, but have masses of equipment realistically moulded in, which is augmented by a substantial number of decals tailored to each box, with scrap diagrams showing their correct location – all 47 of them! Addition of a front and rear bulkhead to the operators' preps the assembly for adding to the lower hull, which has two large circular location turrets to hold it in place.

The suspension is built up next along with the six wheels, which have two-part hubs that fit around the flexible black tyres, and lots of rugged tread moulded in. The suspension units fit into the lower hull along with the wheels, and the driver's panel is clipped into the front, which enables it to stand on its own "rubber" while the upper hull is prepared. Small details are added to the inside of the lower hull, including a pair of prominent vents on the top deck, fuel and water filler cut-outs, plus a host of pioneer tools on the rear and a large exhaust tube that exits just above one of the water-propulsion exhausts and is covered by a hinged hatch. The outer skin of the upper hull receives a compliment of hatches; additional panels; grab-handles, mushroom vents, and a bow-wave deflector panel for amphibious use. A pair of PE grilles go on the aft, with a stand-off walkway over the top for access to the missile packs. A rocket-wash panel fits on the roof to protect the glazing, which is also installed from the outside at this stage along with separate windscreen wipers, wing-mirrors and antennae base.

At this stage the two halves of the hull are mostly complete, except for the super-structure of the missile and radar installation. This is begun with the framework on which the two rocket packs sit, so you'll build two handed assemblies that sit beneath the launch box, which is depicted in the covered pose, so there is no internal detail. The completed launchers are set aside while the large elliptical rotating surveillance radar is built from a styrene frame into which a curved PE mesh is glued, but as you get two, you don't need to worry if you make a mess of the first one. The mount is built up from five parts, and the receiver is held out in front of the panel by a tubular frame. It pivots by two large axles on the sides of the mount, which are trapped in a base that allows it to fold away for transport. The flat panel engagement antenna is then mounted on a large equipment box that has another axle running through its interior, which the two smaller command-uplink antennae that give it the ability to control two missiles rotate independently outboard of the supports that link it to the rotating base. All of these assemblies then mount onto a highly detailed rotating base, which takes full advance of slide moulding to pile on the detail, but still receives more in the way of grab-handles, equipment boxes and end caps, as well as the floor, which is where the bayonet ring is found. The elliptical dish sits on the highest part, while the acquisition and control panels are mounted on the front on a sloped section, with the two missile containers mounting one per side, inclined toward the front to give clearance on launch.

The last task is to join the hull halves together, and twist the combined radar/missile assembly into the turret ring on the roof. The light clusters then get their protective cages made from PE that is bent around jigs that are supplied in the kit. A nice touch to include jigs, and to add them last to avoid crush damage during handling while building.


Markings
Any colour as long as it's Russian Green? Not quite, but close. There are three options on the decal sheet, which depict one in service green, another in parade finish with white rubbing strips down the side of the hull and the Russian shield emblem on the cab sides. The last option is green over-painted with sand and light blue camouflage, which breaks up the expanses of green at least!

The decals are in good register, and colour density seems good on the sheet. The Russian flag seems to have been printed slightly out of register however, but as that's easily fixed by running your scalpel down each side, we'll forgive them that. Sharpness is adequate, although some of the instrument decals seem a bit heavy with the black, but as they're hidden away inside the hull, not much of them will be seen anyway.


Conclusion
Another welcome addition to Trumpeter's growing range of big Russian missile launchers, and one that has plenty to engage the eye once complete.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of
UK Distributors for

[AndyC]

I'll have one of those

[Housesparrow]

Some time ago, two men sitting around a design drawing:

Igor: Oh, poo-poo. Ivan!

Ivan: What?

Igor: Our vehicle is too heavy, I am afraid.

Ivan: Hm, let's add some wheels in the middle.

Igor: Haha

[Shrek51]

Great review Mike, I,m currently building this kit and must admit to being a tad disappointed, there are some quite ugly seam lines on some quite fragile parts and assembly in places is overly complex, it's hard to put my finger on it , yes it's an impressive vehicle ,it just doesn't seem to be worth the 70 quid asking price. Just my tuppence worth.

[Antoine]

Thanks Mike.

I was really pleased when we did get the news about the arrival of this kit.

But due to the prices I've seen here and there, in the end I'll not get it.

Much too expensive to my taste.

[Mike]

Really Shrek? I'm surprised, as it looks pretty good on the sprues. Where are the seamlines you mention? Do you mean moulding seams, or construction seams?

@Antoine just bide your time and you might get one for the right price for you - it's a damn big kit though, and the moulds for the fancy parts like the hull & the hump on the back must have cost an utter fortune to produce.

[Shrek51]

Mike don't get me wrong some of it is moulding genius, but some of the missile box framework on my example has a bit of mold slip resulting in a slight step, same with some of the suspension parts, I really want to love it as its a favourite vehicle of mine, perhaps I,m being picky, I just expected better for £70. I also noticed that some of the location holes or recesses are not big enough to receive their corresponding tabs, no biggy but it is something I have picked up on other Trumpy kits, and of course that lovely interior is totally invisible once the lid is on.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Shrek51

[Julien]

I was interested until I saw the price!

[Mick4350]

Oh my poor wallet ! I will hate to see the price in Aussie dollars, but this one is really interesting.

[Panzer Vor!!!]

I'll stick to my psnzers

It's nice but no , I won't get one at that price

[Antoine]

@Antoine just bide your time and you might get one for the right price for you - it's a damn big kit though, and the moulds for the fancy parts like the hull & the hump on the back must have cost an utter fortune to produce.

I really hope you'll be right, Mike.

But I'm afraid this kit will be among those that are alone on the market, made by only one company, and will be sold out and OOP quite quickly.

Prices on the second hand market will not have time to fall before the kit is OOP, and once it's a reality, they'll start to rise...

[Dudikoff]

Thanks for the inbox review, I was waiting for this to appear here. Looks pretty good. Now just have to find a decent deal for this one.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Dudikoff

[sharkmouth]

Thanks Mike as I was about to post sprue images but yours are so much better!

The kit (in the US) sells for $150USD. The other kit is resin from Tank Mania and more expensive yet. Color call outs are incorrect or do not take into account the country using it. Examples would be that the electronics are a metallic dull gray color (intentional US spelling as spell check auto-corrects it when I use the Queen's spelling) and the seats should be a leather looking brown except for some exports which seemed to have theirs in black.

Regards,

[Mike]

Thanks for the info on the colours Saúl We'll forgive your auto-correct on this occasion

Looking back at the mould slip on Shrek's missile pack supports, I've been back over my sample, and can confirm that there's nothing resembling that on mine. The moulding seams are so fine that they're actually difficult to see in places, although there's a tiny bit of flash on the spider-shaped frame, and a raised ejector-pin mark that needs cutting away on the underside of the centre. I think you might have been unlucky

[Mick4350]

Can you tell me what is the size of the box in centimetres and if possible its weight ?

[Mike]

Pfff... not sure I can count that high, but I can try. 42x48x7cm and around 700g in weight. Are you buying one and shipping it to yourself?

BTW - that was a one-off because I happened to have it nearby still. Anyone else asks for the dimensions of a model box I have will be

[Mick4350]

No, I just wondered what was the cubic size of the box.

[Panzer Vor!!!]

The size of the frames would be helpful , make sure they don't take up too much room on the desk Mike

[Mick4350]

Pfff... not sure I can count that high, but I can try. 42x48x7cm and around 700g in weight. Are you buying one and shipping it to yourself?

BTW - that was a one-off because I happened to have it nearby still. Anyone else asks for the dimensions of a model box I have will be

I was looking on Hobbysearch to see the instructions for this kit and have list the box that is smaller than what you give, i.e. 42x28x6.7cm .

[Mike]

Think I hit 4 instead of 2. Will you let me off with the 3mm on the height though?

[Mick4350]

Alright, I guess 1/8 of an inch would be close enough.

[The_Lancaster]

This is gonna be hard to ignore... oh so hard...

[Mick4350]

I pre-ordered the kit with my local hobby shop and it arrived last week at $140.00 Australian dollars. The box was smaller than I thought it would be as the box for the TOS-1 was larger. Looks as if the radar dish can only be fixed in a non rotating position, where as in reality it does rotate in order for the tracking to work.

[Dudikoff]

I pre-ordered the kit with my local hobby shop and it arrived last week at $140.00 Australian dollars. The box was smaller than I thought it would be as the box for the TOS-1 was larger. Looks as if the radar dish can only be fixed in a non rotating position, where as in reality it does rotate in order for the tracking to work.

In case you're referring only to the top dish, it is a search radar, not the target tracking one. If you're talking about the whole "turret", I got the impression that it is rotateable from the instructions.

There is a cool freeware SAM simulator program which simulates SA-8 operation among other.

https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiK4rm00JLKAhUKFCwKHZiDDhAQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fsamsimulator1972%2Fhome&usg=AFQjCNF1kjdFYLXyxezvIwbG8LrNwUaX9g

I got the kit as well and the box was indeed unexpectedly small given the high price. I would presume the high price is due to a smaller production run as it seems the kit is not widely available? Nevertheless, I love the vehicle (have fond memories of dodging it's missiles in the old DI's Tornado flight sim) so it's pretty cool to have a kit of it, especially one with the interior.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Dudikoff

[Mick4350]

In case you're referring only to the top dish, it is a search radar, not the target tracking one. If you're talking about the whole "turret", I got the impression that it is rotateable from the instructions.

That is my impression that the search radar rotates as Wikipedia states that SA-8 Gecko has an elliptical rotating surveillance antenna mounted on top of the array. Hopefully it can be made to do so without too much rebuilding parts A11 and E9.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Mick4350