ICM WWII Red Army Rocket Artillery (DS3512) 1:35

[Mike]

WWII Red Army Rocket Artillery (DS3512)

1:35 ICM via Hannants

 

 

During WWII, Ford UK built a great many vehicles for the British war effort, as well as some 34,000 Merlin engines for Spitfires, Lancasters and Hurricanes.  Made by Ford UK under the Fordson brand, the WOT 8 was the last of a long line of vehicles using similar nomenclature in service of the British Army.  Introduced in 1941 there were approximately 2,500 built, with a number of those sent to Russia as Lend/Lease vehicles, of which a number were converted to carry BM-13-16 Katyusha rockets on an angled rack that extended partially over the cab and is bolted firmly to the chassis.  They carried 16 RS-132 rockets in an over-and-under configuration on each of the eight rails, which made an uncanny howling roar as they were unleashed from the rails.  Its large fuel tank gave it a healthy range and a reasonable top speed thanks to the Ford V8 engine that put out 85hp, which wasn’t terrible for the day.

 

The WOT.6 was a 4x4 light truck (3 ton capacity) with a short cab that housed a 3.6L V8 engine pumping out a fairly paltry 85hp that could get it to 75mph eventually.  The engine's location under the cab gave the load bed plenty of space on the chassis rail, and also gave the truck a sit-up-and-beg look.  The heat from the radiator had to be redirected by a fairing to prevent it being ingested by open windows, thereby cooking and possibly even poisoning the crew if it wasn't in the best of health.  Over 30,000 were built in a number of configurations, and they were in service from 1942 to the end of the war, with those in good enough shape carrying on into the early 60s.

 

 

A great many WOT.6 and WOT.8 wagons were sent to the Soviet Union under the Lend/Lease programme during WWII, and were used in all manner of operations from simple transports to the WOT.8 carrying a Katyusha rocket launcher that was loaded with up to 16 RS-132 rockets.  The rockets accelerated off their rails up to almost 800mph and had a flight radius of under 5 miles with a lack of precision that ensured that although you knew something was going to be blown up in a given area, it was anyone’s guess who or what would fall victim to its detonation.  They were however incredibly useful for terrifying the enemy, gaining the nickname Stalin’s Organ (no sniggering at the back!) due to the haunting screech as the rockets left their rails.

 

 

The Kit

This is a multi-kit reboxing of existing kits, most of which we’ve seen already, so rather than send you off on a link-following rampage, we’ll gather them all together in the one place, and add in reviews of few parts we’ve not done before.  Inside the box are the following kits:

 

35591 BM-13-16 Katyusha on WOT.8 Chassis

35507 WOT.6 WWII British Truck

35795 RS-132 Ammunition Boxes (reduced sprue-count)

35648 Soviet BM-13-16 Crew (1943-5)

35643 RKKA Drivers (1943-5)

 

There are no decals included in the kits due to Soviet vehicles seldom having much in the way of markings, and their instruction booklets have been gathered in a card folder to keep them together.  Let’s crack on.

 

 

BM-13-16 on WOT 8 Chassis (35591)

This is a recent tooling from ICM as part of their expanding WOT line.  Inside the bag are eight sprues in grey styrene, five black wheels in flexible plastic, a clear sprue, and a small fret of Photo Etch (PE) brass.  I don’t know about you, but I’m an admirer of rocket launchers and such like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the chassis ladder and the front sub-frame with cross-members and leaf spring suspension, plus a full V8 block made up from a good number of parts.  The exhaust has a silencer near the rear and exits the underside at the rear of the aft suspension springs to which the rear axle and differential are fitted, then joined to the central transfer box by a driveshaft with the front axle having a similar reversed layout plus steering box.  The drum brakes are hidden behind the wheels, which are made up from the flexible “rubber” part that is sandwiched between the inner and outer hub, plus extra detail parts on both sides, eventually slotting onto a long axle front and rear.  The underside is mostly complete, and attention turns to the body beginning with the engine compartment between the two curved front wings.  Radiator, air filter and fan are added along with a hand-crank for manual starting, then the radiator hosing is installed so that the side plates that isolate the power plant from the crew cab interior can be added.  In the right foot well the driver’s controls are added, with a handbrake further to the rear, and a central instrument panel sits almost on top of the engine.  The crew seats sit atop boxes and have separate cushions for back and base, after which the cab can be boxed in, adding detail parts and glazing panels as you go.  The sloping cab is trimmed with a dash panel and steering wheel, then separate doors with handles and more glazing are put in place either open, closed or anywhere in between at your whim, then closed in with the rear cab and finally the curved-sided roof.  The PE radiator grilles have to be bent to match the contours of the sloped front, and these are later joined by a rain “porch” that prevents ingress of water in the winter, and probably helps divert engine heat from the open cab windows in the summer. The spare wheel and the substantial fuel tank are built next, and positioned behind the cab. This is made from a large floor, detailed sides, front and tailgate, with stowage boxes between the front and rear angled mudguards, which have braces holding them at the correct angle to the floor. 

 

 

 

 

On the original kit the truck bed would now be made up (and the parts for it are still in this boxing), for this boxing though the rocket launching rails and their elevating apparatus are constructed. The eight rails are built up from three parts each and are then threaded together on three cross members. The modeller will need to line up the spacing of these and luckily ICM provide a jig for this.  After the rails are sorted then the fairly complex raising gear is put together, this can be in either the raised or lowered position. 16 rockets can then be added to the rails (8 on the upper side, and 8 on the lower). The base for the launching system is then built up and attached to the back of the truck before the launch rails can then be added on. Two rear ground stabilisers are then added to the chassis. To finish off the vehicle lights are added and on the cab there are shutters to protect the cab when the rockets were being fired. 

 

 

Model WOT.6 WWII British Truck (35507)

Inside the outer clear foil bag are seven sprues in medium grey styrene, a clear sprue in its own bag, four flexible black plastic tyres and a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) parts, each in their own bags.  The instruction booklet completes the package, and is printed on glossy white paper in colour, with black and red used for the diagrams throughout, and the unused decal options printed in colour at the rear.

 

 

 

 

 

The construction phase begins with the chassis, which is made up from two main rails, with sub-rails and spacers holding things together, and front suspension moulded into the outer rails.  With the chassis completed by adding the rear end, attention turns to the engine, which is a complete rendering, and made up from a good number of parts for detail, including the block, pulleys, transmission and a short drive-shaft that threads through the holes in the cross-members.  The two long exhaust pipes with mufflers go under the chassis on each side, and the rear suspension is fitted, which is a substantial set of leaf-springs, then the axles and drive shafts are attached to the suspension and transfer box.  Brake drums, fuel tanks, steering arms and struts are all installed before the wheels are built-up around the rubbery black tyres, which have tread details moulded-in, and are finished off by the addition of the hubs, which attach from both sides, and are then detailed with additional parts before they are slotted onto the axles.

 

 

The undercarriage is almost done, and it's time for the upper surfaces, beginning with the engine bay, which has the front wheel-arches moulded in, and is then detailed with lights, front rail, radiator and some additional ancillaries to keep the engine running.  You even get a pair of lower hoses for the radiator to mate it to the engine, and two more longer ones diving diagonally down into the topside of the engine from the top of the rad.  There's going to be a bit of painting needed, as the engine can be seen from the underside, even though access is limited.  The bay sides are planted, and are joined by internal covers and instrumentation on top, which have a few decals to detail them up.  Some of the driver's controls are added on the right side (the correct side) of the engine, and a pair of seats are built up and added to the square bases installed earlier, then the front of the cab is detailed with clear parts and window actuators, before the sides are attached to the edges and lowered onto the chassis, then joined by the simple dash board and steering wheel on its spindly column.  The doors are separate parts and have clear windows, handles and window winders added, then joined to the sides in either the open or closed position or any variation of the two.  The cab is a bit draughty at the moment, until the rear panel and the roof are added, the latter having a pop-up cover on the co-driver's side, with a couple of PE grilles then added to the front radiator frames after being bent to shape.

 

Now for the truck bed, beginning with the sides, which have two stiffeners added, then are covered with bumpers along the top and bottom edge of the outside face.  The bed floor fits into a groove into the bottom, and is kept square by the addition of the front and rear sides.  Under the bed are a number of stowage boxes and racks for additional fuel or water cans, which are happily also included, then they are joined by the two parts per wheel that form the wheel arch that are braced on the outside with two small struts.  Then it's the fun part!  Adding the bed to the chassis, which is kept in the correct place by two ridges under the bed that mate with grooves in the chassis rail.  At the front, two light-hoods are fitted above the lights, and the prominent pedestrian unfriendly hood that deflects the rain and hopefully redirects the engine heat from being sucked back into the open front windows on a hot day.  The cab is detailed with additional lights, horn, wing mirrors, grab-handles and even some pioneer tools, then the windscreen wipers.  Moving backwards, the four c-shaped hoops that support the canvas tilt are applied to the outside of the bed sides, reaching roughly half-way down the sides to obtain a strong join in both 1:1 and 1:35.  The final act is to add seven rods along the length of the roof section of the tilt frame, which will need some careful alignment to ensure all the hoops are vertical and correctly spaced.  Now you can paint it, but you've probably got a lot of that done already in truth.

 

 

RS-132 Rockets

This half-set is a recent tool that is made to stack in the back of a resupply wagon like the WOT.6 above, or spread liberally around the scene.  Inside the re-sealable clear bag are two sprues of grey styrene.  Both sprues are identical, and from the box you can build two additional ammo crates, each holding four rockets apiece.

 

Ignore the x4 in the middle of the photo above and imagine a nice white x2 instead

 

 

 

 

The Crew Figures (35648)

All four figures within the bag are on one sprue with a separate instruction booklet and product code.  They are moulded in ICM’s by now familiar lifelike style, with lots of detail, realistic poses, sculpting, and including a number of weapons to sling over their shoulders.  Three of the figures are shown loading rockets onto the back of the rails, while the fourth can either be their commander watching over the process, or with the tweak of his arm, he can be propping up the next rocket for loading with one of his hands, as can be seen in the picture below.

 

 

 

 

RKKA Drivers (35643)

This small bag contains two sprues in grey with a set of figure parts on each one.  They are different in pose as well as head-coverings, but both are in the seated position with their arms outstretched to hold the steering wheel.  Honk! Honk!  One figure is wearing standard WWII era uniform with a parade cap at an angle on his head, while the other is wearing a winter-weather insulated smock with medal and a traditional Soviet-style fur cap with fold-down ear flaps tied over the top.  Both wear calf-length “Cossack” boots.

 

 

 

Conclusion

All of the kits in this set are excellent modern toolings in their own right, and how they’ve fitted them all into one reasonably small box is quite surprising.  The price is also very attractive, and if you can see yourself using all the models in the set, they’re a bargain even at list price. They should rocket off the shelves

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

 

Review sample courtesy of

[Truffy]

It would be the act of an arch pedant to point out that, at least according to the instructions on SCM, the figures are 1943-1945, the scheme for the BM-13-16 itself is 1942, and the schemes for the W.O.T.6 are not only from 1944/5, but don’t include the Soviet Union. I guess we have to assume that they're still relevant...or do that 'own research' thing.

 

Decals might be irrelevant for some Soviet vehicles, but plenty of photographic and model examples (ironically including ICM!) exist indicating otherwise. A simple set to tie these together, and make this more of a cohesive, rather than thrown-together, bundle would've been appreciated.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Truffy