“Hello everyone!
We are working on a drawing for the box of our new model BMP-3 in 1/72!
We accept your comments!Hello everyone!
We are working on a drawing for the box of our new model BMP-3 in 1/72!
We accept your comments!”
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Hi Yuri,
any idea when the MT-LB will be released? I prefer Zvezda over Trumpeter, their UAZ-469 kit is waaaaaay better than Trumpeter.
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Alas, we will find out only on the eve of release.
I want MT-LB myself, but I’m not buying it - I’m waiting. Let’s wait together.
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Only with impatience… I need a prime mover for my MT-12 gun. 
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"We continue our story about our new model of the Russian infantry fighting vehicle BMP-3 in 1/72!
Today we want to show you 3D renders of the new product!"
Have they completely gone to 1/72 scale?!
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They have a 1/35th Dodge WC54 Ambulance on the cards, (not a re-pop)
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I got today their 2S1 Gvozdika kit. Definitly superior to the Trumpeter release.
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Thank you Yuri for all this, and all your other posts - especially the guided tours of Russian museums few if any of us will ever be able to visit. While I’ve no doubt we’d disagree on other matters, we’re all here because of our shared interest in military hardware and you’ve provided major additions to our knowledge.
I have a special request – have you ever seen an example of the ZIS 42 half-track? I built this Eastern Express 1:35 model (back-dating it to a mid-Patriotic War version from the later version as supplied) years ago and have never been able to compare it to the real 1:1 version for accuracy. Surprising Zvezda haven’t supplied it (?) …
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Thank you for your kind words. I plan to continue excursions to museums. I also broadcast these topics to a Russian audience, but I only translate reports on really big museums into English. Like the sweetest thing.
I also have no doubts about the different approaches to history and modern events. It’s great that we know something of them. This doesn’t happen as often as we would like.
There are other places to discuss other topics. If we start discussing our health, utilities and keeping pets here, there will be no room left for modeling.
I am happy to help you, especially since I have personal photos of this car. The only copy is in the Moscow “Motors of War” museum, which I plan to show you this year. I was already going to do this, but I found that many of the photos were of poor quality. I need to re-photograph them.
PS I also had this model, but due to relocation I had to leave it behind.
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That is a really neat vehicle.
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Thanks so much Yuri! And from what you say the only example in existence? No wonder I couldn’t find photos of it. I think this is the later version, one of the few things I remember is that the battery on the early version sat on the front mudguard under the driver’s door, here it’s missing. And the cab had a canvas cover on the early version. The other alteration I remember is the early version had very narrow vertical wooden panels on both doors, I can’t quite see if the real thing has narrow or broad panels (?)
The front grille-guard looks very similar to those on American trucks, although it seems to fit perfectly well. Perhaps another later addition. And I think my canvas top looks more convincing!
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I agree, which is why I built it. I’m not sure how successful it was, maybe not so much because only one has survived (?) but it looked like a good design and not copied from any western vehicle I can think of. Whatever, of all the kits I’ve built this one gave me the most satisfaction and is probably my best effort ever.
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According to internet sources, the ZIS-42 and ZIS-42M are variants of the ZIS-5 truck, which itself is a copy of the American Autocar Dispatch Model SA truck. (Given the layout, I suspect the latter truck is ‘inspired’ by the Ford AA truck, redesigned with more robust features and a different engine.) Approximately 6,000 ZIS-42 and ZIS-42M half tracks were built. It was a somewhat problematic design and dropped when better vehicles arrived via Lend-Lease. Problems stated in various articles include low top speed, high fuel consumption, and a tendency to over heat.
I suspect that many of these half tracks were converted back into standard trucks, both during and after the war. The niche filled by half tracks essentially disappeared with the development of better all wheel drive wheeled vehicles. Post war, a truck is far more useful to workers than a half track.
One thing I find particularly interesting is that the ZIS-42 appears to use a continuous rubber belt track design, like an American M3 half track.
Anyway, I am all for more tracked support vehicles in 1/35 scale.
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GAZ-AA and ZiS-5, despite their external similarity, are still different vehicles in size and load capacity.
GAZ-AA was not even a copy, it was simply a Ford-AA (as well as GAZ-A and Ford-A) and was produced at the automobile plant built by Ford in Nizhny Novgorod.
And the ZiS-5 was produced in parallel in Moscow. Its ancestor was the AMO-3 vehicle, which was indeed a copy of the American AutoCar-SA truck.
As for the caterpillar drive, its inventor was the Frenchman Adolphe Kegresse, who lived and worked in Russia in 1904-1917. He was the personal driver of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.
Russian reality forced us to return to this engine more than once.
I love your questions! I found material that I had not previously known about such a run. More than 6,000 kilometers one way. The dot above the driver’s cabin is Салехард (Salekhard), and I’m fromSalekhard.
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Very interesting. Yes the cabs/engines were fairly Ford-generic, but that particular caterpillar-drive is what interests me most. Are there other Russian vehicles between 1914 and (say) 1939 that experimented with that drive?
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Since there were no other trucks in the country at that time, all such vehicles were based on them. But the designs of the propulsors were different.
There is another similar, serially produced model in the same museum.
They also installed it on passenger cars. (I couldn’t find a normal photo)
It should be added that after the revolution in Russia, Kegresse returned to France and there promoted the idea of his engine.
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“Hello everyone!
We would like to thank you for your comments on the drawing of the BMP-3 model in 1/72!
Corrections have been made, the barrel, log and other small things have been corrected.”
On the left is the original version, on the right is the corrected one. Find the differences.
It turns out that Zvezda listens to the users’ statements.
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Yes! They are different vehicles, as your picture clearly shows, but they share the same general body plan. My hypothesis is that the people at Autocar scaled up a Ford AA and installed a bigger engine, resulting in the more robust Autocar Dispatch Model SA truck.
I knew about the Ford plant but thought some changes were introduced. Perhaps I am thinking of the GAZ-MM.
What I find so interesting is how many World War II era trucks are direct descendants of early Ford designs. Sometimes they come out of European Ford plants. Sometimes they are license built copies produced by other manufacturers. Sometimes they are indigenous variants. Whatever the origin, there are a lot of them.
I remember Kegresse from my reading. Those early half tracks are very interesting.
Hobby Boss makes a ZIS-5. I will need to make one of those to go with my GAZ-AAA from last year.
I am also interested in the question just posed by Tim (Dioramartin).
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Are you talking about this question: “Are there other Russian vehicles between 1914 and (say) 1939 that experimented with that drive?”?
If yes, then I will prepare a separate material, since I am also interested in this and will post it in a separate message.
Ok?
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Yes! That would be fantastic. 
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