Military Model Scene

A Trumpeter kit in 1/72, and a simple enough kit of just 17 parts so it builds quickly.  Even though it is simplified in the single piece track units, the way Trumpeter have engineered this to be so few parts, and this includes 4 of them being lights.  There are some moulding seams to be removed, particularly on the outer surface of the tracks, but otherwise it is very straightforward to build.  No transfers as these commonly carried no markings.  Many were captured by the German military and put to use, so this can be painted in Soviet green or Panzer grey if you want a captured example.  My choice has been to go for the Russian green.

These agricultural tractors were built at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory (Chelyabinskii Traktornyi Zavod – ChTZ) and was also known as the Stalinets S-65.  It weighed 11 tons and was powered by  a large 4-cylinder diesel engine.  Around 37,000 were produced between 1937-41.  Originally an agricultural tractor but widely used by the Soviet military for hauling heavy artillery such as the 152mm and 203mm guns.  It was also used for tank recovery and by engineer units for hauling equipment.

If you want to know more about the S-65 and other Soviet tracked tractors then the best reference I know of is the book 'Tyagatshi: Soviet Full Tracked Artillery Tractors of WW2 in Red Army and Wehrmacht Service' from Tankograd.

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I bought mine from Tiger Hobbies here in the UK.

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Robin