Military Model Scene

The Shilka, or ZSU-23-4, was designed in the early 1960's to replace the older ZSU-57-2. With 4 x 23mm guns in a fully rotating turret and tracking targets with a J-band radar, they entered service back in 1965. Since then over 6,000 have been built and they have seen service with a large number of countries as well a Russia and the Warsaw Pact nations. It is a very effective weapon against low flying attack aircraft and helicopters, though not without some weaknesses of its' own. I remember looking inside the turret of one captured during the Gulf War and now at the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop in Hampshire. I noticed then that the labelling for all the instrumentation was in English, rather than Russian. Apparently the export versions commonly have English language instrumentation.

These small scale 1/100 models from Zvezda are very neatly detailed for their size, and designed to be assembled without the need for glue, though that can be used just to be certain the model doesn't come apart. It is quick to assemble and the end result is very neat, and really looks the part.

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I bought mine through Tiger Hobbies here in the UK.

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Robin